Eastward Bound

[marisca]

Boat is parked off Gourock at the moment which tends to be untenable in the autumn gales, the insurance company don't like it after September and anyway Port Edgar is just down the road with a 3 months for the price of two and they race right up till Xmas - so I'm now planning my trip.

I've been through the Clyde/Carron canal twice. It is cheap and quick but there certainly wasn't the quoted 1.8m depth, it needs the mast down and the only boat I know that did it this year (less draft than me) came back via a Shepherd's lorry with tales of shopping carts, concrete blocks and weed. So, unless anyone can tell me different, I'm ruling it out (except as a last resort).

Caledonian Canal was the route I took last autumn and this spring. Probably be single-handed so it's round the MoK and follow the groove in the water up past Oban. Gentle enough trip if the wind co-operates - I have few time restaints - and the canal is easy enough even if my wife and the cat join me. A mere £160 or so, and then it's stuck in the tide off Rattray Head or Peterheid and hoping for the southerly to stop blowing.

The third choice, and the reason for the post, is round the top. Attraction is cost and the fact that I've never done it before. I've had the boat up to Stornoway the last two years (my sister lives on Lewis and the family visit coincides with the Hebfest) again on my tod. The meander round the top doesn't look too difficult except for the dire warnings about the Pentland Firth. So could those of you intrepid souls that have survived this trip let me know of your trials and tribulations, advise whether a visit to the Orkneys makes sense or no, the must-have charts - I have the Imray chart and can borrow Martin Lawrence's doom-laden tome, the definite no-no tide and wind conditions and anything else you think I should know, please? Mind you I'll still end up stuck in the tide off Rattray Head or Peterheid and hoping for the southerly to stop blowing.

Thanking you in anticipation.

[DaveS]

Well I sort of did this a couple of years ago, albeit I then came back down through the Caley. The write up is here:http://www.yotblog.com/DaveS/1443/ and http://www.yotblog.com/DaveS/1472/.

The point of our trip was to visit Orkney, though, with avoidance of (most of) the Pentland Firth a side benefit, so I cannot really comment on their respective merits considered purely from the view of passage making.

If you do want to go through the PF, this little table might be useful:


Pentland Firth Departure Timing Windows

D = HW Dover


North of Dunnet Head

58o 42.5’ N 003 o 22.4’ W D-5 to D-2 W to E by Outer Sound

58o 40.85’ N 003 o 22.4’ W prev. D+5 to next D-3 W to E by Inner Sound


SE of Duncansby Head

58o 37.6’ N 003 o 00.8’ W D+1 to D+4½ SE to W by Inner Sound

58o 37.35’ N 002 o 56.5’ W D+1 to D+5 SE to W by Outer Sound or Scapa


ESE of Old Head (South Ronaldsay)

58o 43.5’ N 002 o 52.8’ W D-½ to D+4 NE to W by Outer Sound or Scapa


E of Old Head

58o 44.25’ N 002 o 54.1’ W D+6 to D-6 NE to S for Wick or beyond

Apologies for the cramped-up presentation. Additional spaces which make things clearer seem to get stripped out.

[little boy blue]

i did a west to east F&C in may this year with at least 1.4 m draught - no problems. bwb guys were great.
if you wanted a crew from bowling to maryhill i might be able to help.

[marisca]

The BWB guys are great except that they either lie or don't know about the depths available. Both trips I have stuck fast on "the" culvert (1.65m draft) - 1st time they raised the level and 2nd time I used a tree and the anchor winch to haul me over - but the clincher was an 8" drop on the top level 'cos of work at Maryhill - stuck at Kirky, hit the bottom at every bridge and narrowing - and they didn't warn me, I wasn't in a hurry and could have postponed but it's a bit late when you're stuck. July this year an MG30 had a miserable trip, so miserable that he came back by lorry.

However, it remains "plan C".

Dave S - thanks for the departure timings. Not sure about the D+6 to D-6 for the last one - seems an awfy small window

[Clyde_Wanderer]

i did a west to east F&C in may this year with at least 1.4 m draught - no problems. bwb guys were great.
if you wanted a crew from bowling to maryhill i might be able to help.

Hi Joe, did you have a good trip to Poland then, I take it the weather was kind? I guess Danish Blue wont be sailing in these waters again, were you sad to see her go? or were you glad to see the back of her when you were leaving? What's it going to be next?
Catch you later, C_W

[little boy blue]

( can`t seem to put smilies in the heading )

the trip to poland went ok for the first 800 or so miles. the weather was a bit cold and the wind not quite on the nose all the way across the north sea - up to f6 at times. polar highs are not quite so benign as their tropical brethern. we had a few problems after entering the baltic but eventually made it to gdansk ( 1068 nm ).
well, that particular danish blue will be unlikely to return to scottish waters but i may rename the new boat ( wouldn`t have to change my forum name then ) yes i was sad to let her go - it would have been better if i could just have made her bigger.
the new boat is a moody 31 and the deal should be finalised in about a week. i`ll likely be bringing it to rothesay dock about the begining of october.

[Clyde_Wanderer]

Hi Joe.
Glad the trip went well.
Good luck with the new boat, and look forward to seeing yourself and the new Moody at RD.
C_W

[Mehitabel]

I made the East-West transit back in March 07, the first boat through that season I was told. I wrote up brief details of the problems we encountered to provide feedback to the BW guys. In summary, with 1.7 M draft I don't think I would do it again unless there is substantial dredging and they get rid of that damn "culvert".
---

I thought I would provide you with some feedback on our east-west transit
through the F&C canal 23/24 March in Singing Bird (sea water draft 1.7 M).
It was certainly an adventure and we found the BW crews very helpful indeed. However unfortunately the depth was not all it might have been. I realise that our draft is a bit close to the advised limit so I was not surprised to encounter the bottom on a number of occassions, so this is not a complaint, but I though that some feedback would be useful for you in targeting dredging resources.

We felt the bottom on many occassions (probably 20-30 times), but had
significant problems at 7 locations as follows:

1. Under the blue bridge between the Grangenouth sealock and Falkirk -
relatively minor.
2. At the point beyond lock 19 where the BW crew told us to expect problems where a cluvert passes across the canal bed. This was the worst occasion and almost had us turning back until a police team arrived on a sponsored cycle ride and pulled us through! Required a heel of around 15 degrees to get through so I would estimate depth here to be only 1.5 meters or so. This really does need sorting out as it is much less than the advertised depth.
3. Between Craigmarloch bridge and Auchinstarry we ploughed through the mud for most of the way. Very pretty though!
4. 100 meters or so before Auchinstarry bridge in the area where a mooring bouy is located off the S bank just beyond the "marina". Managed to get round this by going close to N bank to the annoyance of some guys fishing!
5. All three of the briges in Kirkintillock caused problems - no doubt
accumulations of rubbish thrown into the canal.
6. Just W of Glasgow road bridge, just 2 minutes after sarting out on
Sunday! This required pulling from the towpath.
7. Beyond the bottom of the Maryhill flight before the Kelvin aquaduct - BW crew warned us of this one.

Beyond here weed and plastic bags were the only problem, something we had seen nothing of on the eastern section.
Unfortunately expecting to hit obstructions all the time distracted from the
enjoyment of the trip and I spent most of the time watching the echosounder rather than enjoying the view; 0.2 M below the keel was the norm, slightly more in the western section. Consequently I doubt whether we will use the canal again unless some serious dredging is undertaken. However, I would like to thank the BW staff, and particularly the Bowling harbour master who came in early to open the lock for me to catch an early tide on the 25th.

[Bill&Mags]

Just finished a transit from west to east and our draft in salt water is 4'9''. Good trip, but a bit of weed and a few poly bags. Support from the canal staff was excellent and the locals were friendly. Interesting urban scenery, abundant birdlife and pretty rural landscapes. Great value for under 60 quid. Will do it again! (even enjoyed the Carron river but glad they are planning to bypass it with the proposed new sea lock)
Bill & Maggie

[marisca]

I wimped out! A mixture of laziness and the low pressure areas scudding across the north made Plan B more attractive so it was a trip through the Caley. A single-handed meander via Wreck Bay, Sanda, Port Ellen (7 different bottle conditioned local ales still to taste), Craighouse (I anchored, only 2 attempts, and there was muddy sand and just a wee bit of weed when I raised it!) to Corpach mostly in lightish winds and sun but antisocial tidal times (03.00 start from Sanda and Jura!) then Madame joined me (after Neptune's Staircase) and 3 idyllic sun kissed days were spent - anchored beside a floodlit Urquhart Castle with the milky way overhead, not a ripple on the water and not a midge to be felt was bliss.

This left the wee bit from Clachnaharry to Port Edgar and luckily the Coastguard came back from their industrial inaction to announce 7's and occasional 8's but always from W/NW/N. Seeing they were back I gave them a call with our passage details - not sure it was a good idea as they wanted a call when we had "cleared the Pentland Firth" - which reminds me, never did tell them we arrived! 34 hours later (and nothing more than a wee bit of 6) we were trying to avoid running aground on the Port Edgar mud.

Worst bit of the trip was coming up the Forth in the dark - some eejit had left an oil rig parked with every possible light on, a tanker and tugs with all decklights on left Hound Point, the Railbridge was floodlit, the Roadbridge had lights on, Hound Point was floodlit and somewhere in all this there was traffic heading to and from Grangemouth with normal navigation lights. Seeing 2 whites and one red against this lot was near impossible until they were closer than I would like.

[Telo]

Single handing from Gourock, round the Mull, up to the Great Glen doesn't really sound like wimping out to me.

Well done. Sounds like a good trip.

[Ocklepoint]

Great trip..............