2024 May 17th Day 49, to Loch Aline

The strong winds did not materialise, now they are due tomorrow night so with no wind I headed for the Sound of Mull on a lovely day apart from the lack of a sailing breeze. I started early against the tide to get favourable tides where they run strongest, on a neap tide currents were modest but I followed my already plotted route to give the Gulf of Corryvreckan, famous for it's huge whirlpool and strong tides, a very wide berth.

Passing the Gulf of Corryvreckan

Why it is a good idea to keep clear of The Corryvreckan.

Approaching Fladda and about to exit the route inside Jura and
Scarba into the Firth of Lorn

Fladda

The route requires accurate navigation in strong currents
but is not difficult, pots buoys being the main hazard
for a well engined boat.

I was rather concerned when I saw lots of yachts heading for
The Sound of Mull, probably with only half showing on AIS,
if this was a rally going to Loch Aline or Tobermory space
was likely going to be an issue. It turned out it was a local
version of the three peaks race.

This crew were taking the race seriously having sliding seats
fitted to each hull and two guys rowing.

The tide was foul shortly after entering the sound but not strong and I was at anchor in Loch Aline at 16:30 on a very pleasant evening watching a few seals.

Entering Loch Aline.

 

A couple of seals moving out of the way as I go into the anchorage.

From the anchorage

47 miles in eight and three-quarter hours.

To The Sound of Luing

To Loch Aline,

Click here for Tobermory

2024 May 16th Day 48, Craro Bay to Muilean Eiteae Bagh, Loch Caolisport.

The forecast was for very light winds during the day and brisk or strong winds overnight, also for northerly winds for several days. Fed up with all of the motoring on this trip I decided on a short hop to one of the limited number of anchorages sheltered from the north, most of which are not usable if there is any swell from the south, not currently an issue. 

Jura from the Sound of Jura. The forecast was correct, little
or no wind the whole way.

I left at 07:45 and arrived at 11:00 somewhat annoyed as there appeared to be a home made pot buoy on the exact spot I had marked to anchor but when I got very close it turned out to be a dead bird so I continued with my plan although as the previous night a light southerly set in as I approached, on this occasion I anchored under power going astern to make absolutely certain I was in the right position with a good anchor hold in advance of a F5-6 wind expected overnight.

Muilean Eiteae Bagh is my kind of anchorage; no habitation or roads in sight and when the wind died after anchoring complete, absolute silence – a rare thing. Until the cuckoos  started calling; I do not like them having, years ago, been sleep deprived for weeks when one took up residence at the end of the garden and stated calling in the pre-dawn every day.

I suspect it will be another short hop tomorrow to somewhere around Crinan and then I will motor to the sound of Mull as that needs to be done in one go and the tide is just about acceptable on Saturday.

16 miles in three and a quarter hours.

Click here for the Sound of Mull and Loch Aline.

2024 May 15th Day 47, Browns Bay to Craro Bay, Gigha.

Wednesday I left at 05:00  initially under engine making good time until some wind filled in at 08:15 so off went the engine except for an hour to avoid going into the Traffic Separation Scheme off of the Mull of Kintire. Heading north I was able to sail for a good portion of the time. With a northerly wind forecast overnight I went to Craro Bay on the SW corner of Gigha.

Approaching The Mull of Kintyre.

S. Gigha.

Typically just after I anchored in the 80 yard wide anchorage a wind set in from the south from which there is no protection, fortunately it was light and variable and unlike on a previous visit the anchor had penetrated the weed and had a good hold as the boat went all over the place during the night, quite close to an islet on the west side.

Swinging in the anchorage.

50 miles in eleven hours.

Click here for Muilean Eiteae Bagh, Loch Caolisport.

2024 May 14th Day 46, Ardglass to Browns Bay.

At 06:00 there was a light cold drizzle so I delayed departure as long as I reasonably could with a reasonable chance of getting to Browns Bay at a sensible time, Bangor is normally a reasonable alternate but would make getting across the North Channel problematic due to tides. Spending another day going to Red Bay would help but the forecast for Thursday did not look good with very light northerly winds that would mean motoring all of the way.

So I left at 08:15 in a light drizzle and a light headwind for the first few legs, as I approached South Rock buoy just before 11 the wind conveniently increased to a sailable 8 – 11 knots from the east so as I headed NW for Skullmartin and Donaghadee Sound that ideally I would reach at 16:00 as the tide turned favourable. The rain stopped at about midday at about the same time the cruising chute went up until the wind died as I approached the Sound when the engine went on and I entered the Sound at 15:30.

Whilst still in the fast running tide I again picked up weed on the shaft and / or propeller with smoke coming from the exhausted as before but also with quite severe vibration; I tried three or four times to clear it by moving from forward to revere gear which improved matters somewhat but did not clear all the weed. Not wanting to be carried further down tide I changed course for Bangor to anchor or go into the marina. I tried again and this time with a serious amount of power in reverse and this time it cleared and I resumed my trip to Brown’s Bay arriving at 19:00.

As I prepared the nights curry the Nicholson 38ft Ketch Galloper
that had been berthed next to me arrived doing the trip about
3 hours quicker than me.

A Coastguard exercise at Brown's Bay.

 

45 miles in ten and three-quarters of an hour.

Click here for Browns Bay to Gigha

2024 May 10th days 43 to 45, To The Skerries and Ardglass.

Again no wind and chilly with sea fret but warm at times, the wind came up twice but then disappeared within 10 minutes of setting sail and it increased a third time a mile from the anchorage.

On the last three passages across the northern entrance to
Dublin Bay I have had to avoid this ferry.

The Skerries from the anchorage where there was a nice spot
well separated from the surrounding moorings.

45 miles in nine and a half hours

The trip up to Ardglass was rather better, warmer much of the time and I sailed half the time with a pleasant, but chilly wind of 9 - 12 knots from the ESE.

A very large seal in the middle of the harbour entrance.

The narrow channel into the marina, the white marker in the
picture of the seal is shown as a yellow pillar on the chart.
The snapshot was taken as I write with the wind F6 in the
shelter of the harbour. It is rather bumpy so I hope the
wind dies soon.

The narrow channel into the marina, between the red (port hand)
and green (starboard hand) lateral buoys,.

Approaching low tide.

Ardglass is a pleasant stop off point with decent showers, local
shops etc., but its a pity they can't keep the visitors pontoon
clean; the other pontoons and the long walkways in the pic above
are very clean.

Monday was forecast to be blustery and very wet, that was not wrong, as I write it has been raining since late morning and the wind is about F6, as forecast in the lunch time inshore forecast. Aware that this was likely I had the boat refuelled very early.

The wind should die out this evening, the rain may hang around through tomorrow morning but, unless things change, I will be off at about 07:00 for Browns Bay to hopefully get across the North Channel before the wind turns northerly late on Friday or Saturday, unfortunately I suspect there will be more motoring required to get there. Once across I will have a lot more flexibility to make relatively short hops under sail as anchorages with good shelter are relatively plentiful. 

Click for the leg to Browns Bay

2024 May 8th Days 40 - 42, One step forward, 2 back to Neyland and Sandy Haven Bay then Arklow.

This cruise is turning into a bit of a nightmare, fortunately this problem "only" caused me 13 hours of motoring, 2 days, one night in a marina and quite a lot of worry until things were sorted. 

It was foggy when I woke at 04:00 so I went back to my bunk to wait for daylight. Things had not improved much if at all, I could hear another boats anchor being hauled up but importantly I could not hear the fog signal from St Ann's Head; I have heard that from Dale Shelf and Sandy Haven Bay (which is further away) on quite a few occasions so I decided to leave on the assumption it was not foggy there.

A quite busy picture, I went out using the GPS map, Radar and
AIS, also the autopilot that gives more time to keep a lookout
and check the instrumentation. The radar is not quite aligned
with AIS and the real world here, corrected later by a couple of
degrees to make it spot on.

Typically the fog signal started up as I rounded Watwick point, not as dense as on previous occasions I have been through here with visibility about a cable (c 200 yards). 

Making up to 10 knots with 5 knots of tide helping. The red
shaded area is the radar collision guard zone.

Fog beginning to lift

Close to the spring tide I was making great progress towards Arklow, rather further on but 35 miles shorter than getting there via Carnsore Point but with the tide only a couple of hours longer than just going to Carnsore. 

Then the engine started producing way to much smoke from the exhaust. I stopped it to decide what to do, it was necessarily a quick decision as the tide was about to turn and if returning to Milford I wanted the strong tide to help. Also to let the engine cool if it was overheating.

I decided to turn back primarily so that if it was a serious problem such as a blown head gasket I preferred to be at Milford rather than in Ireland. Having started the engine I put it in gear and there was a metallic clunk but the smoke much reduced (as became clear later a lot of weed had clearly come off, I had also put it in reverse in case it was weed - a not uncommon issue), It was still more smoke than I was comfortable with but hopefully it was not something serious. 

The clunk turned out to be a red hearing, it happened again but worse at Arklow and after some head scratching I found that if one of the fuel cans was put in the locker with the filler aft and if it moved just so, it interfered with the back of the combined throttle and gear selector - I have been putting a can in there since I got the boat and this was the first time it had happened, something to guard against a repeat is now on the work list.

With some difficulty with the engine running I checked the oil, there was no sign of water so a cylinder head gasket problem was less likely and the favourite was weed or rope around the shaft or propeller causing the engine to be loaded and running inefficiently and not burning the fuel properly. I carried on at modest speed and carried the tide into the Haven and made my way to Neyland Marina which had a berth available in the fully tidal section. I preferred this to the slightly closer Milford Haven Marina as it is not locked and there are a number of serious marine engineering companies locally.

Neyland Marina

I got into a nice berth and as I hopped onto the pontoon a chap came to help, it turned out he had previously owned an Achilles 24 and a 9 meter, the current owner of the A9m turned up next day - there are lots of Achilles boats around the Haven, they were built not far away. 

73 miles in eleven and a quarter hours.

It was early evening but I took some hand held pictures with my waterproof compact camera without lighting in the very murky water, the waterproof  pole mountable GoPro's battery being flat. The picture was very blurry, the propeller was clearly OK but there appeared to be either weed or weedy rope around the shaft. I attacked it with the boat hook and then went for a shower and fish and chips feeling rather better although if I had not got it off I might have a very unpleasant swim in the morning, even with the wet suit, mask etc. Or if it was some random weed in the marina I would be back to square one.

GoPro and waterproof light on the boat hook used the next morning .

Screen grabs from the video, all clear. But 7 weeks
after a scrub and a coat of anti-foul there is an ominous amount
of weed on the "P" Bracket.

A screen shot of my second attempt at getting to Arklow when
I was monitoring 3 dangerous AIS targets two heading north
and projected to be very close and another coming south, also.
close. The heavy dashed line ahead of me is the track from the
first attempt.

With the shaft clear it just remained to test it, but first there was two trips to the COOP, a twenty minute walk mainly uphill and two shorter walks to collect fuel, all with trips up steep, long access bridges to pontoons- the tide having a 7 metre range. I left late afternoon, the sea trial was successful and I went to Sandy Haven Bay for the night, a rather lengthy trip as I was battling a spring flood tide.

To Sandy Haven Bay

My second attempt was more successful although the wind never went above 5 knots so I had to motor all of the way. 

Approaching Arklow (right) where I anchored for the night at dusk.

 85 nautical miles in just under 15 hours.

Click here for The Skerries and Ardglass.