Predictions are very difficult to make, especially about the future…weather! (adapted after Y. Berra, 1925-2015)

the strange beauty of a complex low...

The complex low pressure area with its associated frontal systems has been almost stationary the whole time since arriving back to the UK. Not much wind and always from a southerly direction and a lot of wet weather has been the motto of our journey south. Our wet weather gear has not had a chance to dry and started to smell like an old wet dish cloth! With five passengers on board, we also experienced a lot of condensation inside.

Despite all this, spirits were high on board Easy Rider.

From Oban(56º 24’.9N 05º 29’W) we sailed on July 21^st towards Loch Tarbert on the Isle of Jura. Like on the previous days, there was not enough wind to sail until we were entering the anchorage with gusts rushing down the hills to about 20kn.

On the way we passed close to the infamous Gulf of Corryvreckan between the islands of Scarba and Jura, which on that day looked like a peaceful sleeping dragon. Entering the inner Loch Tarbert(55º 57’.69N 06º 00’W), we were supposed to follow three sets of leading lines in order to clear many submerged or semi submerged rocks. These transits were not conspicuous at all (perhaps to avoid too many visitors...?). In fact we wondered whether they were hidden behind the tall ferns. We managed to negotiate the entrance and had a very pleasant night tucked in the southwestern corner of the inner bay at Cairidh Mhor. Christian had a swim in the bay (15deg) and we spent the evening playing a dice game called ‘Yacht’ which was a lot of loud fun. By the time we retired, 5 yachts had come to anchor in the same corner, the only place sheltered from the south. After having been in Scandinavia for such a long time, that seemed like a crowded anchorage to us!

distilleries galore

On July 22^nd we set off very early to catch the ebb tide to sail through the Sound of Islay, which on that day was approaching spring. We were expecting streams of around 5 knots. Our plan was to stop and have enough time to visit the Bunnahabhain distillery on the way in the sound.

The weather on that day was very nice but again with almost no wind and its usual grey. This was a perfect day to visit some distilleries on Islay. We anchored right in front of the distillery even before the visitor’s centre opened (you are not allowed to buy/sell alcohol in Scotland before 10:00). Andy, Sydney and Christian rowed ashore while we minded Easy Rider. On their return they brought some very special bottles for us to taste. We have been tasting whiskies every evening since then.

Sailing down the Sound of Islay with almost no wind was the first real experience for our crew of a very strong tidal stream, for we were doing 9knots over the ground and about 3 knots through the water!

On that lovely day we visited Lagavulin distillery and sailed close past Ardbeg, Laphroaig and Port Ellen distilleries. All these distilleries are difficult to approach as they are all ‘hidden’ amongst piles of rocks. We spent the night in Port Ellen(55º 37’.3N 06º 12’.26W) which is a lovely small town.

fascinating Titanic museum in Belfast

On our last day (23rd July) with Christian and Sydney we sailed to Bangor in Northern Ireland (54º 41’N 05º 40’W) in Belfast Lough. I had been keeping my fingers crossed knowing that we would only be able to cross the Irish Sea between Scotland and Ireland if the weather was right. Their flight was leaving from Dublin early on the 24^th of July and timing was very tight. Fortunately the ‘complex low’ was still hovering around with weak-ish southwesterly winds. Unfortunately for us it meant that we could only sail for a few hours across the North Channel and motor-sail against the spring tide from the northeastern corner of the Irish coast.

Our progress was excruciatingly slow. We knew that we would have to ‘sit out’ the six hours of ebb. At one very brief moment we were doing 7.3 knots through the water (under engine) and 0.2 knots over the ground. I think that we were actually going 0.2 kn backwards. Our only consolation was to see an orca that day. Slowly but surely the ebb eased and by the time we reached Bangor at midnight after 13 hours underway, we had done an average of 5kn as usual! We made it in time for Sydney and Christian to pack up their bags and leave at the crack of dawn on the first bus to Dublin.

We had another 5 days together with Andy to sail to Dublin.

His wish to catch up with his sailing and navigational skills was perfect to figure out the right times and tidal streams to enter Strangford and and Carlingford Loughs. We worked everything out and were all ready to leave at 6:00 to catch the right tide to arrive at Strangford Lough entrance just as the tide would turn (HW Belfast -3:45) and the flood would begin… However the engine would not start! Stephan diagnosed an electrical problem. We had to get an engine specialist to come and help. He 'ran' on a supply of chocolate biscuits, coffee and a dram of good malt whisky, and nice Irish banter. Fortunately we were near Belfast and not anchored in a remote place.

We only missed a day and a half. The problem was quickly dealt with, but we needed a new starter motor solenoid which had to be located and Michael also found out that the starter battery was ‘seriously cooked’. We had to replace that too.

We missed Strangford Lough and sailed to Ardglass (54º 15’.6N 05º35’.9W) in the afternoon on the 26^th of July instead. It is just a few miles further down the east coast from Strangford Lough. It is accessible 24h no matter what state of the tide.

Nothing much happened during that sail, apart from the extraordinary moment when we spotted a sperm whale some distance away. We didn’t see much of Ardglass because we arrived almost in the dark and with very poor visibility and driving rain.

We were drenched to the bone once we had moored. When we looked out early in the morning, the rain had stopped and 5 seals were lounging on the rocks looking at the sailors in the middle of the harbour.

Temple Bar Dublin

The weather again was going to be rainy with poor visibility and weak winds. Suddenly our thought was to skip Carlingford Lough as well and sail straight to Dun Laoghaire (53º 18’.2N 06º 07’.6W) to the southeast of Dublin Bay and have a day to do some sightseeing in Dublin and more importantly a “pub crawl” in Temple Bar. What a pub crawl that was! Wonderful Irish ballads and songs were coming from a lot of bars and on the street and the mood all around was perfect. After some ‘refreshments’ in about 5 pubs, we decided to return to Dun Laoghaire by train.

We left Ireland on the same morning when Andy left (30.7.16). The weather forecast was for 48 hours of northwesterly air flow! After that, another vigorous frontal system would approach from the southwest bringing strong southerly or southeasterly winds to the Celtic Sea by the 1^st of August. So, after some considerations underway whether to sail to Milford Haven in Wales or Kilmore Quay some 86M south of Dublin, we spontaneously decided to sail all the way to Falmouth. The Celtic Sea is not a good place to get caught in strong southerly winds and we had some 48 hours to sail to Falmouth.

At first, the wind started to blow gently from…you guessed it: from the south. But after 12 hours at 21:30 it strengthened to NW4. We could finally switch off the engine and sail through the whole night. It was an extraordinary sail down the St. Georges Channel on a starry night. We hadn’t seen such a clear sky for weeks. The night went by so quickly watching the moon rise and the stars get brighter and later the sun rise but also the shipping come through the traffic separation scheme off the tip of Wales and the Smalls.

The perfect wind continued through the morning, reaching NW4-5, but gradually it backed to the SW 3. We were at that point crossing the Bristol Channel and the Celtic Sea. The Atlantic swell was making the waves steep and rather confused. The light wind was being spilled out of the sails at every wave. We had to help with the engine a bit to have a more comfortable ride.

We reached Land’s End as the clouds were slowly gathering in the west. It was like a textbook description of an approaching frontal system.

rounding Land's End early evening

Although the tide was not quite perfect around Land's End we rounded Longships lighthouse with quite turbulent waters and were sailing eastwards towards the Lizard at about 19:00. The wind had dropped almost completely. By the time we entered Falmouth at 03:00 it started to rain. We anchored right in front of Pendennis Marina and waited the next day to ask for a mooring.

Looking back at this wonderful last sail which took 44 hours (266M) the most memorable moments were sailing through pods of dolphins. We had never seen so many dolphins in our lives ! At times, around 20 dolphins were accompanying us on our way, overtaking, turning in front of the boat, diving under and surfacing on the other side of the boat. You could almost touch them! You could see them rushing from a distance to meet us. Around Land’s End, there was a spectacular display of feeding birds and dolphins, the sea birds darting into the water and creating a big splash and the dolphins jumping out of the water.

Now that we have reached the end of this year’s journey back to the UK, we have looked into our logbook. We have sailed 1,400M in 8 weeks underway this year alone.

This will be our last posting for 2016. Thank you to all those who have followed our blog!

PS: Easy Rider will now have a bit of TLC in Falmouth after eight years travelling through the Baltic and Norway.