21/06/2004: Troon -> Milport (Pontoon bashing)
22/06/2004: Milport -> Holy Loch -> Rhu (Pontoon bashing / Pilotage / Blind Nav)
22/06/2004: Rhu -> Largs (night sail)
23/06/2004: Largs -> Milport -> Tarbert (Mooring buoys under sail)
24/06/2004: Tarbert -> Lamlash (Pontoon bashing / Mooring buoys / Towing)
25/06/2004: Lamlash -> Troon (Points of sail)
12/06/04: With no real set plan, we left Troon around 10am. Again, we had a bit of trouble getting the mail sail out. Fortunately, we had started in the outer harbour while waiting for the Seacat to come in. After a few laps round the harbour, and sending me up the mast to help things along, we finally managed to get ourselves under way. At very worst, at least we put on a bit of a show for the ferry passengers and the other boats waiting!
Saturday had some of the best sailing weather we’ve had all season. We headed out towards Holy Island with a good F5. With the promise of fair winds, we opted to head for a slightly longer sail than usual and put in a waypoint for Campbelltown. Unfortunately, as predicted, the winds dropped, and the other boats who seemed to have similar ideas decided to head for Lamlash/Largs/etc. We decided to stay with it, and after maybe an hour, we were back under sail, and storming along! Safe arrival in Campbelltown at around 8pm, and the almost primative search for beer and food began onshore!
13/06/04: On saturday night, someone had rafted along side us while we in the pub. I had a quick chat to the skipper, and indicated that we would be leaving around 9am. As promised, they were sitting in their cockpit fully dressed for 8.30am. We rallied the crew, and we were soon under way for the return journey back to Troon. No real wind to speak of, so we donked for a few hours, taking the opportunity to scrub down the decks. I managed to loose a bucket over-board, but a bit of MOB practice soon had it back on board! As if on cue, we got a little bit of wind behind us, and we had a gentle couple of hours sailing home. A bit of goose-winging over lunch, and a good run down to Lady Island.
As usual, a great weekend had by all. The new crew seemed to enjoy themselves, and no doubt they had a good night’s sleep on Sunday night!
A hardboat / scenic dive with Josie Chaplin at The Black Carrs, St Abbs. Originally planned as a shore dive, we arrived to find the seas were a little rough. Thankfully, Billy was just about to take his boat out with a handful of divers. We joined them for a nice wee scenic dive. Read the rest of this entry »
TrackbackOriginally Jenny and I had planned to take the boat out by ourselves and just go sailing for a while. Thankfully, Jenny’s Dad decided to come along as well, allowing us to setup a watch system. My watches were simply 2 hours on, 2 hours off – which poses a new challenge to my insomnia!
Its amazing how peaceful it is out there in the early hours of the morning. Not a single sound except the lapping of the water as the boat slices through the waves. There was just the right amount of wind to keep us moving, but steady enough for us to use the autohelm for most of the night. I originally thought it was going to be a slightly stressful sail, but in the end, it was really nice and restful.
After a 9 hour bimble around the Clyde, we returned home to nice sunny weather. Out came the sun loungers… followed closely by the beer. Night sailing has a strange effect on the body, and all of a sudden it seems perfectly normal to be out in the garden, drinking beer at 9am on a Sunday morning!
Great sail, and thanks to Jenny and family for enduring a night sail for no reason!!!
