Feeling completely relaxed after our leisure experience at Portavadie Marina we were ready to start making our way back to our home berth in Northern Ireland. Our cruising season this year has been much shorter than the last two years but as the weather this ‘summer’ hasn’t been great we don’t feel as though we’re missing out too much!
Catching the southbound tide down Loch Fyne we enjoyed a lovely bit of broad reach sailing in a very pleasant 12 knots. However as we rounded the headland at Skipness Point on the Kintyre Peninsula the wind completely died and we had to resort to motoring.
Fortunately the motoring was short lived, in fact just a total of 5 minutes because as soon as we cleared the headland the north-westerly wind filled in once again.
As we made our way down Kilbrannan Sound the wind increased, with the apparent wind direction more of a westerly. We opted to take a second reef about half way down as we were starting to see wind speeds of 18 – 20 knots. In fact we were very glad we did, as we approached the opening for Campbeltown the wind came barrelling out and the gusts were up at around 25 knots.
Anchoring near Island Davaar
We dropped the hook south of Island Davaar, in position 55°24.734N 5°32.457W. We were pretty sheltered from the north-westerly wind (albeit a tad breezy!) and holding was good. This saved us going into Campbeltown and we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset. It was also the ideal jump off point to leave the Clyde and cross back over.
Move out of our way Cargo Ship!
It was an early start for us – raising the anchor at 4.20am, which by the way was covered in a huge ball of seaweed! We raised the sails but the wind was very light and we were sheltered by the peninsula, so it wasn’t until we approached Sanda Island that we could start sailing.
Over to port we could make out the silhouette of a cargo ship making its way out of the Clyde. Unfortunately we do not have AIS fitted to our yacht however we do use the app Boat Beacon. It is an AIS-based collision detection system that can be used on Apple or Android devices and it provides information on other vessels such as name, type of vessel and length as well as a bearing, range and closest point of approach (CPA) information. You can use the app to transmit your position, and with this enabled your boat will appear on other Boat Beacon devices. If you have an MMSI number your position will also appear on live AIS traffic sites like MarineTraffic and Vessel Finder (handy for family to keep a track of you!). However it does rely on internet coverage and it is NOT an AIS VHF Transponder, meaning your boat will not show up on other ship based VHF AIS systems.
So back to our current situation…it appeared that we were on a collision course with this ship and our app was indicating that with our current course we would indeed get very close. However we were still quite a distance away from the ship so we thought we’d see how things would go. Of course we wouldn’t show up on their AIS but we were confident that, like any good captain, they’d be keeping a good look out and adjust course.
Of course they didn’t and with our app now showing that this 134 metre container ship weighing 9,981 tons and travelling at a speed of 25 knots had a CPA with us of just 30 metres we opted to call them up on the radio. This is what is good about this app in that you also know the name of the approaching vessel. They kindly offered to alter their course to port and within a few minutes the CPA was irrelevant, however we did feel quite empowered in that we, a little 10.5 metre yacht, had made a huge ship move out of our way!
After that bit of excitement we enjoyed a very pleasant sail for the next few hours. But as the wind dropped off we did have to motor sail for the last couple of hours until we entered Belfast Lough. Not wanting to call it a day just yet we sailed the last leg across the lough and decided to anchor in Ballyholme Bay before we headed back into the marina. This is a lovely little bay to anchor in with a sandy bottom and great holding, and was the perfect end to our 277 nautical mile cruise over to and around the Firth of Clyde.
Why we LOVED Sailing Scotland!
With stunning scenery and sheltered waters it’s easy to see why Scotland, and in particular the Firth of Clyde, is often talked of as being one of the best sailing destinations in the world. Whilst we’ve currently only experienced a snippet of Scotland we can completely understand its popularity, but saying that we never found anywhere to be busy! Being surrounded by hills and mountains the sea state is comfortable; yes you can get chop but not that horrible swell that you experience in other coastal areas. There are a number of welcoming marinas, good anchorages and quite a few free mooring buoys, plus plenty of beautiful areas to explore – in fact the Kyles of Bute are said to be one of the prettiest sailing routes in the UK!
The landscape is undoubtably breathtaking however it does come with challenges; the weather can change quickly and be unpredictable in areas. A combination of mountains and narrow lochs result in katabatic winds and flukey wind directions. In fact on our passage up to Holy Loch we went from 5 knots of wind to 20 knots in a matter of minutes. As a result, and because we have to think about reefing at 12 knots with our yacht, we often sailed with the first reef in as a matter of course. However we now feel as though we have a greater understanding of ‘reading’ the weather and we’ve learnt a lot from sailing these waters.
That said we’re not done with cruising Scottish waters just yet and will definitely be returning as soon as we can!
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