We are in Ireland

...in Killough bay, heading to Dublin tomorrow.

  

Sailing in UK has forced us to take seriously something they teach in all sailing courses (mostly because all sailing theory is Brttish) namely tidal currents and passage planing. That means that we have to know which date it is, and which time it its (something we are not used to have anything to do with in connection with sailing, more the opposite). With help of tidal charts, we decide (the day before(!))  time of departure (!) in order to have the tidal current in favorable, or at least, not in disastrous direction for the following days voyage.

We have strong tidal currents in Tromsø too, but except of a few famous narrows, a lay-sailor, would not think about them much. Here everybody is "playing the tide", drifting from harbor to next with current. For a given harbor, all boats heading south would leave at same time of the day and the boats heading north, would typically leave six hours later, when the current turns. Another aspect in the game is trying to avoid situation with current and wind from opposite directions (causes steep and unpleasant waves). We haven't figured out yet, how do you travel South West following these principles...

Some Scotland pictures

We moored up in Tobermore (Isle of Mull) with 60 other yachts. That is more sailing boats we have seen during the trip all together so far. The other yachts were participating a regatta of some kind. We were lucky to arrive an hour before them! Slow and heavy Kiwi with two overly careful captains would have never made it in a competition about pontoons and moorings with these racers! Nevertheless, we were very pleased to meet other sailors after the Northern Scotland with lonely anchorages and only each other to talk to.

Going through Canal of Crinnan was the coolest thing to do! We spend three days advancing about 6 nautical miles, hiding from heavy weather outside. Canal has three hydraulic locks which are operated by the staff. The 12 remaining locks are manual and operated by the boat crews them selves. Opening and closing heavy gates manually, as well as maneuvering expensive boats in narrow canal was an interesting and a very social experience. We ended up co-operating couple of other random boats s/y Sigmatic and s/y Miss Behaving. As first timers, we received a lot of good help and advice from more experienced ones. The whole thing was really like the Norwegian "dugnad" or Finnish "talkoot", a joined effort of getting all boats safely through. We enjoyed the precision driving, physical exercise and company of all those friendly people in oh so fragile fiber glass boats : )  

The sunny day we had during three weeks in Scottland. We went hiking on Ar

Three different rain showers in one panorama

Crinan canal

Scottish mainland

Scotland has turned out to be a paradox. It’s pretty and empty in a Scandinavian style. There are fjords and lonely anchorages surrounded by beautiful islands. Seals on rocks and so many sea birds, dolphins and whales to observe. We’ve even discovered areas without sheep, with real vegetation, and thousand meter high mountains! People speak English with a Scandinavian intonation and place names are straight from the Lord of the rings like Rubha nam Brathairean or Point of Ardnamurchan.

So, there is a lot to discover for a sailor. But only if you are willing to do this is pouring rain. 

It’s true what they say about the UK. It rains all the time, or at least many times a day : ). I’m glad of every wollen item I brought with me, as well as Kiwi’s diesel oven for heating. It’s a real challenge of keeping clothes and us try in this damp and salty environment. We’ve slowly realized that there is no point in waiting for a day with good weather. Scottish themselves seem to be as friendly and cheerful no matter the weather. Windwise there seem to be mainly South West (with perhaps slight variations between South- South West and North- South West), headwinds to expect more or less until we reach Portugal!

Currently we are hiding for the gale force winds in the canal of Grinnan. Pictures will follow when Blogger works better!