Dolphins, whales, seals, birds – wind, waves, rain and sun, this last week had them all.

‘Does everything it says on the tin and more’
‘Excellent company, much learning and even more fun’

We left Plymouth on our 500 nm passage to Oban in sunshine and light winds.  After a day sail to Fowey for our first day, we headed south towards Lizard Point, motoring in the still light winds.  There was an unusual dark line on the sea ahead of us, and as we were motoring we set off to investigate.  We found the sea teeming with dolphins, a pod of 100 or more were playing follow the leader so we joined in too.  There were obviously quite a few mother and babies, who kept very close together and plenty of playful teenagers as well!  After an hour of running with the dolphins and filling memory cards with photographs we decided to head south again on our passage, only to find the dolphins then followed us.  It is really hard to describe the sheer wonder of watching nature at work; we have some great video, which I am trying to load at the moment.  The link will be here soon!

As we rounded the Lizard the wind filled in and our passage to Lands End was fast, we rounded late afternoon doing 9 knots, and had to put a reef in during dinner! A good lesson as to why we eat in shifts.  As we continued north into our first night and the Bristol Channel, the strong wind and bumpy sea claimed a few casualties.  The strong wind stayed all the first night and then gradually reduced to a peaceful force 3 to 4.  After 24 hours, we had all recovered from seasickness and settled in to the watch system and enjoying the sailing. With 4 people on each watch there was even time to warm up down below in the cold part of the nights.  The Irish Sea was busy, with fishing boats, ships, ferries and other yachts to look out for.  At night our bow wave and wake glowed with phosphorescence and we were treated to more visits from dolphins, they looked like approaching torpedoes with a large green streak behind them.

There are many tidal gates here, but on passage we had to take the tides as they came. Sometimes our speed over the ground was 10 knots other times it was reduced to 3.  We knew we had to make good an average of 4 knots and so we were constantly working out the sums.

Only when we were round the Mull of Kintyre did we have the luxury of thinking about stopping for a night.  With time in hand we realised we could afford one stop as long as we were within spitting distance of Oban.  After considering the options we settled on the tiny village of Port Askaig, in the sound of Islay.  I remembered this very small but picturesque harbour from my days with the Ocean Youth Club 20 years ago.   Then, we used to tie up on the Cally Mac ferry berth and Reeds confirmed that this was still possible.  We arrived to discover that the pier has recently been refurbished to take bigger ferries, and so the large fendering made getting ashore one of the challenges of the week.  Dave managed to clamber along a gap in the fendering and set off to chat up the landlord in the pub for the loan of a boarding plank. Currently there are 9 whiskey distilleries on Islay, one no more than half a mile from the boat, so it was imperative that we could reach the pub to try the whisky.

After a peaceful night alongside, an early start saw us leaving Port Askaig at 5 am, to catch the tide north, just as the sun was rising.  Beautiful.  We headed towards Colonsay, reported to have a puffin colony, found no puffins but loads of razor bills, seals, porpoises and a very large minke whale, all this before breakfast.  We stayed with the whale for about half an hour catching glimpses of it as it surfaced whilst enjoying its own breakfast.

Our early start gave us time to detour up the sound of Mull and anchor in Duart bay for lunch before arriving in Dunstaffnage for dinner.  605 nm by the log was something to celebrate as every one on board had come along to build up their miles.  We were slightly put out to discover that the pub in the marina was shut, but not to be deterred from celebrating we made a dash out to the local shop for supplies and had our own lively party on board.

Sailing is a great way to meet new people and make friends, and our neighbours assumed we had known each other for ever!

We write our sailing programmes often over a year in advance, so it is all a guess really what the weather will be like.  Wanting to avoid ‘notorious September gales’ we decided to head back from Norway to Scotland in August in the hope of good weather. 

Bodo to Oban is over 1000nm and  instead of ‘dashing across the North Atlantic Ocean’, we decided to programme in a longer trip and break the passage down by cruising along the coast of Norway, visiting the Shetland Islands and then sailing amongst the Scottish Islands to Oban. 

Even with the breaks, this trip proved to be ‘harder than expected’!  Any passage across open water is entirely weather dependant and as we found the weather can change dramatically over the course of a few hours. 

It only took us 48 hours from Alesund to Lerwick, but in those 48 hours we had wind, rain, lightening, fog, flat calm and finally big waves.  In the midst of our crossing we went through an oil and gas rig field, with the rigs looming up out of the fog like alien beings!  It was an amazing sight when the fog cleared, the rain stopped and we could see rigs all around us!

The Shetland Islands welcomed us with much better weather, and we ended our passage by tacking all the way up to the harbour in flat water and sunshine.

On all our long passages, the main objective is to get to our destination in time.  Our guests  have trains to catch and jobs to get back to, we have Velvet Lady to look after and prepare for her next group. With an ear on the forecast and an eye to the distance we had left to travel we realised that we would have to push on south and try and round Cape Wrath before the arrival of a pending south westerly gale.  For 3 days the wind came and went, the log book reads, wind dying – bigger sails; wind increasing – reefed sails; wind easing – bigger sails; wind increasing – reefed sails; wind increasing more – very tiny sails and so on!

We changed our plan of heading to Stornaway and headed for the shelter of the Isle of Skye, here in a much flatter sea we sailed in the sunshine admiring the views.  With everyone tired from the watch system it was a great relief to anchor in Plockton.  With yet another gale warning in force, we spent a day here playing scrabble, reading and catching up on sleeping and eating. 

The weather and tide were in our favour for the last trip south, Plockton to Oban, under the Skye bridge, south through Kyle Rhea, and along the sound of Mull.  We finally arrived in Dunstaffnage marina, only to find blow of all blows that the pub was shut for a wedding!

After a quick dash to the local shop to stock up, we had our very own Welcome to Scotland party aboard Velvet Lady.  1091 miles for the log book and lots of experiences to think about in the future.

This year Oban is our stepping stone on the trip North from Plymouth to Norway.  The last time I was here was 18 years ago, and although I remember  this part of Scotland as being really pretty, my memory doesn’t quite do it justice.  The scenery is just fantastic and I can’t help thinking that we should spend more time here in future years!

We chose as our base Dunstaffnage Marina, nestled in a small bay outside the tiny village of Dunbeg it is a mere 3 miles north of Oban.  The view from the saloon window is stunning, across the bay to Dunstaffnage Castle, and the view from the castle is just as stunning across the bay to the marina.

Our trip from Plymouth northwards last week started in fog, which was to last up all the way up the Irish Sea to Bangor, Northern Ireland.  We must have settled ourselves under the centre of the low pressure, and moved with it all the way north.  We became very adept at spotting things on the radar!  We were lucky to be joined by 3 different types of dolphins and a few pilot whales as we motored along.

Once the fog had cleared, and given way to easterly winds, we enjoyed a fantastic sail north,  past the Mull of Kintyre at dusk doing 12 knots over the ground and up through the sound of Gigha, Sound of Jura and Sound of Luing.  We covered 140 breath taking miles in just 19 hours, and having benefitted from the flood tide at the Mull of Kintyre, caught the next flood tide through the Sound of Luing.  Reaching at 8 knots in the dark between the islands, especially those which are unlit kept Richard and I on our toes with the navigation.  It was slack water as we approached Corryvreckan, and although I have to admit to being slightly tempted we decided not to try the passage through.  The passage through the narrows at the Sound of Luing was challenging enough as we dodged shallow patches at 10 knots.  The sun was just rising, making fantastic photo opportunities for all.

After 3 days in Dunstaffnage, we are now full of water, food, fuel and gas and ready for our passage northwards first to the Faroes and then the Lofoten Islands.  The weather looks favourable for the first week which will see us well on the way.  There are now only 7 places left for our summer season in the Lofoten Islands so book soon to avoid disappointment!