China Girl, UK Circumnavigation - Year 6

From Cromarty to Inverness, CG's winter home was only 17 miles, the wind was very light, we got 10 minutes of sailing in our last trip of the season but essentially it was a motoring day.

05 September 2024

Cromarthy firth

This is the view from CG looking the other way in Cromarty Firth. No so good.

05 September 2024

Wick to Cromarty in our passage plan was 55 miles, mostly on a heading of about 220 (SSW). The wind had been south-westerly for days and we didn't fancy a 55 mile beat so we delayed and watched the weather like hawks. Eventually a day of Westerlies, not too strong was forecast so we went for it. We [...]

05 September 2024 | Castle of May

Castle of May

Dunrobin Castle and Castle May are both well worth the visit if you are ever up that way. The latter has been kept just as HM The Queen Mother left it the last time she visited in 2001. The lady that introduced us to the castle had been working there since she was a child, she was probably in her 70s. [...]

26 August 2024 | Wick Marina

Bye Bye Orkney

It's time to leave Orkney and head south back to mainland Scotland on our way to our winter base in Inverness. Landfall on the mainland will be Wick. Much thought and head scratching has gone in to this trip: timing, distance, tides and mostly the sodding weather. Perm all these. From where we are [...]

26 August 2024 | Wick Marina

Washing the outboard

From Calf sound a 2 hour trip on the motor to Whitehall in Papa Sound on the northern end of Stronsay. It was mostly upwind and we couldn't be bothered to tack all the way. Two nights on a visitors buoy and a look around the village.

From fog to rain

15 September 2023 | Ballydorn in Strangford Lough, county Down

Ann and Steve Crome

Carrying straight on from the last post. Dun Laoghaire to Skerries was 4 hours on the motor in winds up to only 7 kts, but at least it was dry. Since then our weather luck has changed. Skerries to Carlingford, 6 hours on the motor in rain. Carlingford marina has a very narrow entrance, so much so that it looks like CG won't fit through. Once we got there actually we had about 2 m each side, they effect of perspective. Concentrating so much on getting through we forgot to take a photo.

Carlingford to Ardglass a decent sail, full jib, reefed main, speeds up to 7.5 kts with the wind on the beam. Sea a bit (well more than a bit) lumpy but you can't have everything. Unfortunately the marina entrance was not well protected from the wind and waves and we arrived having had little chance to prepare lines and fenders in protected waters. It was a bit of a slay ride in and a lot of rushing about but we made it with no damage and pride in our achievement.

Ardglass to Strangford Lough. The lough entrance is really narrow and the lough really big so a huge amount of water has to funnel through the narrows every tide. Gives tides up to 8 kts. We came in towards the end of the flood tide doing 10.1 kts over the ground and 3.5 through the water, ie 6.6 kts of tide behind us. (for the less well versed in sailing, had we been going the other way, we would have been going 6.6-3.5=3.1 kts backwards. We were sailing on the jib alone and it was a good feeling to know that not only did we get the tidal calculation right, but we sailed it as well. We carried on up the lough to Ballydorn for about 2 h on the jib at around 4 kts enjoying the beautiful scenery and the sunshine.

Today we are hiding from the rain in Ballydorn roads on a buoy, it's been raining since we woke up and it's forecast to still be raining when we go to bed. Ho hum.

Photo shows the entrance to Ardglass marina. You need to leave the cardinal buoy in the foreground to port (ie go to the right of it as you see it) then swing around to leave the reds to port and the greens to starboard. It's really quite difficult to work this out from several hundred yards away and by the time you get close enough to figure it out you've go to react quite quickly.

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