PDR – Page 2 – tide by tide

Inverewe Gardens

Cruising down the West Coast – Kinlochbervie, Lochinver, Loch Ewe

We’ve done our main delivery trip: after passing Cape Wrath, Spring Fever is now cruising among the lochs and islands of the west of Scotland on the way down to Oban, which will be the boat’s home for a year.

There are hundreds of anchorages and dozens of harbours, with shelter from any given wind direction always in reasonably easy reach. We’re no longer trying to maximise the sea miles every day and are looking instead at a less strenuous 30 to 50 miles a day.

*Early morning, Kinlochbervie*, *the fishing port just south of Cape Wrath, where we stay*ed *two nights*

Kirkwall to Cape Wrath and south again

By great good fortune, the wind started coming from the east just as we were planning to head for the famous headland of Cape Wrath away to the West. What could have been a hard-working 90 mile battle into the wind to Cape Wrath and south to Kinlochbervie became an exhilarating down-wind ride.

Kirkwall, Skara Brae and Ness of Brodgar

Skara Brae, a fishing and farming village more than 5,000 years old, is a must on any visit to Orkney. The houses have stone furniture, and the winding paths between them were roofed. It can be reached easily from Kirkwall on an hourly local bus service.

Pentland Firth to Orkney

The next leg from Wick to Kirkwall in Orkney required careful preparation, because we needed to cross close to the Eastern end of the notorious Pentland Firth.

This has ferocious tides but, more seriously, is peppered with rocks and deep underwater reefs that create enormous turbulence. Ships, even the navy, are wary of the Firth. In some conditions it can be deadly for small craft.

*We crossed just to the east of the Pentland Skerries*

Peterhead to Wick

The 75 miles across the Moray Firth from Peterhead to Wick was a reminder of how long the North Sea has been a source of energy wealth. We passed close to a huge deep-water wind farm and near another big one under construction. Close by there was an old oilfield from 1980, called Beatrice, which was exhausted and shut down 7 years ago. Nearby Captain, a small field discovered in 1977, is still operating.

A *shaft of sun on the water, with a rainy Wick harbour in the di*stance.

Whitby to Peterhead

After leaving Whitby, we had more light winds on the Yorkshire and Northumberland coasts as far as Amble in Northumberland. However, we arrived just before the first strong winds of the cruise – too strong, in fact, because they kept us there several days.

It was no penance, because the countryside is beautiful and we found plenty to do. Warkworth castle is well worth visiting, and there is a lovely coastal path to the seaside village of Alnmouth, with a frequent bus back to Amble.

Slowboat Round Britain – Orwell to Whitby

Light winds again, just like our passage up the Channel. In the last couple of days, we’ve probably beaten all our past records for motor sailing.

We left Woolverstone, passed Pin Mill in a calm and headed down the Orwell, finding wind eventually for about half the first leg. It was a bright and sunny 40 miles from Harwich to Lowestoft along the low-lying but beautiful Suffolk coast. With a near-spring tide carrying us along, Spring Fever reached 9 knots over the ground at times as we passed Aldeburgh and Southwold.

Transadriatica 2024

This year’s race from Venice to Novigrad and back felt like two different events. The first leg outwards was a hard-working disappointment, while the return home was a fast and enjoyable sail in mostly fine weather that more than made up for the earlier frustrations.

On the way out to Novigrad, only three boats out of 30 entrants managed to finish the overnight race, and everyone else withdrew part way through. The challenges that defeated most of the fleet were a combination of a north-east wind, a change in the course and the gradual then complete disappearance of the wind not long after dawn.

*Fine weather at the evening start but wind from a* *difficult* direction

Slowboat round Britain – off we go

Some people race non-stop round Britain. Others sail 2,000 miles in a frantic six weeks cruise over one summer. We left Cowes a few days ago and won’t be back before autumn 2025. With so much to see, what’s the point of rushing?

Ready to go

Spring Fever has had the topsides polished, the bottom antifouled, the engine serviced and an overhaul of the electronics. She hasn’t looked as smart for quite a while.

Sea songs

There were pained faces among sailors on yachts nearby and even among some fellow crew members whenever a very good friend brought out his squeezebox of an evening, to sing his repertoire of classic sea shanties. It was all too clearly an uncool thing to do on a modern plastic yacht.

More on pronouncing bowsprit

My post from four years ago about the pronunciation of the word bowsprit still seems to be getting quite a bit of attention, judging by the number of times it’s consulted. I wrote that I don’t think rhyming the first syllable with ‘cow’ is authentic, though that’s how most people pronounce it nowadays.

Somehow or other, pronunciation of this word touches on a nerve, drawing out the pedant in all of us. So here’s more grist to the mill:

Lazy sailing for oldies

Tiredness is dangerous at sea, and it creeps up faster as we grow older, so we need to think hard about how best to avoid it. Having good equipment is obviously vital, but top of my list of priorities is not hardware but changing our attitude to the challenges of weather and sea. We must take the lazy option, and stay where we are if it looks too much like hard work out there.

Toppled boats

Here is a view of Kingston yard in Cowes last week, the day before Spring Fever was due to be brought ashore.