Category Archives: Personal sailing travel blog

Another day of passing pine forrest covered mountains with the occasional small town along the way, very pretty indeed. We again spotted the same submarine as yesterday, this time with escort. We watched it glide past us on its way to Faslane, we were safely alongside in the marina at Helensburgh. The marina has justContinue reading “Monday 3rd August 2020 – Kames Bay (Bute) to Helensburgh – 18nm – 3hrs”

Woke to a perfect wind direction, 13W, sailed off the anchor this morning and headed to the island of Bute. Being in the Firth of Clyde we had joked about seeing a submarine, low and behold we saw one on the horizon. It didn’t show up on AIS or radar and totally camouflaged grey againstContinue reading “Sunday 2nd August 2020 – Lamlash to Kames Bay (Bute) – 29nm – 5 hrs”

Last night we watched a carrier dock with a cargo of wind turbine blades, doesn’t sound terribly exciting but the size and shaping of each blade up close was incredible. We took another stroll around town and had an OK Indian meal at the Taj Mahal on the sea front; we timed it right beingContinue reading “Saturday 1st August 2020 – Campbeltown to Lamlash (Arran) – 30nm – 7 hrs.”

Last night two other boats joined us in the anchorage but it was too choppy to take the dinghy over and splice the mainbrace with them. This morning there was a temporary break through the cloud and in one direction there was a definite glimmer of sunshine. The hills look much more inviting now thatContinue reading “Friday 31st July 2020 – Campbeltown at anchor”

Re-fuelled at 0730 then sailed away from Bangor on calm seas with the sun trying to break through the clouds, no rain at that time. From the little we saw of Bangor, the third largest City in Northern Ireland and its largest Marina, the seafront was clean, unspoilt and popular with holiday makers. The FerrisContinue reading “Wednesday 29th July 2020 – Bangor (NI) to Campbeltown (Kintyre, Scotland) – 49nm 9hrs”

The facilities at Bangor marina are very good and spotlessly clean, we got a machine load of washing done then walked into town and found an Asda to stock up the cupboards. The wind is blustery here and it’s raining, so not great for sight seeing. Mick Lynn, a former ‘Poacher’ lives 45 mins awayContinue reading “Tuesday 28th July 2020 – day ashore in Bangor”

It was a good decision to hug the Irish coastline because the conditions were more favourable than offshore; however the sea was still very confused with some fairly large waves – so glad we weren’t on ‘Princess Matilda’ with Timothy Spall! Erring on the side of comfort we put away the mainsail, reefed the foresailContinue reading “Monday 27th July 2020 – Arklow (Eire) to Bangor (Northern Ireland) – 128nm – 22hrs”

We were very grateful to the Arklow HM for allowing us to go alongside and get a good night’s sleep while the winds calmed down. Eire is still closed to visitors but we agreed to stay onboard and leave in the morning, so all good. We left at 1030. Although the various forecasts for windContinue reading “Sunday 26th July 2020 – Arklow on route to Bangor”

Had a good night’s sleep and this morning motored over to Porthcressa to re-stock with fresh meat and veg. The weather forecast for the Isles of Scilly isn’t looking great so we took the decision to head north, may as well be sailing and get soaked as sit at anchor getting wet. The wind directionContinue reading “Friday 24th July 2020 – Old Grimsby to Porthcressa to Arklow, Eire”