Cruises – Page 2 – tide by tide

Planning 2025: which islands?

The days are longer, the pilot books have been taken off the shelf, and it’s time to think of this year’s cruise. As a first step in planning, there is nothing better to browse than Hamish Haswell-Smith’s Scottish Islands*.

Haswell-Smith has visited and written about the geology, people and history of every Scottish island, 169 in total by his definition.

The book includes brief mentions of safe anchorages, though not with the essential details of a pilot book or chart. His mission mirrors and complements that of Bob Bradfield, with his personally surveyed Antares Charts of 755 Scottish anchorages.

Haswell-Smith is an excellent preparation ahead of reading up the practical details with our copies of the Clyde Cruising Club pilot books.

With five seasons sailing in Scotland so far, we still have many island omissions, of which the most glaring is the long chain of the Outer Hebrides. We’ve called there only once, mooring for several days a few years ago in the marina at Stornoway on Lewis, where bad weather gave us time to explore by bus before we left for Orkney.

The sensible advice given at the Cruising Association’s excellent Celtic Day meeting in January was that firm plans are a bad idea, given the unpredictability of weather. We’ll decide where to go when we are on board, forecast by forecast, and of course tide by tide.

However, in the right weather, the Outer Hebrides from Mingulay and Barra up to North Uist are where we’d most like to cruise, so that’s what we are reading about at the moment. A secondary objective is to visit the west coast of Skye.

A gleam in the eyes if we are fortunate enough to have a good weather window is St Kilda, 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides.

A much less ambitious subsidiary plan is to visit Canna any day of the week from Wednesday through to Monday: when we arrived last year on a Tuesday we discovered that was the closing day of the much-praised cafe-restaurant.

We have an extra consideration when planning, with neither co-owner in the first flush of youth: creaky joints.

I enjoy the peace of being at anchor. At the seminar I detected a slightly negative view, which I used to share, of those who seek out marinas, pontoons and official moorings.

However, we do not have an electric windlass, which is quite hard and expensive to fit on an old cruiser racer design. The arm-powered anchor winch is the best we can do. It makes sense not to push our luck and our joints too hard. While anchoring is always an option, buoys and pontoons will also be welcome when we find them.

*The Scottish Islands, Hamish Haswell-Smith, Canongate, £40

In search of real seafood

It’s often surprisingly hard to find truly fresh local seafood along the British coast, even though we’re avoiding fishing boats and dodging crab pots all the time.

Prompted by the splendid seafood shack by the Oban ferry terminal, which we’ve visited multiple times on each of our three round Britain cruises, I’ve started this little list of worthwhile places. Suggestions welcome.

Postscript – Autumn sun around Mull, Ulva, Coll, Tiree and Treshnish

After waiting all summer for summer, it finally arrived in Scotland last week, with sun, light winds, and calm blue seas.

*Heading across the Firth of Lorn past the lighthouse to the start of the Sound of Mull*

We were back for the first time since late July. The wind was generally from the east, so it was a good week to see the little islands west of Mull – Treshnish, Ulva, Coll and Tiree, plus a night in beautiful Loch na Droma Buidhe and another in a sheltered gap in the rocks near Iona called Tinkers Hole. For this week, captioned photos tell the story.

Slowboat Round Britain – Kerrera, Spring Fever’s home for a year

We left Tobermory on a grey day, with wind blowing from dead ahead along the Sound of Mull and rain clouds chasing each other across the sky. It was a wet and blowy last 25 miles to our destination, the island of Kerrera on Oban Bay, where we’ve rented a mooring for a year.

Lochalsh, Canna, Tobermory

After watching the European Cup final we stayed, in a not particularly cheerful mood, on the harbourmaster’s pontoon at Kyle of Lochalsh, just across from Skye. Next morning there was some cleaning to do, because Loch Ewe mud from the chain and anchor had left sticky traces on the deck.

Loch Ewe to Kyle of Lochalsh

After a gloomy, cloudy start from Loch Ewe, the sun came out as we turned past the headland of Rubha Reidh and headed south.

With a brisk Force 4 to 5 exactly behind us, we were creaming along under mainsail alone.

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.

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?