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.

A bit of everything.

28 June 2024 | Stornoway inner marina

Ann and Steve Crome | Mostly rain with dry bits

Here we are in Stornoway preparing to fly home next Wednesday (3 July) and hoping to get a walk around the castle fitted in between the showers. Which brings me to the weather...

My moans about the cold were partially assuaged for a few days and I actually broke out my summer kit for a few days. Not as extreme as shorts though. Back to really chilly now though. The winds have been everything from motoring weather to hiding from a gale.

That said, we have found several days of about the right amount of wind from a reasonable direction and our total sailing hours for the trip so far are 56 compared to 51 motoring, so pretty good (usually its about 60% motoring).

Picking up from the last blog. We left Tarbert on Harris on 20th to cross the Minch to the mainland to Staffin Bay on Skye, aka the middle of nowhere. Full sails, reefed sails, motor on, repeat, 8 hrs of every type of wind; a great day. Next day from Staffin to Loch Shieldag which is in The Gairloch on the mainland. Jib only, 19 kts of wind on the beam, 5.5 to 6 kts another great sail. Next day we moved within Gairloch to Badacho Bay, 2 miles on the motor. Both very pretty places, no 4G. 23rd, Gairloch to L Ewe, wind, no wind, motor on, off, but mostly off; 25 miles in 5.5 h in mostly SUNSHINE the real rare commodity of the trip so far. From there two days later to the Summer Isles near Ullapool. Very pretty.

The weather is building, the forecast is for a gale in Rockall which is several hundred miles SW of us but it's heading our way. Forecast for a gale in our area, Hebrides, in 24 h. We abandoned our plan for our next trip to be to a remote bay back across the Minch on N Harris and fled to Stornoway. Another interesting 7 hour 33 mile day. Cruising chute, white sails, motor when the wind died. We got in a quarter hour too late to avoid the rain that had been chasing us across as the front approached and got soaked. But a good day nevertheless.

So here we are in Stornoway now until we fly home on then 3rd, back on the 11th then off around the top of Scotland to Orkney and maybe Shetland.

Photo shows the view across Loch Shieldag. CG is the one closest to the exact centre of the photo (i think!)

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