2025 9th April, Day 11 to Crinan

23 miles in 5 hours.

I awoke to find a light NE wind blowing so left earlier than intended, against the tide, to make use of it. The domestic forecast said it would continue for a while but it was wrong and I only made two miles before the wind died to nothing and on went the engine. Again.

I pondered over the option of continuing through the sound of Luing and heading for Mull but I would not have made the tide into the Sound of Mull, Loch Spelve did not appeal and it would be motoring all day so I continued as planned to anchor off of Crinan which should give better protection with the forecasts winds than my original plan of Gallanach Bay a mile further north.

As I write (15:30) there is a good sailing breeze from the west, when the forecast said southerly at 5 knots, but it could be very local.

Tomorrow it will be late start, up anchor at 09:45 to arrive at the entrance to Dorus Mor no earlier than slack water, at springs the tide runs at 8 knots. The passage through the Sound of Luing will be slower than later in the tide but there is a good chance of reaching Loch Aline, just inside the Sound of Mull, with a favourable tide just before slack water.

Now to refuel from the cans, prepare tonights spag bol and perhaps sit in the sun for a while, when blowing the wind is still chilly but in shelter it is the warmest day of the trip so far.

Crinan anchorage

Click here for The Sound of Luing and on to Loch Aline.

2025 8th April, Day 10 to Loch Stornoway

After a quite night I left at 07:40 for Loch Stornoway, I was sailing immediately but the wind did not last that long and I motored for three and three-quarter hours of the six hours it took to get there.

Making some way under the cruising chute.

But it wasn't enough so I tried the spinnaker but soon that
was no help so on went the iron topsail.

Less tide than expected in the Sound of Ghia.

This annoys me, a plastic balloon released for a birthday, cluttering
up the sea with plastic, and it is not the first I have seen this cruise.
There was one off Dundalk Bay and a few miles from me a survey
ship was about to change course thinking another was a pot buoy that
could have got entangled with its towed equipment, the guard ship
managed to get there first and identified it for what its worth.
Possibly all from the same party.

Ardminsh Bay, Gigha and, apart from when I was at Howth
only the second yacht seen since Milford Haven.

The Loch Stornoway anchorage has a bad reputation with a specific warning on the Admiralty chart of its dangers in a south-westerly wind / swell, the CCC pilot is slightly less negative but, I agree with the notes on the Antares chart, with a reliable engine to get you out if things turn nasty (beating out between the reefs could be a bit of a struggle) and with better weather forecasts the warnings do seem a bit misplaced as the anchorage is well sheltered from other directions and has good holding in clean sand. 

Naturally, having been motoring with a SE wind of 2 - 3 knots about a mile out, the wind turned to the south west at 9 knots. The local forecast had shown a SW wind for a few hours but later and at only 2 - 4 knots.

I decided to carry on and see what happened, I need not have worried as 4 or 5 hours later there was no wind and over night the wind went round to the forecast direction of north east.

Loch Stornoway, best viewed with the sound on. My

young great nephew was worried that the birds would

keep me awake.

22.9 miles in 6 hours

Click here for Crinan.

2025 7th April, Day 9 from Bangor across the North Channel.

An excellent sail for a change although chilly, I have had a lot of bad luck with light winds going north. After a reasonable amount of sleep, but still not enough, I had the anchor up at 07:15 and was under sail soon after in a rising wind that topped out at F4. The  cruising chute went up just before eleven as I was able to bear off in the now south easterly wind once past the Maidens. It stayed up until 12:30 when wind picked up to 15 knots but I could still make good speed under fore and aft sails.

The Maidens

Sailing with the cruising chute flown from the spinnaker pole,

something more people should be doing with the wind well aft.

Note the main boom preventer, always important but particularly

so single handed.

The Mull of Kintyre.

I just made the tide off The Mull of Kintyre at 14:00 and headed up the west side. The wind started playing tricks increasing briefly to 22 knots from the south then dropping to 6 - 10 knots before swinging all over the place at a few knots, so the engine when on at 15:20 and I was at anchor in Machrihanish Bay at 17:00.

The last time I was at Machrihanish. Left base to land on the
very long cold war runway, it was a dispersal site for nuclear
bombers, RAF V force (Vulcans) and USAF (B52s).

It may look bland but this egg fried rice with chicken etc. tasted good.

Arriving at a sensible time, one of the reasons for not going further north the other being 5 hours of adverse tide, I had time to cook. 

I was a bit put out, I cooked off two portions of chicken in a little olive oil that I had got from a "traditional" butcher in Howth, by the time they were done so much water had come out of them that the chicken stock covered the diced chicken. One portion for the "special" fried rice the other with some sweet and sour cook in sauce for tomorrow.

9 hours 45 minutes for the 49 GPS miles.

Slideshow includes the leg from Howth to Bangor.

Click here for Loch Stornoway.

2025 6th April, Day 8 to Bangor.

Saturday night's fortifying curry, no cooking on 
Sunday due to the high seas and later tiredness.

I woke before the alarm so was away 30 minutes early at 03:30. In the shelter of the marina the wind was about 12 knots and fortunately just off the bow on the pontoon side, this allowed me to take off and stow the two bow lines (two because of the strong wind and awkwardly positioned cleats on the pontoon), the breast line was holding the boat with the wind blowing the bow off. I was also able to stow the 3 forward fenders, and move the fourth a few inches aft to the other side of a stanchion so I could slide it back as I shoved off.

This was good news as the water immediately outside the harbour was likely to be, and was, rough and I would have little time inside whilst leaving as the channel is very narrow and I would have to steer. Everything except the midships line was now in reach from the cockpit, the midships dock line stayed where it was until late afternoon when the seas calmed down.

The wind also helped me turn round in the channel that is little over a boat length wide, after casting off and hoping aboard the boat move back and the bow blew off so I was able to quickly get to the outside of the channel and then turn hard right into the first avenue between two unoccupied hammerheads with the wind helping the turn as it did when I went hard astern to generate a lot of "prop walk" pushing the bow to starboard, a few seconds of that and I was off.

The seas were very unpleasant in the shallow water so I headed directly out to sea for deeper water and to make an offing round Ireland's Eye. When I bore off it was evident that with the wind well north of east I would not be able weather Lamby Island so I had to keep the engine on for another hour and a half until I was about a mile to windward of the Island and the wind veered. With a strong F5 I set just a reefed jib and then had to further reef it further to slow the boat down to give the autopilot a chance to cope with a very steep cross sea without also having to handle weather helm, before doing so I was making better than 7 knots with one reef in the headsail. At one time a wave broke on the boat and I ended up with about 4 inches of water in the cockpit, I can't remember the last time that happened.

Once things had calmed down somewhat I was able to take a video which, as always makes the sea look less rough than it was.

Reaching in a F5.

Later, at 13:30 the Irish Coastguard broadcast the weather forecast from 12:00 withdrawing the small craft warning of F6 winds, clearly no one was looking out the window at the met office because I was sailing in F6 briefly at about 11:30 then from 12:00 to 13:15, fortunately the sea was much calmer than earlier and calmer than in the video.

The wind started to drop from F5 at around 14:30 and I started the engine half an hour later as the wind had gone. Fortunately the sea around here often dies almost as quickly as the wind, I now had the tide behind me for the first time on this leg (North of approximately Dundalk the tides reverses with the flood running to the south).

2 miles from Donaghadee Sound (directly behind the main
shroud), passed through at the end of twilight.

Slide show of this leg with more videos and pictures on the next post.

The passage through Donaghadee Sound on the neap tide was as benign as it gets with barely 1.5 knots (vs 7 or 8 at springs) and I was at anchor in Ballyholme Bay just east of Bangor at 22:15.

89 miles in just under 19 hours, and I was very tired and feeling very old after the hard work of the morning - mainly just holding on to the boat.

Click here for the leg to Scotland.

2025 5th April, Days 4 - 7 Howth.

It has been a frustrating time in Howth with the wind alternating between nothing and F6 or above but with no window long enough to move on, but at least it was dry most of the time. Sunday will be the first opportunity although it could be bumpy at times, especially leaving.

For a change on Saturday the gas ran out during morning coffee making rather than when cooking something in the oven. And even more unusually I was in a marina and the local chandlery had Campinggaz 907 bottles in stock, now with 3 full bottles on board I should have enough for the rest of the trip although I will replace empty ones when possible just in case.

I  have finished all of the the fresh meat I started with so went to the convenience store that had plenty yesterday to find no diced beef and no chicken, except in huge family packs. I had to make do with some burgers and mince. I also went to the butchers and got a couple of chicken breasts which, not being prepacked, will need using up soon.

Click here for the next leg north

2025 2nd April Day 3 - ?, Weather and Options, Part 2,

Update Thursday.

Thursday was previously in what is now Part 1. Click here to skip to the next post.

Some divergence between the models for Sunday , if the UKMO is correct it could be rather more  blowy than I would like until lunch time. You never know this might be what happens.

ECMWF & UKMO models for early Sunday.

Lunch time Sunday

Sunday evening.

A bigger divergence on Monday, if the UKMO is correct 

it could get a bit rough in the North Channel, especially when 

the tide turns south at around 14:30.

The ECMWF is backing off on the strong winds on Friday week with the stronger winds further to the NW, but with the stable weather pattern briefly breaking down (see the met office video above) it is anyone's guess what will happen,

Update Friday morning:

Models still in agreement and minimal change thru Sunday lunch time.

Better agreement than previously on Sunday evening favouring
the ECMWFs previous forecast - not untypical, beyond 3 days
the ECMWF tends to be better than the UKMO with the latter
 better short term. If this happened exactly (unlikely) I would
be motoring from c 19:00 (PredictWind interpolates between the
forecast points, for the UKMO model they are one hour apart
for 2 days then every 3 hours). I suspect close to land it would be
rather earlier which at least would keep the average up.

Having nothing better to do with my time I spend 10 minutes
recalculating using 4.5 knots as a conservative speed under sail
given the predicted wind and 5.2 knots from Skulmartin under
engine in a slightly choppy sea. Under this scenario I would be in
my bunk around midnight local time and I suspect somewhat earlier
making an early start on Monday a good proposition.

Again good agreement for Monday lunch time, IF this happened I
would be making good speed under the cruising chute or spinnaker.

Which would be just as well as by late evening the wind is
likely to be gone, the good news is that with a southerly wind
much of the day Machrihanish Bay comes into play if going has
been slow but if I could make 4.5 knots and leave at 06:00L it
would be unnecessary as I could just get to Ardminish in daylight.

The ECMWF has given up on strong winds for Friday and both
models are predicting lots of light fluky winds through next
week. Again I have heard that before! But it is in line with the
Met Office 10 day look ahead in the video referenced in the
part 1 of this post.

The above is for Wednesday showing an anti-cyclone (high) stuck over UK
which hopefully will at least give seasonally warm temperatures. 

I await the next few download with baited breath!

Friday pm.

It is raining so a bit more planning rather than a site seeing trip into Dublin.

Revised outline plan, an extra day or two resting and going up
the sound of Jura in light weather would not be a problem and
could enable a visit to Coll on route to Barra.

The sound of Luing (or the Sound of Islay) is the key to getting out of the Sound of Jura as tides run up to 5 knots at neaps and 7 knots as springs. If planning to make for the Sound of Mull from Fladda (Luing narrows) there are c 13 miles to go to Duart Point and another 7 to the entrance of Loch Aline so you can't leave too late in the tide or it will turn foul before you get there.

Tides start N and W through Dorus Mor (if coming from Crinan) and N through the Sound of Luing at HW Dover - 01:00 on springs and – 0:15 at neaps. 

The 11th is 4 days after neaps, so approx. Dover – 0:38. slack for c 40 mins

HW Dover April 2025

10th 11:00 turning N at 10:22

11th 11:40 turning N at 11:02

12th 12:10 turning N at 11:42

If at Gallanach Bay (Crinan) leave 30 minutes before, otherwise be off Sgeir na Maoile no earlier than the same time.

Tide turns adverse off Duart c 18:00 on the 11th.

Saturday update.

Not a great deal of change in the forecast and good agreement between the models through Wednesday, it looks like very slow going or the engine from Tuesday and possibly on Monday. 

Leaving time on Sunday.

Inshore forecast for Sunday from the UKMO from Sunday 12:00Z:

Lough Foyle to Carlingford Lough 

Outlook for the following 24 hours: East or southeast 3 to 5, becoming variable 2 to 4 for a time at first. Smooth or slight, occasionally moderate at first. Fair. Good.

---

Mull of Galloway to Mull of Kintyre including the Firth of Clyde and North Channel

Outlook for the following 24 hours: Easterly or southeasterly 3 to 5 in North Channel, otherwise variable 2 to 4. Smooth or slight, occasionally moderate at first in North Channel. Fair. Good.

And Met Éireann (for the whole of Ireland):

Outlook for a further 24 hours until 06:00, Monday 07 April 2025

Fresh east to southeast winds decreasing moderate to fresh on Sunday morning and decreasing light to moderate in the evening. Fair apart from a little drizzle in the southwest.

Forecast issued at: 06:00, Saturday 05 April 2025

So it looks like a go for tomorrow morning although it could be rather bumpy getting out past Irelands Eye, to be confirmed this evening.

Now it's the UKMO model suggesting strong winds on Friday

Click here for the next post.