TopCat Scotland and back 2015

Great sailing, great multihull training ! Heres a few pictures from a trip taking us from Plymouth along both south and north coasts of Cornwall, Over to Lundy thence to south Wales. Buryport, over to southern Ireland
( Arklow, Wicklow, Houth) Northern Ireland too.  Annalong, Strangford lough.  Over to Portpatrick on the Mull of Galoway. Into the firth of Clyde via AilsaCraig, Campbelltown on the Mull of kintyre, loch Ranza on Arran, Kyles of Bute then a crew change in largs.

That was just to get north. Heading south again took in the  Ilse of Man, Menai straight ( where we got stuck in Caernarfon for two days! grr. the bar is atrocious ) back via the Scilly’s. What a summer!

You get a little more with Top Cat. No we don’t swan around the Solent. These are  true Cruising courses. Passage planning big time. Real passage making. Every harbour is one I probably, have never seen!

careful with that crowbar!

hope they come back for me?

beam anchor Porth Clais

We’ve been busy this winter to say the least! Yes there’s a lot more to sailing than sailing. eg engines replaced

Mago Merlino our catamaran was slipped in early November after her mast is lowered and placed on supports on deck for the winter in the shed.
Old engines removed.

Lots of cutting of GRP! Lots of mess.

Shafts and P brackets fitted and new engines for 2015 season.

Why? Sail drives are good for one thing. The boat builder. They are easy to install. We always wanted a shaft drive training boat but couldn’t find one! Sail drives waste power, leak and corrode if you are not very careful with anodes. Shafts just work

All went well and she’s back in the water and Flying! With her new motors and even better, Darglow feather stream props so no drag when sailing.

Dolphin, Sun fish and sun burn! Along with fantastic training. Blue seas, warm winds and we even had a race or two! The Pasab ( Penzance to Scilly and back)

In June Geoff, Tony, and Andy took me to the Channel islands and Sark was beautiful! Wonderful sailing. Every sail out of its bag in a week. Sail back via burgh island and beer in the Pilchard

In July we had Richard, Marcus and Helen and Mike on a Cornish cruise then Mark and Family on a seven day trip down the Penzance.

Its not always Man over board drills!

The trip home was great. We took in Scilly then cruised back via Mullion, Helford, Falmouth, Mevagissey, Fowey and Polperro. Don’t remember starting the engine! Thanks to Theirry, Marie, Perry and Gareth. Well done folks Good Day Skips.

at the bottom of this post you’ll see the results from our little venture into racing. Yes we won!. Mago and her crew sailed wonderfully.

Leg one Light airs all the way so I thought we would be terrible. ( Mago weighs in about 8 tons so no light weight flier). However we tried VERY hard and it turns out we won 2 and were 2nd once.
Only a small fleet on Multi’s but racing with a huge fleet of monos was fun too

reaching at 13 knots

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!

A fine time had by all on the Norway trip. Here’s a few photos to wet your appetite

Thanks to all for joining me on a great adventure. As I remember it a fairly easy day to Salcombe and anchored in Sunny cove. Geoff in for a swim already.

Over night anchored in Frogmore creek.

0600 Light airs of 2 to 3 out of the west and south west took us over to Portland and thence with the kite up to tie alongside at Yarmouth IOW about 2200

Caught the tide early next day for a run through the Solent. Spinnaker run all the way! Ran out of east going tide at Littlehampton so Chris took us in and alongside. Hell of a tidal run through there! A couple of hours kip then off again with loads more wind! a bit of reefing practice and a flat out run towards Beachy. Good sailing until about 1900 when wind fell out and we were motoring into the night. Caught the tide perfectly and carried all the way to Ramsgate. A good baptism for our new watch keepers with all the Dover traffic in the dark.

Waiting for tide the following morning was taken up with practice in coming alongside techniques then away for Harwich. Impressive wind farm arrays of the Thames estuary. Flat seas and light airs out of East and South east. Some Spinnaker work again but also motor sailing. ( got to get there on this trip) Made Harwich on the tide and had a peaceful night moored up the Stour. Time to kill in the morning so mooring drills sailing on and off. a bit of shopping at Half penny Pier then off again for lowestoft. Huge tide, perfect wind , kite up again.

Day off in Lowestoft waiting for gale to blow through, “Big” shop and Harry up the mast to fit some more baggy’s.

Colin joined us and Geof left and we are away across the North sea. Short sea for a start and force 6 so fast and furious but made good progress over shallow east coast sands with huge tide against the wind. Once we were 20 miles off things got easier and we just flew! Memories of the crossing for me? Spinnakers, Dolphin, Huge lightning show. Didn’t get dark, red sky all night. Tired. Oil rigs everywhere! Generally good weather and wide horizons. Sleeping in ear defenders grr!

Fish every day!

Of course it had to turn sour on landfall. Yes wind was up at force six drizzle mist and huge ships anchored out there in the dark. skerries (scary’s!) everywhere. Really good training session on night entry though! Bad vis big sea and strong winds even had me a bit jumpy. So 435 miles by the log from lowestoft saw us tied up in down town Stavangar at 0300 UK DST (0500 Norway time)
We thought we had the time wrong. Stavangar was still awake! cafes open , folk strolling. Harry just had to go off immediately and buy a Norwegian ice cream sandwich! Noisy nightlife but I suspect we all slept like babies anyway!

Stavangar is an oil town and huge rig supply boats sit incongruously with beautiful clapboard houses and cobbled streets

Customs cleared we hit the fjord and wow! Huge. Cant describe them you just have to be there! I simply remember spectacular scenery and grins on faces. Waterfall showers! Fish every day!

Cliffs are immense