Campbeltown to Belfast Lough

[Skylark]

I’m doing a bit of armchair passage planning but my charts and pilot books / cruising guides are on the boat, 250 miles away.

What time, Dover, departure Campbeltown heading towards Belfast Lough? Probably east of Sanda.

I normally plan at 6kts.

Many thanks.

 

[GEM43]

I’m doing a bit of armchair passage planning but my charts and pilot books / cruising guides are on the boat, 250 miles away.

What time, Dover, departure Campbeltown heading towards Belfast Lough? Probably east of Sanda.

I normally plan at 6kts.

Many thanks.

You don’t say what date? This is now:

 

[Baddox]

The Absolute Tides app is cheap and very good for showing tide set and speed for any hour and date. It should be able to give you a head start in planning. The Campbeltown Yacht Club website has a little info regarding the MoK. Rounding the Mull of Kintyre or Heading for N.Ireland – Campbeltown Sailing Club

My wife is keen to do a similar route to you next month, but I want to turn north again. We may end up at Ballycastle then Islay and northwards.

 

[Bodach na mara]

At a guess, and i stress it's only a guess until I can dig out an almanac, I would plan to leave about 3 hours before local low water. If memory serves correctly, I think it takes about 2 hours to reach the area of Sanda from leaving Campbeltown pontoons, and from Sanda onward you want a flooding tide, especially as you near the Ulster coast. It's a long trip, around nine hours i think, but I last did it in someone else's boat and I have no idea what speed through the water we could do. This was in the pre-instrumental days when few boats had much more than a compass, leadline and maybe a RDF, which could be relied upon to tell you that you were somewhere within a triangle with sides of about 15 miles. That is if you could identify any transmitter stations from the static.

 

[SaltyC]

You need to arrive at / enter Belfast Lough before HW Dover as the tidal stream starts to fliw North (Ebb) at that point and builds quickly.
As stated if you keave Campbeltown 3 hours before LW you carry the weak ebb to Sanda, then puck up the start of the flood in the North Channel.
From memory approx 45 miles to Bangor, if wind is favourable a comfortable 8 hours.

 

[Skylark]

Many thanks to you all for taking the time to respond.

The last two times I’ve visited Belfast has been non stop from Largs but I’m planning an early season passage so Cambeltown gives the advantage of a bit more of a crew shakedown.

I tend to passage plan at 6kts.