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.

Here we go again

30 May 2024 | Kerrera Marina, Oban Bay

Ann and Steve Crome | Sunny at the moment

Hi all. Sorry not to have posted for so long. We're off on our trip from Troon via the Outer Hebrides and the Orkneys to finish in Inverness in September. We may go to Shetland if the weather gods are kind. We plan to get to Stornaway at the top of the Outer Hebrides on Lewis Island by early July and come home for a few days.

We left Troon on 24 May with Steve Arnold joining us as crew and have travelled via Sanda Island, Gigha Island, Loch Tarbert on Jura and Puilladolbhain to Oban where we dropped Steve off to get the train home. Two really good sailing days, Sanda to Gigha (32 miles in 6.5 h) and L Tarbert to Puilladolbhain (33 miles in 6.5h, mostly using the cruising chute). The rest was all motoring due to too little wind for the distance to be covered. Not much wildlife seen, just a couple of seals and the usual array of seabirds.

CG just relieved us of another £150 for a replacement engine battery. Gary from the boatyard has this amazing device that you connect to the battery and it does a health check. Unfortunately our engine battery said 'replace' in a big red banner. On the plus side, the two batteries that run the bow thruster (and possibly the anchor winch, not sure) both came out as fine.

We leave Kerrera Marina in Oban Bay tomorrow for an overnight in Tobermory and then on to Coll.

Photo shows a really peaceful evening in Puilladolbhain anchorage 8 miles south of Oban.

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