Books on sailing round Britain

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SimonFa

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I've finally decided that its time retire and informed my current client who keeps asking me to extend that come what may I won't extend beyond March 2016. With a bit of luck I might finish be able to finish before then.

My plan is to sail round Britain taking 2 years or maybe even 3 as I wouldn't mind spending a summer in N Scotland, leaving the boat somewhere over winter. This won't be a continuous sail, perhaps 1-2 week stints with a 1-2 week gap, which means I will be looking for a marina or good long term mooring as key points for each leg. The problem is that my wife won't sail with me but she may join me in some locations, even when at anchor for a few days, especially if we buy a motor-home, which is looking odds on certain.

What I'm looking for are good pilotage and general overview books, maybe something like the Shell Channel guide. I'd also like to read a couple of accounts of people who've done something similar to both whet my appetite and to give me ideas. I know there's plenty out there but the problem is sorting the wheat from the chaff.

My aim is to start planning this year and building my single handed sailing experience so that I can set off in April or May 2016 from Weymouth.

All thoughts and advice most welcome.

Thanks,

Simon
 
 
My favourite is E.E.Middleton's "The Cruise of the Kate". He went via the Crinan canal avoiding the north of Scotland. The advice of 150 years ago is a bit dated, but the sea is still the sea. Anyway, it remains a motivating read.
 
Apart from what has been mentioned:
- Reeds Almanac, essential
- for Scotland, the two pilot book series, the CCC Sailing Directions and Martin Lawrence's, have been merged, again essential reading. There is a beautifully illustrated companion book Cruising Scotland, which is very good to whet the appetite. Hamish Haswell Smith, The Scottish Islands is very interesting, strongly advised
- for Ireland, the Irish Cruising Club's two volumes of Sailing Directions, with their companion Cruising Ireland
- for the East Coast ? The Royal Northumberland Yacht Club's Sailing directions, covering from Rattray Head to the Humber, good to have
- narrative: One Summer's Grace by Libby Purvis, very well written
To whet the appetite, you can have a look at www.ossian.be where you will find lots of pictures of my trip around Britain in 2013. The blog is in Dutch, I'm afraid, but the pictures give you a fair impression of the voyage.

One word of advice: do not hesitate, just go, it is not difficult.
Feel free to PM me with any questions
 
AndrewB said:
My favourite is E.E.Middleton's "The Cruise of the Kate". He went via the Crinan canal avoiding the north of Scotland. The advice of 150 years ago is a bit dated, but the sea is still the sea. Anyway, it remains a motivating read.
Click to expand...

I agree

a great read and a real glimpse into the mind of a toff of the past and the way he perceived the world around him

I agree that Reeds is really all you need - althouigh the local pilots have better maps and charts - reeds is always bang up to date

as for local info - your laptop and dongle will tell you everything - forumites here have been fantastically useful. You get the usual local drama queens telling you that you are sure to die on their bard/in their mud/walking in their high street/eaten by angry seahorses. I have learned to tell the difference between a bloke who actually sails and a bloke who hides in the boatyard reflecting on his fictitious glorious life of adventuring

what is really missing is a decent video record of a journey around Britain

some-one somewhere should film something

D
 
I will be looking for a marina or good long term mooring
Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?422425-Books-on-sailing-round-Britain#Ij5hY4tBvEw7UmGS.99

Hi Simon, I'm back from a 2yr round UK.

I chose Liverpool Marina as winter berth. It has good public transport, easy access, local engineer and helpful staff. I stripped the boat for winter layup. Enterprise van hire people have a depot within walking distance - they offer a one-way-trip deal at 1.5x day hire fee which made sound economic sense to me.
 
dylanwinter said:
I agree
a great read and a real glimpse into the mind of a toff of the past and the way he perceived the world around him

what is really missing is a decent video record of a journey around Britain
some-one somewhere should film something
D
Click to expand...

E.E.Middleton's "The Cruise of the Kate". read it recently my sailing area

Dylan Fred Adrift - did you own an E-Boat?

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?422436-Our-Lost-Kitty&p=5173233&highlight=#post5173233

>>>>>"some-one somewhere should film something"

 
The best part of your trip is very likely to be the west coast of Scotland, and here there is a wide choice of good places to overwinter, in particular in the Clyde you will find it easy to get some good winter sailing.

The best book I would recommend would be Frank Cowpers Sailing Tours (part V). It contains not only excellent sailing and pilotage narrative but lots of added colour in the tales he tells of local history as he passes. It seems almost every island and stretch of coast has a history of one clan slaughtering another, it's a wonder there are any Scots left. It is a fantastic read and will keep you dipping in and out of it for years.

Another invaluable addition for this area would be Hamish Haswell Smith's book about Scottish islands. This gives loads of useful info on (almost) every Scottish Island, including maps and details of anchorages, many of which are not shown in the pilot books.

Both these books will improve your enjoyment of the area.
 
SimonFa said:
I've finally decided that its time retire and informed my current client who keeps asking me to extend that come what may I won't extend beyond March 2016. With a bit of luck I might finish be able to finish before then.

My plan is to sail round Britain taking 2 years or maybe even 3 as I wouldn't mind spending a summer in N Scotland, leaving the boat somewhere over winter. This won't be a continuous sail, perhaps 1-2 week stints with a 1-2 week gap, which means I will be looking for a marina or good long term mooring as key points for each leg. The problem is that my wife won't sail with me but she may join me in some locations, even when at anchor for a few days, especially if we buy a motor-home, which is looking odds on certain.

What I'm looking for are good pilotage and general overview books, maybe something like the Shell Channel guide. I'd also like to read a couple of accounts of people who've done something similar to both whet my appetite and to give me ideas. I know there's plenty out there but the problem is sorting the wheat from the chaff.

My aim is to start planning this year and building my single handed sailing experience so that I can set off in April or May 2016 from Weymouth.

All thoughts and advice most welcome.

Thanks,

Simon
Click to expand...

Excellent fun.

Started ours, from Portishead, 10 years ago this summer and got stalled in Mull. The west of Scotland is far too nice.
Could not see any point in Ardnamurchan and therefore have unfinished business with Cape Wrath.

Survived the gloom and doom merchants too.
I'd encourage you to take chums with you, unless you are a solitary fellow. It made it more fun for me and sharing the duty and pleasure made it all much better. Also what might have been a bit scary on my own were much better with a bit of stiff upper lip.

A previous circumnavigator leant us the charts for a large part of the trip - that was a big help. Bought and sold the pilot books as we worked our way around - my first experience of eBay.
Have the log somewhere in electronic form - tried sending a daily text home with details of our progress, or not in 160 characters - using internet cafes in some parts of the journey was challenging. How things change in 10 years.

Enjoy!
Watch out for Sunsail boats in the Crinan Canal!
 
Quite a few blogs on line. We picked up some good tips from a few of these before our trip and they gave us ideas about places to stop and/ or avoid. . Books mentioned above ( Sam Steele and Roger Oliver ) well worth having.
 
westhinder said:
- narrative: One Summer's Grace by Libby Purvis, very well written
Click to expand...

Highly entertaining on a meta-textual level too: it's all fun and games along the south coast to Cornwall, then things get progressively grimmer as they head north until they head down the East Coast as fast as possible in sullen silence broken only by sniping. Incidentally, I really like the book and I think Libby Purves is one of the best sailing authors around. There is a particular poignancy, too, in "One Summer's Grace" because of what happened later.

It may just be my natural contrariness, but when I sail round Britain I will absolutely not read anybody else's book of how to sail round Britain. I like adventure and discovery, not ticking off an itinerary. Mind you, I avoid buying pilot books with aerial views because they spoil things for me too.
 
dylanwinter said:
I agree

a great read and a real glimpse into the mind of a toff of the past and the way he perceived the world around him
Click to expand...

Thanks both for the tip. It's available online at https://archive.org/details/cruisekate00middgoog. Looks like a reasonable OCR'ed version of a scan - hasn't been tidied up much so there are some glitches, but it's perfectly readable. Great introduction by Arthur Ransome.
 
It's a great trip, so go for it! We did it last summer and it was a wonderful experience. Agree with the suggestions for books already posted. We also found tips from forum items here very helpful, and the visitmyharbour website. Our blog is here: leoslatsandlongs.blogspot.co.uk

One bit of advice - never take risks, but the challenging days are the most rewarding!
 
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