A decent sail at last!

We left Peel at 7am. The wind was very light in the harbour and I changed up to the No. 1 jib. Probably the wrong place to make the decision but it turned out to be a good one.

We got the sails up in the outer harbour, near the visitor's buoys and headed straight out. It's roughly 28 nm to the edge of Strangford Lough and just a little north of west. We didn't want to get there until the tide turned in our favour, but being late wouldn't be too much of a problem.

The forecast was for southerly winds, maybe with some west in them, F5 at first and then dropping.

That turned out to be pretty accurate and, once clear of St Patrick's Isle we had rather more than we needed with all plain sail. But a deep reef in the main went in really easily and we let the staysail halyard off and the boat balanced nicely. The sea state was a bit lumpy but nothing to knock us back and Robinetta set herself in the groove at around 4½ knots. After an hour, I took the helm from Alison and felt the wind had dropped enough to set the staysail properly again and we carried on as a proper cutter. We took turns hour on hour all the way across. The sea state was worst near Man and was pretty flat after that.

In the middle, a cargo ship came south doing a very good impression of being on a collision course. We watched and watched and it looked like we might pass ahead of her but wisdom prevailed and I came off the wind to pass her port-to-port and go behind. We got and returned friendly waves with the crew on the bridge. It was really close!

Then we had a little rain - several dozen drops. After that the wind dropped a fair bit and we shook the reefs out of the main. It really was a cracking sail all the way.

The timing worked out perfectly as well. As we got to the Strangford Lough safe water mark we saw a yacht coming out on the last of the ebb but we never felt the tide against us. In fact the same yacht turned around and came back in again with us.

We hit about 7½ knots coming through the Routen Wheel, on almost a dead run with the tide strengthening under us and then put the engine on as we got near the twin beacons of Gowland's rock and Salt Rock. We could stem the tide easily so our speed must have been wind as much as tide powered. We got the sails down and motored into the marina. As expected, the marina didn't respond on either VHF or phone, but we got a grand welcome anyway and were helped in to a berth.

The best sail so far this year. That's what passage making should be like. None of this motoring into headwinds.

Time in port

Having arrived in the small hours of Tuesday morning I spent the next couple of  days relaxing and attending the Yn Chruinnaght music festival. Julian however was busier. The Peel chandler did have an appropriate bilge pump; it was even the direct replacement for our old one. However the design had changed slightly so there was work to be done to fit it in place so the pipe work did not leak. The one we had ordered online also arrived, so now we have a spare for the next time the pump goes.

When we switched on the running lights while heading to Peel the port one did not come on. At under 7m we are not legally required to have anything except on all round white, but it is better to have the full set. The connector had corroded, but Julian easily fixed this by shortening the power lead and using gel crimps to connect the lamp and the power. Of course this means we will need to cut the lead to remove the lamp, but at least it now works.

We plan to leave Peel on a 7am bridge lift on Monday morning, after all the festivities are over. Meanwhile we have enjoyed our holiday here!

A late start instead

 Monday dawned very damp, not that I noticed. I was laid up in bed with a migraine which did not begin to lift until nearly 10. I was in no fit state to head out, even though Julian did suggest we could leave at moon and be in Peel in time for the overnight flapgate lowering. However after a wander round Portpatrick in the drizzle I was beginning to feel better, and agreed we could head out, as long as Julian did not expect me to do anything except helm.

We cleared the harbour by 12:30 and set off down the coast. The tide was against us, but a gentle North West breeze meant it was worth getting the sails up. The drizzle faded, and the sun came out for the first time this trip. Even though the chart plotter was predicting we would not reach Peel until 8am I phoned Peel and said we could be arriving for the overnight opening of the flapgate, and they gave us a berth number so we knew where we should tie up. By 17:00 we were at the south end of the Mull, with wind over tide, but not much wind, and a slackening tide so while we noticed the overfalls they were simple to navigate.

Julian was pumping out the bilges every hour, and there was never too much to do. It helped that there was no rain.

A large pod of common dolphins came past, seemingly in hunting mode although they did play around Robinetta for about 5 minutes.

Once the tide turned in our favour we were making a steady 4.5 knots, touching 5 occasionally, and our predicted arrival time came down to 03:30, when the flap gate would be closing. We needed some time in hand, and we got it, arriving in Peel bay at 24:30. A VHF call to Peel Harbour master (answered by Douglas as Peel only works between 9 and 5) had them lifting the bridge for us and checking we knew where we were going. They had been briefed on Robinetta’s arrival, which felt very efficient. We were tied up with engine off by 0053, and as soon Julian secured Worm to the pontoon we got the bed out and crashed.

03:30 is the new normal

Another early start, with the alarm at 03:30 and us coming off the mooring at 04:30. Visibility was poor, and the drizzle did not help us feel enthusiastic for the trip, but by 05:00 we turned the engine off and with the full main, no 1 jib and staysail were sailing happily at 4-5 knots towards the East side of Holy Isle. Of course some of that speed came from the tide, but the wind was in our favour for the moment, and the rain had stopped.

We cleared Holy Isle and headed towards Ailsa Craig, with increasing swell making helming more difficult. When I took the helm at 07:00 I felt distinctly overpowered. I asked for a reef and we turned the engine on to help hold Robinetta head to wind. It fired up as usual, but when Julian put it straight into gear it faltered, then died. Julian put the reef in, without needing the engine, and when we pressed the starter again to check it came on without problems so we did not know what the problem had been. We still had the no1 jib, but rather than changing jibs we lowered and lashed down the staysail to balance the sail plan, which worked beautifully.

Holding the track to leave Ailsa Craig to port was impossible, and soon we were heading well east of it, but at least we were sailing. When Julian came back up at 08:30 he wanted the reef out, so I did that, and unlashed the staysail before going below for a sleep.

It is amazing what half an hour of shut eye can do for alertness levels and an hour is even better. When I came back on deck at 09:45 we were sailing happily along at 3 knots, making 4 in gusts. We were well off our straight line to Corsewall point (the northern tip of the Mull of Galloway) but it did not really matter.

The weather was still pretty gray, only one other yacht was visible, coming up relatively fast behind us, but it was not too bad a sailing day. I went below to write up the log, and before I came up a call came for us on channel 16. Styanna, the yacht behind us, wanted a chat, and when we went onto channel 72 we discovered that one of the crew was the skipper of Hanako, whose mooring lay north of ours at Clynder. He took pictures of us, and I took pictures of them, then we parted company since Styanna is considerably faster than Robinetta.

By 10:45 we were 5nm east of out best track, so we put in a tack before I took the helm. We were virtually going back on our track as the wind had gone very light, so I turned the engine on at 10:55. It then stayed on all day, but we were motor sailing, not just motoring.

Ailsa Craig remained stubbornly visible, and it still felt as though it were ahead of us at 14:00. A coaster carrying unknown cargo came round the south end, and it seemed as though it had seen us. At any rate they were a long way away. The next thing we knew they had turned, and their bow now pointed straight at us. We tacked away, grumbling about inconsiderate commercial vessels.

I don’t know if it was because the incident threw me, but when I glanced down through a slot in Robinetta’s floorboards it seemed as though there was water sloshing around in the bilges just below the floor level. I pressed the bilge pump button and nothing happened, so I went on deck and opened the locker to use the manual bilge bump. No water came out. Julian went below to check m if the water really was there, and the bilges were practically dry. The adrenalin hit left me shattered, but there was a more important issue to address, Why had the automatic bilge pump not responded when I pressed it? The fuse was the first thing to check, and it had blown, but replacing it did not make the pump work.

Bilge pumps do not last forever, and when we left Liverpool for Peel back in 2017 we had had the same situation. Using the manual bilge pump every hour when under way kept us safe then, and would do the same for us now, but Julian immediately went on the internet and ordered a new pump to be delivered to Peel Harbour Office. We expected that the chandlers in Peel would have one we could buy, but having a spare felt like a good idea.

We reached Corsewall Point an hour after the tide turned in our favour. This was just as well as the wind was now on the nose, and the sails could not help us. Progress down the coast was rapid, and on reading up the pilot book we learnt that the tide set fast across Portpatrick harbour entrance. That meant we would need to be close in on our approach.

Julian got the main sail down in some very lumpy seas so we would not have to worry about the wind direction as we headed into the harbour, then we closed with the coast. I had a very clear memory of the surrounding reefs, but Julian kept urging me to head in even closer. In the end I screamed at him to be quiet and let me concentrate. (I did apologise later). We entered harbour with no other drama, at 20:20, and found an empty berth against the wall which we tied up to as quickly as we could. Then we stripped off our sodden outer layers, and headed up the harbour ladder towards the Crown Inn. Would they still be serving dinner?

When asked the bar man smiled, and said last orders for food was 20:45, but since it was only 20:44 we were in luck. A fine seafood dinner made a great end to a long day. Julian checked the weather, and it looked as though Tuesday would be a good day to head south, so maybe we could have a day in Portpatrick to recover from 2 early starts.

An early start south

 Having checked the tides for Saturday Julian and I decided that sleeping on Robinetta on Friday night and setting off around 4 a.m would get us an early start and let us take the last couple of hours of the ebb out of the Gairloch and down the Clyde. We had a houseful of guests staying, courtesy of our daughter and her partners who were with us for the summer, and getting Worm to the water’s edge and loaded up with a fortnight’s luggage was eased by having 6 people to help us with the task.

Once on board we got everything away, then settled down for an early night. Robinetta was rock solid on her mooring, and the sea smooth, but oddly enough I found it difficult to get to sleep although Julian drifted off easily.

The alarm went at 03:30 but the kettle did not go on for tea immediately. However we were motoring off the mooring by 04:25 on a windless morning. As we cleared the Rhu Narrows we felt a little wind on our faces, and decided to get the main sail up while we were motoring head to wind. This took longer than it should have done, as a second mast hoops of the season broke. Julian moved the hoops around and retied them, but at this rate we will have a laced on main sail by the end of the season. The ones we had put on as spares in Bristol are not lasting well.

As we followed the coast of the Rosneath Peninsula round into the Clyde the Southerly wind became useful, and we turned the engine off at 05:10 and reached towards Cloch Point. We saw the first ferry of the day heading for Dunoon, and a small cruise liner, the Azamara Quest passed us at 06:00, heading up the Clyde. The wind had gone very light by this point, but was still usable for another half hour as we closed on Cloch Point. By 06:30 our sail was over, and the engine took over to take us down the Clyde towards Bute.

Julian went below, and cooked us breakfast while I helmed, feeling progressively colder. Tee shirt, hoody, and oilskins had been plenty sailing, bit now we were butting into the wind I wanted some extra layers. I warned Julian, who put on his Erebus jumper before heading on deck with the plates.

Progress seemed very slow, heading straight into the wind and tide, and we lowered the main sail to reduce drag. This helped a little, but we were felt lucky when we reached 3 knots…. By 11:30 we were between Bute and Little Cumbrae, and the wind felt almost useable. The clouds had lifted a little and we could see where the sun was, which was a huge improvement on the previous 4 hours. We got the main sail up again, and tried beating past the end of Bute, but had to use the engine to make progress.

We did turn the engine off for an hour when we had more sea room but were only making 1.5 to 2.5 knots. We still had 10nm to go to reach our planned destination of Brodick, and since we wanted to be there in time for dinner we put the engine back on at 13:20.

Visibility got worse as the wind dropped, and the air was heavy with moisture. It soon began to rain, and visibility got so bad we needed to steer by compass as all landmarks disappeared into the murk. Steering 210° brought us into Brodick Bay, where we picked up one of the free mooring buoys at 15:38. Julian brought us up to it perfectly and I got the boat hook on the pick up buoy on the first attempt.

We had a cup of tea to warm up before rowing ashore in Worm to buy bread and fruit and have an early dinner. The rain kept on coming down and our oilies were soaked through, only drying off a little in the pub where we ate.

We were back on Robinetta just after 19:00. The wind was now coming from the North West, so we could have sailed towards Girvan for a shorter sail tomorrow, but the forecast wind force of 4-6 felt a bit too strong. Neither of us are very fit at the moment (not enough sailing) and we had already had a long day. The plan is to have another early start, and hope to pick up the last of the north westerly before it backs South West tomorrow.

Preparing for a fortnight away

With no wind forecast this weekend we knew we would not go sailing, but I did want to clean the cabin before we set off for Peel next weekend, and Julian wanted to investigate if he could tighten up the throttle cable. One of our elderly mast hoops had broken, so Julian was going to see if he could make a rope one as a stopgap.

We also took some supplies on board so Worm would not be too heavily laden next weekend.There is still plenty to get on board, but it gave me a chance to see what I needed to take.

We were only onboard for a couple of hours, but a nice sailing breeze got up, and we were reluctant to leave Robinetta and head ashore. It had to be done though, as we had other commitments.

More broken boom crutches

On my way back from shopping on Friday I spotted that Robinetta's boom crutches were only again hanging over the side of the boat. These were our spare crutches, that we had built for use when I was varnishing the teak ones. We were intending to go sailing this weekend anyway, so it was no hardship to row out to Robinetta and see what had happened. Alas, it appeared that these too were now broken, in a very similar way to the teak ones. We had not had any problems like this last season...

Julian had spotted one of our CA friends on AIS as they motored past Dunoon, and when we discovered they were moored up in Rhu marina we decided to pay them a visit in Robinetta. 

We got the sails up on the buoy and floated clear of it without putting the engine in gear, but it soon became obvious that this was due to the tide, not the wind. Once we put the engine in gear and throttled up there was an odd rattle coming from the engine; not what we expected only a month after a full service. We made it to Rhu and moored up on the pontoon, where investigation soon revealed that the alternator belt was loose. A quick look at the engine manual, backed up by internet research, and Julian had it tightened up properly. We should have noticed it during our engine checks....

After showing Robinetta to our friend Camilla, and admiring her much younger Westerly yacht, we finally managed to fill our water tanks ready for the season before setting off for a sail. The wind had built to a respectable force3 northwesterly we could not resist going for a sail.

Craigandoran Pier

We headed out of the Gairloch towards Craigendoran pier, gybing away from the shore when we had less than 5 m under the keel. We were at the top of the tide, so the chart plotter showed we were only in 2m. We carried on towards Ardmore, but by the time we could see round the Ardmore promontory and up the Clyde it was time to head home.

We started beating back towards the Gairloch, leaving the Sugar Boat to starboard, but with the tide now against us and the wind on the nose we did not make much ground on each tack. For a while we sailed in company with a larger Bermudan rigged yacht, but boat speed and the differing rig type meant we were left behind after three tacks. With the falling tide strengthening against us we gave up on pure sailing, and put the engine on. The revs not developing as expected, and we had to come out of gear. Julian put the engine in neutral, and it revved up properly, and once we put it back in gear it did rev up enough for us to make progress against the tide, although the throttle position suggested we had more revs than we did.

Once we made it back to the mooring we had a cup of tea and relaxed before putting the covers on. Julian also rigged an extra topping lift to keep the boom up. One of the lazy jack/topping lift ropes was on its last legs, as we did not trust it to support the boom with no crutches. After that it was time to get back in Worm for the row back to the beach.