May 13 – 20 Plymouth – Penzance

A great sucess! Well done Paul with the Yachtmaster Coastal exam pass!

Mousehole ( Mowzel)

Lunch?

Loved Mounts bay. Struth a tight fit into Porthleven!

St Michel’s mount harbour a real treat.

May 23rd – 1st June. 10 nights.

Penzance – Oban. Scotland

Wow what great catamaran adventure sailing trips ! Lands ends, Bitches, ( St Davids head) Isle of Man, Portpatrick (Little birds in the quay.) Mull of kintyre ( Twins up and flat out through the North channel! Not a cloud!)

Rich. Well done with the yachtmaster coastal pass!

June 11th – 17th/18th. 7 days.

Oban – Orkney

A week cruising the beautiful islands of Inner and outer Hebrides. Mull, Skye. Round Cape Wrath! You needed your black out pads though. Sailing up at that latitude in June you can watch the sunset all night till it turns into sunrise.

Oh you missed a treat here! Blew old boots in England but we had easy weather and cloudless skies in the main. My memories are the remotest pub in the UK! in Loch Nevis. The Cullins and Torridon with no cloud! Old men of Stoer, and Heoy, Breakfast in the Summer Isles

7th July -17th Kirkwall – Shetland – Burgen Norway

Puffins in the breeding season splendour.

Wow what a trip! After a beat north through the Orkneys with shake down manoeuvres. (Headsl changing, MOB drill, reefing etc) A night waiting out the gale on Sanday ( good excuse to watch Wimbledon) A fetch in force six to Fairisle. Beautiful island, friendly folk and no place to anchor! eek! No worries though, the locals had long since cemented a ring into an off lying rock, which Rich and Artem made good use of!

Wind obliged and backed NNW so another close reach over to Shetland and Lerwick, which was buzzing with Yachts and cruise ships. Rafted next to a Faeroese power cruiser. Pick up Mark , food and diesel and away north through the Isles. Still fairly brisk winds but sheltered water sailing up to Symbister for a night among huge fishing vessels. Then north again, but gear failure forced a stop in Burra voe with its very interesting shower block? ( up side down lifeboat as a roof. waste not want not in Shetland) Afraid we had to spend an afternoon with the forestay in bits, but that’s sailing.

Gallery

We thought we were wide enough for this entrance but these guys wern’t phased.

Next the main event. Our misfortune with the furler gave the wind time to Back further and decrease and we had a lovely flat sea and a Beam wind for our north sea passage.

Not too tricky hey folks? Though Art got a bit rough with Mago’s loo roll holder. So that’s Geoff in carpenter mode.

Fast trip across, if my memory serves me correct it was about 24 hours. Oil rigs everywhere and just as we thought we were over – A survey vessel with 5 miles of cable out the back so a 5 mile detour grr!. A quick stop for some kip then over night in Vikingsvag. Perfect peace which we richly deserved! Over the next few days we sailed south down Norways Inshore channels. Tight fit or what!?

Bergen is wet there’s no denying that! I’v never seen rain like it. However its a vibrant city with lots going on and lots to see. A great place to finish up.

7th – 17th August Stavangar – SW Norway – Holland – Ramsgate

Best way of missing the Olympics that I could think of!

A lovely first day down the Lysefjord to see pulpit rock and the rest of the huge cliffs.( and the obligatory shower under a waterfall!) But weather said go. ( and you MUST listen to it) So off we headed to sea and to Tanager on the west coast. We planned on Egersund but were seduced by flying along under spinnaker at ten knots so stood on for the Frisian isles. Yes I know, its a bit off track! but weather was NW and going to veer SE so we had to get south. Great sailing with either the kite or twins for three days. Clarinet serenade every evening on my courses of course! Andy on his horn in the middle of the north sea.

So south to Vleiland in the Dutch Islands

We thought we were wide enough for this entrance but these guys wern’t phased. No course is complete without these guys! Dolphin for hours

All safe and sound in Ramsgate after a 130 miler. Motored half and then we got the promised south east then flew a kite till we got to the entrance channel . Wind farms and traffic schemes being my memory of the southern north sea.

Back down channel was a bit harder. Beat to Dover. Motor in the fog to Folkstone ( radar packed up so we had to anchor to fix it) Good anchorage behind Dungeoness while we waited for the tide. Sovereign harbour entrance in the dark was a hard one for Phil.
A full nights kip! luxury.

Hard day after though with a beat to Chichester and we were stuffed by the tide on Selsey bill. ( Anyone who’s been there will know what I mean. Hard graft) No worries we got round and a screaming dark hours entry into Chichester for a peaceful night hiding behind Pilsey island.

Dutch Square rigger mid channel

Supposed to be heading for Benbridge for breakfast but got lost again and ended up in Cherbourg for tea. Great day close reaching at 8 and 9 knots and guess what we saw!? mid channel on a blue day with not a cloud. What a privilege to behold.

Again a peaceful anchorage then off again for Guernsey with a massive spring ebb in the Alderney race. Hardly a breath of wind but still a scary place. learned a lot about real tidal vectoring that day! 5 knots boats speed and 11 over the ground. Well done Tom getting us into the anchorage past Platte Fougere.

0400 Yawn! Anchor up. Full main and spinnaker. More wind so twin headsls. More wind again so drop main. More wind, one headsl! But we’d tied up in mayflower marina in 12 hours. Yes 12! Mago might look like a cart horse, but can she run!