Am writing this episode from the the little village of Crinan which is the western end of the Canal. Am sat in the coffee shop using their WiFi as there is no mobile signal anywhere else.

It appears that there has been a near drought no rain situation since late May and the canal authorities are operating restrictions on the canal ie everytime they open either of the two Sea locks the freshwater drains out and the canal depth gets lower and lower.

Yesterday we moved from Ardrishaig at the eastern end to where I am now in Crinan… but the depths at best were 2 metres and at worst 1.6 metres. There is speculation that (a) that there will be severe restrictions on the outbound sea locks or (b) they will close the canal entirely and vessels already in will have to stay until the restrictions are lifted. So we wait.

• We are currently moored above lock 14..above the Crinan Basin and have talked to the Canal folk who say they will make a decision at 1pm today. Fingers crossed they will let us plus two other boats out to sea. So no phone signal and in limbo!!

At 10pm the previous night …the forecast rain arrived 12 hours late! It rained all through the night and most of today Friday. So a soggy trip north.

We were planning to leave at 9am but the marina fuel berthing system involved moving the boat twice and then moving between various offices to pay…so we finally departed East Loch Tarbert at 10.15am. Once out into Loch Fyne we met more rain… slow drizzly form of the stuff..and over time it certainly wet you …wetting rain! Visibility was also very poor so we put all our navigation lights on.

The pic above …a flat sea ( Loch ) , no wind and the hills of the passing Kintyre peninsula hidden in rain and fog. All grey as well.

Whilst T did the helming and navigation, Mike in his wet oilies…made phone contact with the Scottish Canals people and started to sort out our options once we had reached the small town of Ardrishaig…which marks the entrance to the Crinan Canal.

It took no more than an hour and half to sight the green and red Channel markers for the big sea lock at Ardrishaig. We first tied up at a waiting pontoon outside the lock, before climbing a very steep ladder up to the Crinan Canal Office.

The other side of the white gates…a big drop down is the sea lock at Ardrishaig. When we arrived there was one other boat in the sea lock…with a baby on board. 

The sea lock, the boat with a baby on board.

Poli Poli tied up to the waiting pontoon outside the sea lock. We had to wait a long time …we arrived at the sea lock about 11.45am but the first sea lock was scheduled for 2pm.

Pic above, the new fender boards worked a treat…protecting the fender covers and fenders from the horrible sea lock wall.  Well done Richard !

We had decided, after much discussion with the very helpful Canal staff to go through the sea lock…. and then tie up in the basin the other side and spend the night at Ardrishaig. Thank you Mia and Kristoff for all your help and guidance..you are both stars!!

Poli Poli in the sea lock with Jupiter…baby aboard!!

At 2pm precisely the huge big seaward lock gates closed with a huge clanking noise …and then the big sluices the other end were opened to allow water from the canal system to surge into the lock. …thus filling it up and raising Poli Poli to street level.

The lifting of the road bridge came next and at last we were on the move. We motored out into a small basin. Jupiter…first into the lock, therefore first out…had first pick and chose the only space on a standard marina type pontoon.

We had to moor up against a low wall …which was not difficult and in the event turned out to be a nice spot.

Poli Poli moored up against the wall in the canal basin at Ardrishaig. The cockpit tent has gone up to try and dry all the sodden, wet oilies!

After visiting a local hotel for refreshments…we returned to the boat..and in no time at all a French boat had decided to raft up against us . Three retired gentlemen from Brittany.

 

We leave at 9am tomorrow Saturday for Crinan and then onto an anchorage for the night.

Total distance for the day : 9.7 n.miles.

Duration : 1 hour 30 minutes.

Distance from Eastbourne: 1,350.7 n.miles.

The Met Office forecast heavy rain showers from 1pm onwards. A glum start to our rest day after three back to back sailing days. However, Thursday began in sunshine and with blue skies….. and remained so until dusk. So no rain!

The morning was taken by the very nice “Full Scottish Breakfast” in a waterfront cafe… which turned out to be extremely popular and was full within half an hour of our entry. Made me smile… Scottish Breakfast… eggs, bacon, mushrooms and all the works….. plus a portion of haggis…. asking for mustard… our young waitress bought out English Mustard! Coffee was good too.

This was followed by a steep climb up the hills behind the village to pay a visit to Tarbert Castle which towers over the little fishing harbour like a huge, out of place rock. what distinguishes it from a rock is the national flag of Scotland flying in a very light breeze. Saint Andrew flying high on a blue sky background.

 

Mike heading for the castle. Strategically placed it guards all approaches from Loch Fyne and dominates the little settlement of Tarbert below. The Saltire flies high against a blue sky.

It is our very first Scottish Castle. In publicising sailing in Scotland you always find beautiful photos of sailing yachts moored immediately in front of more famous Scottish Castles… but ones built at near or at sea level. Well this is not one of them.

A photo of the tricky entrance and approach to the harbour at Tarbert… see the island left of centre and the outcrop jutting out right of centre…. tricky navigation here. Loch Fyne in the background.

The only alleged important occasion for Tarbert Castle was that Robert The Bruce passed this way once… on his way to Rathlin Island ( off Ballycastle ) where we had also passed through….. and the incident of Robert the Bruce and the spider’s web allegedly took place.

My attempt at a “pano” photo showing the western side of the village ( left ) and the peculiar church tower… to the eastern side ( right ) with Tarbert Castle dominating… and the loch and marina where Poli Poli is berthed in the centre.

 

East Loch Tarbert… the marina…. Poli Poli is in the centre pontoon…. somewhere!

After doing the shopping at the Co-Op, we had inquired as to hosepipe bans in Scotland…and received a puzzled look and “what are you talking about?”type response. When we explained that by law, drought orders in Eire and in Ulster ( where we had come from ), had forbidden the washing of boats due to lack of rain…. much Scottish laughter. Guffaws…. “you can wash it twice here”…. but no rain today.

So Poli Poli was duly washed this afternoon… the last time was Conwy in North Wales ( where they have a lot of rain ) on 9th July. You could run the palm of your hand along Poli Poli’s topsides ( no giggling ) and capture a handful of sea salt… at least a cupful.

Then discussions and preparations for the morrow and the Crinan Canal adventure… two special 20m mooring lines… fore and aft were got ready, the nice new fender boards ( made specially by Richard, my brother in law ) were re-rigged ready to be hung outside the fenders… so as to protect Poli Poli’s topsides ( topsides are the highly polished upper part of the hull from the waterline to the toe rail … at deck level ). Again the gel coat highly polished by the elbow grease provided by Richard back in the winter months in the boatyard. Our topsides are Oxford Blue and we guard them fiercely… no scuffs or scratches please.

We set off on Friday… tomorrow to sail further up Long Fyne to a little port called Ardrishaig where the Crinan Canal begins. We are taking a short cut straight across the Mull of Kintyre out into Western Scotland.

A final thought on Tarbert….

On our arrival we both almost simultaneously pointed out a smallish but very obvious “gin palace” white motor cruiser with the name “Sorry Kids” writ large on her stern …. puzzled…. then guffawed with laughter. On paying my harbour dues to the very pleasant lady in the marina office ( she gave me a biro and a free note pad !)…. the lady had made the same observation…. and came to to the same conclusion as to the meaning of the boat’s name. Any offers…….

The photo above is for Dad in Rusthall, Tunbridge Wells. See Dad it is not only the Welsh who do this……

Next stop…. Crinan. A big thank you to all our followers… it makes us feel we are doing this Circumnavigation in company and with friends and family… and a big thank you to all those folk who post comments. Again …. we do not feel alone!! We are being watched!!! Thanks.

 

 

Heavy overnight rain hammered on the the coach roof in the early hours. On the quayside next to our mooring was the Campbeltown lifeboat resplendent in its livery of orange and Oxford blue.

Unfortunately the Lifeboat coxswain had left the VHF radio switched on inside … so all night there was this ongoing commentary from all the local coastguard stations with the various lifeboats…. chatter, chatter. What made it worse was that the VHF radio was live on the outside and upstairs fly bridge helm station at the top of the life boat… so everybody could hear the through the night on going radio traffic! So that and the rain drops……

Morning was sunny, dry and once again very still…. which means windless. Both myself and Mike managed to have a shower in the one available shower ( very bad… poor provision of facilities, not a good rating for Campbeltown at all ).

We departed our berth at 8.20am by “springing off ” at the bow ( the front end is held in and the back end pushed off so you can then reverse out at an angle ). Poli Poli was in an extremely tight alongside berth with boats at each end. The yacht behind us had a pretty big overhanging dinghy… which would have made it extremely difficult to get Poli Poli out. But we did it.

Poli Poli jammed in for and aft by boats rafting up… Campbeltown Marina, on the Mull of Kintyre.

We had planned to leave by 9am to catch the northbound tide up the side of the Mull of Kintyre to Tarbert. The measured distance was 33 n. miles and we estimated about four and a half hours. However, the windless conditions did not allow any sailing to take place. For some time now we have been plagued by still days… or just enough wind but from the wrong direction. So the boat stayed level and we averaged 7 knots per hour over the duration of the journey.

Our pontoon… a rain sodden walkway, Wednesday morning at 6am…. the time I went for my shower. Limp flags mean….. no wind.

Leaving Campbeltown behind us as left …. you have to sail out of the Sound ( small loch ), passed the Davaar Island and lighthouse then turn north up the Kilbrannan Sound which is the narrow body of water between the Mull of Kintyre and the island of Arran to the east.

Above is a photo of the actual Admiralty chart used today. It is overlaid with a plastic cover upon which, using a china graph pencil, you can annotate or make notes. You can see that we plot our position on the paper chart every hour plus the distance covered and time. Done this way it presents a good visual check on position and progress towards your destination…. and if ever the GPS and electronic chart plotter were to fail… you have a good idea where you are at the last hour mark.

We passed numerous fishing boats on our way north…. this one surrounded by sea gulls. This often indicates that the fishermen are either gutting and cleaning the fish they have caught and throwing the entrails into the water or they are baiting their lobster pots and chucking old bait ( usually old smelly fish )back  into the sea… and of course the seagulls arrive. Much the same as in the old days the seagulls followed the horse and plough…. and today, they still do… except its a Massey Ferguson or John Deere! Look at the sheen on the water and the green countryside of the Mull of Kintyre in the background.

The last four or so miles…. now entering Loch Fyne… look at the glassy water surface. Not a breath of wind. Easy to spot wild life though…. yesterday evening back at Campbeltown we observed two big, big seals very close to two moored trawlers in the actual harbour.

Today we saw two different groups of dolphins playing…. jumping out of the water… easy to spot when the water surface is so calm and still. however, the spoilsports declined to come and play at our bow.

You can tell we are coming into port from the photo…. mooring lines and fenders are already all set out. It was near here the second group of dolphins appeared.

This is a view of East Loch Tarbert after walking back from the pub where we had lunch. We had arrived in the marina at exactly 1pm…. so 4 hours and 40 minutes from Campbeltown, a distance of 32.1 n. miles.

Tarbert Harbour is one of the most naturally sheltered harbours in the north west of Scotland…. surrounded by high hills on all sides except the loch entrance which faces east. Tarbert is a large village in a beautiful setting… the entire frontage of shops, hotels, pubs, cafes and restaurants form a sweeping arc at the head of the loch. We did view thousands upon thousands of acres of conifer plantations on the Kintyre peninsula as we journeyed north…. but here in Tarbert the surrounding hillsides are covered in swathes of natural deciduous trees… which gives the village a very natural feel.

Two pics of entering East Loch Tarbert….. Mike standing by ready, but more importantly “eyeballing” for the helmsman!! The other pic… just a few rock hazards to be negotiated before actually arriving at the marina.

We have decided to spend two nights here in East Loch Tarbert… using the spare, gained day from cutting out the Whitehaven ( Cumbria ) journey. This will now put us back on track with the original version of Schedule Three. when we leave here, we will tackle the Crinnan Canal and carry out our first anchorage in West Loch Tarbert.

Distance from Eastbourne  1,341 n. miles.

 

We up here in the north, woke to a greyish sort of day…. but dry and on the downside, no wind. Again the forecasts had predicted Force 3 to 4 winds…. but none evident. Then a visit to the Ballycastle showers…. a brand new block housing the Marina office, the Harbour Master and Tourist Information…. all modern and shiny clean. The toilets and showers are to be commended.

A secondary purpose to our visit to Ballycastle, in County Antrim in the far north of Ulster…. was that as a very young boy in the 1950’s…. for a short period of time I attended the Ballycastle Primary School as a pupil. We lived in one of the Coastguard Cottages up the hill for about a year before returning to Kenya, East Africa. I recall three things about Ballacastle… even after 60 years… the school, the stone jetty at the harbour and the walk home up a steep hill to the Coastguard Cottages.  So I managed to go and locate the school… and there it was not far from the town centre and sea front…. 500 yards from the marina where we were berthed.

 

Photos of Ballycastle Primary School…. the two gable ends are the give away… and I remember the pale grey sort of rendering which doesn’t seem to have changed.

Ballycastle is a small town in County Antrim, located on the north-easternmost coastal tip of the island of Ireland. The town’s seafront overlooks a huge sweeping arc of a beach… which on the eastern head stands the quite fearsome headland… inappropriately named Fair Head. In 2016, the Sunday Times named Ballycastle as the best place to live in Northern Ireland. It had a good feel to it…. and some amazing views too, including Rathlin Island to the north… and on a clear day I can imagine you being able to see the islands of Islay, Jura, and the Mull of Kintyre …. all of them across the dreaded North Channel. We also noted how green the surrounding countryside appeared in the short bursts of sunshine.

After paying the £28 marina fee for a night’s berthing ( and shore power, showers, water etc )… we departed Ballycastle harbour at 9.20am…. a time which was chosen to catch the strong tide from north to south in the North Channel. We were followed out by a French sailing yacht, all crew dressed in bright red “oilies”…. Mike made a joke about them having a cardboard cut out of the football world cup strapped to the top of their mast.

As an aside, we moored next to a French couple in Bangor…. and on the day after… they did not even know France had won the world cup! The lady became very confused when I asked her why she was not celebrating as they were in the Champs Elysee???

The great headland known as Fair Head was past at close quarters… huge black columns of granite towering above us. And at this point we joined the south going tide gushing in from the Atlantic… and our boat speed increased dramatically. Yesterdays record was quickly broken as we could see 13.6 knots on the “speedo” above the companion way hatch.

The twelve mile wide channel was crossed in under two hours…. the downtide swept us along and ever closer to Scotland. Here the North Channel is a major shipping lane… with two big lanes separated by a traffic separation zone in the middle… designated on all charts. As we were crossing at the southern end we did not have to go at right angles through the up lane, the TSL and the down lane. The huge peninsula of the Mull of Kintyre quickly loomed into view. Awesome dressed in greens, browns and black…with splashes of white at the base of the towering cliffs… where the great waves broke.

The sea conditions need some comment. Yes the rate of the tide moving west to east was quite staggering… but on the surface an oily, glassy calmness, no white horses, no huge crashing waves…. and no wind at all.  All around peace and calm… the exact opposite to what was going on underneath the boat!

Once in the lee of the great peninsula, we navigated a passage through the stretch of water known as Sanda Sound. A small group of islands lay off the south eastern coast of the Mull of Kintyre… the Sanda Islands… and we chose to go through the gap between Kintyre and these islands. Wonderful views on both sides… we even spotted holidaymakers on the Kintyre side… in caravans and tents. With our Steiner binoculars!

After about three hours sailing ( motoring ) we spied the little island of Davaar… which marks the entrance to the Campbeltown Sound. This was rounded…. just as a northerly wind of 10 knots blew up… but too late for us as we had less than an hour to go. Once round the island we entered the excellent marked channel ( the green and red buoys pattern )…. and at 1.15pm we berthed in Campbeltown marina at the head of the Sound.

At least four guys came to help us with our lines… all such help is gratefully received and is part of the welcome that you receive at many marinas… but not all!!! Well done Campbeltown Marina. We had arrived in Scotland after 52 days and nights.

Distance sailed today… 36.2 n. miles.

Duration… 3 hours and 55 minutes.

Distance from Eastbourne: 1,308.9 n. miles.

 

 

Well a heatwave of 30 degrees C plus in the South of England and a cold rainy Sunday in Northern Ireland. So w ask the man on the desk in Bangor Marina…. “are there any restrictions on hosepipes in this marina… eg can we wash the salt off our boat?” Well he looks outside, sees the leaden skies, listens to the thunder of the rain drops on the roof and observes the puddles of water on the pontoons…. well he said… “if you get the marina hose out…. fill a bucket and then throw it at your boat… you might get away with it… yes there is a hosepipe ban in all of Ireland.”

A wet Bangor Marina early Sunday morning….. grey and gloomy. Poli Poli is dead centre… you can just see the grey dinghy on the stern.

Sunday was a wet, wet day…. we woke up to the rain in the night…. it sort of drums and echoes on the coach roof…. and we went to bed on Sunday night when it was still raining. so Sunday was a wash out…. in one sense…. in the other… the boat did not get washed.

So we did jobs like the laundry…. back and forth to the washers and driers in a rain coat… big tidy up after the two 75 milers across the Irish Sea…. and Mike hosted a family reunion Sunday lunch with his sister and cousins in the Salty Dog Hotel ( which turned our to be excellent )…. and planned the Monday journey north to Ballycastle.

So I went to bed after catching up on the blog wondering…. well I wonder if there is a hosepipe ban in southern England?? So the next morning…. just before we took leave of the town of Bangor …. a town surrounded by amazingly green fields… we took the marina hose and filled the water tank on the boat… then when nobody was looking, had a crafty spray of the windows, coach roof and cockpit.

Day 51, Monday 16th July, Bangor to Ballycastle in the far north, not a stones throw away from Scotland.

We could not leave on Monday morning before 11am. Why?… very strong north to south tide running along the coast. If we left at 11am we would get the last two hours … the 2,1 of the 123,321 sequence of 6 hours. So head tide to start with, then slack… and then we would have at least 6 hours of positive, following tide up the coast of Northern Ireland.

We decided to top up on fuel at the fuel berth first. What should have been straightforward turned out not to be! Firstly having booked the 10.30am slot there was a queue so had to hold station and wait. The actual paying system was one we had not met before…. after taking on board the diesel… the marina guy had to accompany you some distance to the main office where you had to pay. Not experienced this before. So we got away late.

A different day Monday. Cool yes but dry, some sun and some blue sky!! Poli Poli…. under full sail, headed north across Belfast Lough.

Poli Poli making her way across Belfast Lough in exceptionally calm conditions. Sails are up though!

Having been promised Force3, 4 and 5 winds…. from Northerly through to SW…. we got 5 knots of “variables”… ie next to nothing. So the sails stayed up but on went the motor.

Screenshot of the chartplotter. Poli Poli with the red and green lines has just crossed Belfast Lough from Bangor on the south side.Lots of AIS target boats buzzing about. Here we are “punching tide”.

We managed 6 knots going north along the Antrim coast against the last knockings of the south bound tide. Passing the port of Larne, the Maidens ( two huge rocks… one the West Maiden has the old brick and stone lighthouse on it, the other rock… the East Maiden a conventional and more modern black and white lighthouse ), Carrickfergus, Red Bay and finally the great headland of Fair Head…. jutting out into the North Channel.

One of the Maiden Rocks… the Old Lighthouse… abandoned in 1906. Note flat sea.

By about 2pm…. after Mike had grilled Irish potato cakes for a light lunch… our speed quickened as the tide turned in our favour. Now roaring northwards at 7 knots. The sea was “smooth”…. oily and glassy for much of the time but the different breezes which blew from all points of the compass couldn’t make more than a ripple on the surface. So all calm and orderly…. and making good progress northbound.

 

Then came the North Channel. “At the north end of the Irish Sea, the North Channel is a stretch of water sixty miles long and just twelve miles wide. Its headlands, tidal races, overfalls and eddies constitute one of the greatest challenges to a cruising yacht in the British Isles.” I didn’t say that…. David Rainsbury wrote that in his book “Irish Sea Pilot” ( 2009 ).

You have to imagine a huge volume of water from the Atlantic Ocean pouring in through a 12 mile wide gap from the west… filling the Irish Sea… and then 12 hours later reversing and pouring out through that same 12 mile gap.

Well we met the west going North Channel tide somewhere between Red Bay and Fair Head…. and boy did it move us along. From a sedate 7 knots we went to 9, and then 10…. and thinking that was it…. we went to 11 and the finally our top speed of 12.8 knots SOG. The fastest Poli Poli has ever been. Fortunately this was all done in controlled conditions ( except for the tide!! )…. a relatively flat sea, calm in terms of lack of wind. cold yes…. but certainly not screaming banshees where you wrestle to control the boat. Poli Poli steered a wide arc away from the rocky shoreline and remained to a single degree ordered on the helm…. always under control.

We had seen the Mull of Galloway earlier…. our first glimpse of Scotland…. but as we came into the North Channel… we admired the great mass of The Mull of Kintyre… and then almost in the same breath we could see Islay and Jura further to the west… and the Rathlin Island just north of Ballycastle.

Fair Head is a giant of a headland. Passed by on our port side, we then entered the big bay of Ballycastle… for the first time the waters assumed a strange swell with fairly large waves roaring in towards us. But as quickly as the swell appeared, four miles offshore, the swell calmed and the sea went flat. Fenders and mooring lines were safely prepared and we entered the harbour of Ballycastle. We arrived at 5pm…. 6  hours from Bangor.

Distance from Bangor to Ballycastle… 46.4 n.miles.

Distance from Eastbourne….1,272.7 n.miles.

Tomorrow Tuesday…. Ballycastle to Campbeltown in Scotland…. across the North Channel ( again!!! ).

 

 

A grey, gloomy type of morning….. breakfast on board, quick trip to Tesco’s to ensure we had meals on board for the journey ahead, showers in the very forgettable marina facilities and prepping the boat for departure…. and the boat was ready to go at 10.30am.

Our departure from Douglas was determined by the time of the first lift of the road bridge over the channel from the marina into the outer harbour. This was scheduled for 10.45am… so we had to wait. Ahead of us was a 65-70 n.mile journey, a potential arrival of 9pm and thus a 10 hour stint out at sea. Not of our choosing and within a ten hour duration there would be at least two tides… and not necessarily in our favour. No road bridge and we would have left much earlier.

At just after 10.30am…. sitting in the cockpit twiddling with the ignition key… and suddenly, out of the blue, thick fog descended…. filling the valley with a  thick, white wall of  very limited visibility. The Port Control came over the VHF radio announcing the poor conditions beyond the harbour.

At 10.35am we started the engine in one metre of water on the berth…. so keel up, and we gently reversed out into the shallow channel. We arrived at the road bridge with two other sailing yachts maneuvering for an exit. 10.45am came and went… no action on the bridge… no alarms going off warning the traffic and pedestrians, no barriers coming down and no flashing lights.

Over the radio…. there had been a failure in one of the cameras and the technical people had to be called. So we waited….. holding 15 tons of boat at a point where a flood tide was coming in… is no easy matter… along with two other boats circling round behind and to the side of you. We finally made our exit at just after 11am from Douglas.

A thick wall of fog met us as we navigated out to sea using our electronic chart plotter and the blasts from our fog horn midway up the mast. The other two boats were on AIS and we could see where they were in relationship to our position. One of them played ‘silly buggers’ …. when we turned away from him, he would turn towards Poli Poli. This went on for about 15 minutes before we managed to lose him…. he went north up the coast, we went south west…. situation averted.

The fog bought with it…. freezing cold. Within the first hour, we had jumpers, scarves, gloves and hats on… extra coats as well. So from oily flat seas, blue skies, sunshine and temperatures of 30 deg… in the Irish Sea off the coast of the Isle of Man…. it was freezing! Was the heat wave over? Fog …. similar to that which we experienced between Poole and Portland Bill on the south coast. Along with the fog… no wind to move us by sail or to blow the fog away!

After three hours of thick fog, it lifted as quickly as it had descended… and revealed the towering Calf of Man lighthouse against a backdrop of the green, brown and black cliff landscape. Our last glimpse of the Isle of Man.

Photo …. The Calf of Man lighthouse set against the south western tip of the Isle of Man. Notice the blue skies. The fog has lifted.

Our first view of the lighthouse at the Calf of Man. Spectacular.

 

The next few hours past without event. The wind described as ‘variable’ flickered all over the place at less than 7 knots. Useless for sailing…. so we motored on heading north west, slowly but surely eating up the miles at well over 8 knots of speed. Surely this could not continue?

Around about 6pm off the coast of Northern Ireland… we noticed a change. Our speed started to decline as the tide built against us. We were now head to tide. We had known at some point this would happen… we had enjoyed the benefit earlier on of a following tide, now it was turning coming at us from north to south. Our speed fell to just 6 knots and occasionally just over 5 knots.

Our route took us NW around the top of the three big islands known as Copeland, Lighthouse and Mew into Belfast Lough and then to Bangor Marina. You either went through between the islands into the Belfast Lough, which was the quicker route, or the very long way…. all around the top…. possibly an extra two hours onto journey time. A decision had to be made… between the islands or around the top?

Chart above… find the Belfast Lough in the bottom right. We are coming up from the south east. Note the three little islands near the double ‘N’ of the word Channel. These islands guard the southern entrance to Belfast Lough. Note the position of Bangor to the east of Belfast.

Looking at the oncoming tides rushing south it would all be about a matter of timing. Low water between the islands was 7.11pm… then the tidal race through the gap would start running, and it would run for six hours.

The decision taken …. to go through the gap between the mainland and Copeland Island… known as the Donaghadee Sound… was based on the assumptions that

(a) it was a buoyed channel with two reds and two greens. This helped to fix the route of travel as well as to indicate deeper water.

(b) If we could arrive at about 8pm… then only the first hour of the tidal race would have started…. giving us the best opportunity of getting through. The rule of twelfths applies here….in the first hour of the six hours, the speed of the tide runs at one twelfth, then two, then three… and then three again and finally in the last 2 hours, 2 twelfths and finally one thelfth and slack water. Pass through the gap any later and we would be faced with 5 knots of oncoming tide. Best remembered as over the 6 hours… learn ‘123 then 321’…. vital to know this.

(c) Go round  the outside of the three islands and the extra time taken would mean facing the middle two hours of oncoming tide…. even more dangerous than crossing the gap at low water plus one hour.

Above is a close up of the Donaghadee Sound. To the south west is the mainland and to the north is the island of Copeland. If you look closely you can make out the four buoys. Notice all the ‘threats’ … Governor Rocks, Deputy Reefs, Foreland Spit etc etc.

We also had to maintain our speed,….. so up came the keel to reduce the resistance to the tide by minimizing our profile. For a while, as a flat bottomed boat, this worked well although we had to put up with a rolling motion.

At the first pair of red and green buoys our speed was 5 knots…. by the time we passed the second pair our speed dropped to below four. The onrushing tide pushed against the boat, but our speed held up. A few anxious moments yes…. but Poli Poli punched her way through the tidal race and out into the deeper water and the lesser tide of Belfast Lough. We had crossed the Donaghadee Sound… and today was ‘Springs’ …. the significance of that has been explained previously.

We rounded the north cardinal at South Briggs off Orlock Head at 8.35pm …. safely into Belfast Lough…. then we turned westwards and berthed in Bangor Marina by 9.30pm. The Salty Dog Hotel beckoned…. fish and chips washed down by the new lager from Guiness. A long, long day with a bit of angst towards the end.

I saw the above in Bangor Marina …. in a corridor outside the loos. The four to five knots refers to that middle section of the six hour tide rise ie the 123321…. the two threes. You have to work out the exact time that these two 3’s occur. Then don’t go there!! We crossed in hour one….. with abit of hour 2.

Total mileage for the day…   74.30 n.miles. 

Duration: 10 hours.

Distance from Eastbourne:   1,226.3 n.miles.

 

A warm, sunny day…. some forecasters were now talking about the end of the July “heat wave” in the north and north west of the UK. We will see. The standard “rest day breakfast” taken in the main shopping street of the capital, Douglas. Not brilliant… no comparison to the one in Liverpool or Conwy…. but satisfactory …. they had run out of English Mustard!! Not a good start.

Much of the day was spent on a steam train trip to the south of the island. Our research indicated this was probably the best way of seeing something of the Isle of Man before departure the next day. There are two trains…. an electric one runs to the north and a steam train to the south. We opted to go south… as there were a number of little harbours which we had looked at as possible Isle of Man destinations….. before choosing Douglas.

Here is Poli Poli moored up in Douglas, the Isle of Man marina. No where in this marina is the berth depth more than 2 metres, in fact on our pontoon for most of the time it was 1.0 metres. So we had the keel fully raised and spent much of the time sitting on the mud. A small flock… about five swans and lots of ducks were regular visitors…. although much more friendly than the lonely Welsh swan in Conwy…. who attacked our fenders if he/she was not offered food!

So on our rest day… Friday… we caught the steam train from the very close by station in Douglas at 11.50am. …. the railway was founded in 1873,  and the route follows the east and south east coast of the island to Ballasalla, Castletown, Port St. Mary and finishes at Port Erin. The electric railway runs north all the way to Ramsey.

Our journey south was 15 and a half miles from Douglas to Port Erin… and the railway is claimed to be the oldest narrow gauge railway in continuous operation in the British Isles. The railway still uses the original locomotives and rolling stock.

 

So we travelled in bright red and cream coloured carriages pulled by a shiny green steam engine which had “C.H. Wood” on its side nameplate…. the little engine did a lot of huffing, puffing, wheezing and much whistle blowing!

Unfortunately much of the route and landscape beyond the train was often obscured by trees as the track seemed to run in cuttings…. we only glimpsed the coast on about four short occasions. There seemed to be a lot of new houses in this part of the island and we did see evidence of the TT Isle of Man motor bike race around the island circuit. We did see the Port Saint Mary harbour from a distance but very little of the countryside. So difficult to come to a conclusion about the Isle of Man.

We got off for about an hour in Port Erin where we did admire the view of the beautiful little harbour  on the south coast…. a huge bay with a lovely, crescent shaped beach. Most of the shops around the station catered for the tourists… there was that sort of feel for the place.

We  returned to Douglas… this time pulled by a shiny red engine.. labelled NO. 13. Kissack…. but at one of the stations on the way back there was some sort of 20 minute delay as we waited for the green engine to come through. We got back to Douglas by about 3.30pm.

 

It was now very warm and muggy. Time for jobs to be done on the boat…. bit of blogging, write a passage plan for the morrow, and tidy up! You know what they say… “a safe ship is a tidy ship”…. so, so true! Being Friday the 13th… nothing untoward happened either!

 

 

 

We departed our Liverpool Marina berth at 10.40am … a somewhat greyish, gloomy morning and very different to yesterdays scorching weather. Chilly too. But no wind, absolutely zilch.

We filled up with red diesel from the fuel berth first and then departed Liverpool Marina out through the lock at just before high water… so slack tide. Today we were going to take advantage of the tide and as it turned, and we went north out of the River Mersey, we would benefit from the ebb…. pushing us along from behind.

As you exit a channel, this time you “keep to the reds”…. this was repeated when we reported in on the Liverpool VTS VHF channel… the guy on duty said… “please keep to the reds” and we did so for the next 15 n.miles.

As we approached the Albert Dock… and  it’s red buoy… a voice came over the VHF radio …. “Snowdrop here, Snowdrop here, come in Roli Poli”…. fortunately I had remembered that “Snowdrop” was the name of the Mersey ferry from two previous trips on her. The voice had a very distinct Liverpudlian accent. Without being rude, I corrected Snowdrop’s interpretation of our boat’s name… and asked how I could help.

Snowdrop informed me that he was behind Poli Poli and was about to come across us as he was heading to Pier Head. I agreed to slow down  and let him pass… which he did. Roli Poli…. the old joke… I mused…. then I thought… who would call a boat “Snowdrop” especially one covered in multi layers and multi colours of what looked like street graffiti??

“Ferry across the Mersey”…. Gerry and the Pacemakers”…. here comes “Snowdrop” passing us at slack high tide.

The tide started ebbing and we certainly felt the benefit. Passing the Albert Dock, then the three famous buildings at Pier Head, we noticed a cruise liner moored up at the Liverpool Cruise Terminal. T noticed the company livery on the funnel and having seen the single word “Black” ……. something or other, decided it was the Fred Olsen ship “Black Watch”. Pat on the back…. correct.

In the photo you can not only see “Black Watch” but the bow of an approaching vessel close to the cruise ship. This turned out to be the fuel tanker…. about to discharge fuel oil to the Fred Olsen ship… a process called “bunkering.”

Here is a red channel marker buoy, C18…. and you can see the tide tail to the left. These “tails” tell you not only the direction of the tidal stream but also the strength and speed of the tide. It is when the buoy starts to tilt…. as when you have a Spring tide…. then you know immediately it is a strong tide.

With the help of the ebb tide we reached the Q1 buoy after two hours…. that is 15 n.miles from the marina lock. Good going. We then departed the shipping channel and informed Liverpool VTS over the radio. The Duty Officer wished us “a safe onward journey” and “good day”. Am impressed with Liverpool VTS service… very reassuring.

Our route now turned north west in a very long tack to the Isle of Man and it’s capital, Douglas. Once again we had to arrive no earlier than a certain time…. in this case it was 9.43 pm…when there was enough water in the inward channel and that a swing bridge would have to be opened for us.

This section of the route was motored all the way… the sea surface was flat calm with an oily, glassy sheen. Poli Poli was on auto pilot nearly all the way…. some 60 n.miles… with minor variations. We passed by a major gas and oil field and had to navigate safely to the east of it. Again this continued the theme of the Liverpool Bay “congestion” feature. Once passed this field we then had to negotiate the “South Morecambe oil and gas field” with supply ships buzzing about between oil and gas platforms. Some had gas flames burning off excess pressure showing as bright lights in the gloom

This is the chart table where all the navigation and “sums” are done before and during sailing. On the table is a paper “hard copy” chart with our route and hourly positions marked on it. You can see the “log book” open… recording our position every hour and to the left of the log book, is the overall “passage plan”. On the screen is an electronic chart showing our actual position, our heading and course line.

Here you can see that we are approaching the harbour of Douglas, on the Isle of Man. The green line is our intended course, whilst the red line is our actual heading. They are apart as a strong tide is pushing the boat northwards ( the blue arrow ). But as we near our destination the two lines will close as the green line is taking into account the effect of the tide. The yellow arrow is the wind. In this case dead ahead.

At about 65 n.miles, we realised that we were going to arrive too early… so from an average speed of just over 7 knots an hour, we pulled the throttle back to five. We finally arrived off the Douglas breakwater at 9.10pm.

We started our VHF Radio communication routine with the Douglas Port Control… informing them of our arrival etc etc. On this occasion we were informed that we must not enter the port as the very fast 30 knots Seacat Isle of Man-Liverpool ferry was about to arrive. We had been for warned that this might be the case… but could see no AIS signal on our screens nor actual visual contact on the horizon.

Then out of the far distant haze…. this “thing” appeared. We did circles well away from its intended track into the harbour. The Seacat is a huge vessel and has to do a 360 degree turn to face outwards before unloading…. so no small craft are allowed anywhere near it!

It is now nearly dark. So “circles” continued for 30 minutes before we were invited on the radio to enter the harbour. We had missed our bridge opening time of 9.45pm…and had to hold station in the approach channel for the next bridge lift at 10.15pm. We moored up at 10.45pm in the dark but still made the pub by 10.50pm for a pint. A long, long day. Rest Day tomorrow, Friday 13th July.

Poli Poli moored in Douglas Marina, Isle of Man… the next day, 13th July,

Total distance for the day: 75.3 n.miles. The longest single day sail to date.

Duration: 10 hours and 30 minutes.

Distance from Eastbourne: 1,152 n. miles.

 

 

 

 

 

A very warm, sunny bright and very dry day. On this day T walked over 20,000 steps some 7 miles…. and Mike the same….. some rest day! So much to do, so much to see.

Firstly, a lovely big full English ( note not Irish or Welsh today )…. but we are back in England and can request English mustard to go with the sausages, bacon and black pudding…. without feeling guilty! This was enjoyed in a restaurant inside the Albert Dock with a fantastic window view of the Liver Building through a gap in the distinctive warehouses.

View of the Liver Building from within the Albert Dock, Liverpool…. breakfast time. The other two iconic buildings can also be seen.

We walked the full length of the river frontage from the marina to Pier Head a number of times on this, our rest day. Who says you don’t get any exercise sailing??? Mike took a big yellow open top tour bus ride of the City to see the main sights ( I had done similar on my previous visit with Margaret and her Dad ). 

Mike disappearing on the top deck.

I visited the hugely successful redevelopment of the Liverpool shopping area known now as Liverpool One. This is a great achievement and done on a magnificent scale… rewarded by the visits of millions of people from all over the world…. not just the shops but to all the iconic landmarks…. including the 60’s music scene. Where ever there is a John Lewis store… and Liverpool is no exception… it is a pleasure…. and a different type of shopping experience. I bought a set of three pens for mapwork!

Mike failed to recognise the statue of Billy Fury ( a Liverpudlian )….so we went to find the four statues of the Beatles over near Pier Head. To my horror they had disappeared. In their place was a huge black wall of a fence…. patrolled by security guards. We spied John, Paul, Ringo and George when we found a crack in the fence. We noticed a huge screen in the fenced off compound. This was to be the setting for the big football match that evening…. the World Cup semi final between Croatia and England. We saw the television cameras in place and the media vans. So Mike did not get to see, at close hand, the “Fab Four” in sculpted form.

We spent most of the afternoon in the new Museum of Liverpool…. and what a treat and marvel this is. Brilliant….. a new way of presenting history…. wonderful stories and insights into the people of the City, their history and their times. And free….. amazing. Photo below is from the Museum… a Roger McGough poem about the Atlantic and Liverpool as a great seaport.

In the evening, we had our supper at the Liverpool Yacht Club by the marina. It was here, sitting outside, we watched England lose in extra time to Croatia. Not doom and gloom at all. They are a young team and will come again.