Cruising from Oban for a week.
- Thread starter Magaz97
- Start date
oldbilbo
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I can assure 'castoffandgone' and others that Loch Moidart is indeed lovely, whether one uses the triple-dogleg South Channel entrance or the narrower North Channel. Neither entrances are easy with any sea running, but once inside there are few places more snug and secure.
That's not strictly true.... There are dozens of snug and secure havens up along the West Coast. Once inside and soundly anchored....
uxb
Well-Known Member
Cover photo- I wonder what happened to their life raft??
dunedin
Well-Known Member
If you have an iPad or laptop look up Antares Charts and get these installed before you go. Very worthwhile for the tricky pilotage areas
castoffandgone
Well-Known Member
castoffandgone
Well-Known Member
Whilst on the subject of "tricky pilotage areas" Now that the ipad has been in use for a while, is it the general experience that with the Navionics app that it can safely be used for pilotage. I appreciate that charts/pilots and eyeball will still be recommended by many, but in tight situations just how good is the ipad/Navionics?
oldbilbo
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You really mustn't encourage me....
That said, to get to Morar you'll need to go past 'Tober' ( not such a bad idea! ) so one of the finest anchorages in my limited experience - and very easy to enter in any conditions - is Loch na Druim Bhuide, east of 'Tober' and on the south side of Loch Sunart.
One could spend a happy week or more just pootling around thereabouts, before wandering off further north. In fact, I have done!
castoffandgone
Well-Known Member
dunedin
Well-Known Member
Navionics can give a guide, but many charts in Scotland on which these are based were surveyed a very long time ago way before GPS etc so sometimes locations of rocks can be out by a material difference.
Antares Charts are a very different proposition - surveyed personally and recently by the Antares crew using modern methods. They don't cover everywhere, just selected tricky bits they have chosen to survey
uxb
Well-Known Member
Another endorsement for Antaries charts. Best money you'll spend if you are cruising these waters.
oldbilbo
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Pilotage.... ah. A subject on which I have firm, even dogmatic, views. I enjoy pilotage - the more complex, the better. Y'see, I believe that navigation is done between the ears, not on the chart table. 'Tis a thinking skill....
I'm privileged, in that HM Queen spent a great deal of taxpayers' money on me during the 70s, while I learned 'navigation' in most of its guises from world-class experts. I put that to use later, in turn, as an instructor teaching other pro navs and pilots how to do 'low-level tactical navigation' to a standard sufficient to keep them alive and to find their ways 'there and back again' at down around 50' AGL ( or less ) and rather fast. THAT is much the same as the pilotage we're now doing, without the noise and the smell of burnt paraffin, and at a gentleman's pace.
It is similar because of the central and shared concept of using charts, maps, radar prediction print-offs, verbal descriptions, photographs, pilot books, cruising club directions - and anything else available - to build up a good mental picture of what's there and to be expected as a sort of rolling video in one's head - compiled not only for along the centreline of the route, but also what the important points should look like if one is a bit 'off line' to one side or t'other, in driving rain or shine, daylight and dark....
That mental video is created by prior planning, called in the jargon 'target study', and mental rehearsal of each successive stretch. In fact, it has a posh technical name - 'cognitive rehearsal - and is well-known in training circles.
So, I am quite content to encourage the use of an iPad with navionics, TOGETHER with anything and everything else which helps you build up a clear and detailed 'mental video' of the intended pilotage stretch, so you can run in anticipating what you will see, and next, and next....
I usually sketch out a pilotage plan ( with nitpickery depths of detail, 'cos I'm like that ) showing all the salient details, which I use as an 'aide memoire' to each part of my mental vid. That'll have leading and clearing lines, limiting depths, reminders of where and what the hazards are - and timings between significant points, for I run my little pilotage exercises at the very specific speeds of 6 knots ( and 3 knots for the really intricate and tight bits ) with a stopwatch, so timings can tell me where I ought to be at any moment. This is IMHO well worth it in fog or in Scottish 'smirn', when viz. can suddenly drop to just a few yards at any point - and frequently does!
What I do NOT do, nor will I encourage, is to take the boat and her people in close among hazards while relying dumbly on just one piece of kit, one source of nav info. I know what happens when one abdicates to the electronics.... Sooner or later it ends in tears.
That may be a tad more complex than many would prefer to do. But the principle remains....
ctva
Well-Known Member
Completely agree with old bilbo above. Pre planing is the key and a keen eye on the often forgotten about nav instrument, the depth guage. I will have the plan in the chart plotter, the CCC or Imray pilot book to hand and the chart when doing something like Loch Moidart. The south entrance to L Moidart is not as daunting as the pilot books make out as all the marks are fairly easy to identify and as I have just said the depths will show you if not where you are then where you are not.
alan_d
Well-Known Member
You really mustn't encourage me....
That said, to get to Morar you'll need to go past 'Tober' ( not such a bad idea! ) so one of the finest anchorages in my limited experience - and very easy to enter in any conditions - is Loch na Druim Bhuide, east of 'Tober' and on the south side of Loch Sunart.
One could spend a happy week or more just pootling around thereabouts, before wandering off further north. In fact, I have done!
Gets a bit crowded sometimes: http://www.panoramio.com/photo_explorer#user=12538&with_photo_id=48206087&order=date_desc
Uricanejack
Well-Known Member
You really mustn't encourage me....
That said, to get to Morar you'll need to go past 'Tober' ( not such a bad idea! ) so one of the finest anchorages in my limited experience - and very easy to enter in any conditions - is Loch na Druim Bhuide, east of 'Tober' and on the south side of Loch Sunart.
One could spend a happy week or more just pootling around thereabouts, before wandering off further north. In fact, I have done!
+1 one of my favourite anchorages
Uricanejack
Well-Known Member
I don't have a clue about who or what Antares is. I tend to agree in general with Mr Billbo.
Though I would like to point out while I often enjoyed seeing him and or his students Navigating down Loch Moidart across kentra Moss past the deca station and up Loch Shiel. The first one scares the **** out of you when you are out fishing especialy when there wing tip vortex leaves a wake on the water. Your usually ready for second one.
The Pilot of the Vulcan waving at me was quite impressive.
agurney
Well-Known Member
+1 for oldbilbo's comments.
It's fun guessing from which glen the second will appear .. and I actually get concerned on the rare occasions when there isn't a second.
Antares electronic charts (http://www.antarescharts.co.uk/) are just another tool in the box; my only problem with them is that they've charted some of my favourite sites that I'm used to having to myself
At the north end of the Sound of Mull my preference is Sailean Mor (http://sailing.agurney.com/list-of-anchorages/sailean-mor-sunart); if full, then Drambuie is very pleasant, although there can be an interesting swell at the entrance after a westerly gale.
agurney
Well-Known Member
Magaz97
Well-Known Member
Thanks for all of the suggestions. Think I may need longer than a week.
agurney
Well-Known Member
I haven't run out of places to go after 25 years.
claymore
Well-Known Member
Absolute nonsense - its neither. The prices are fair and you are completely off the mark if you think Bob Fleck or any of his colleagues are snooty. As for the berthholders, they are no different to any others. Some are loaded and some are impoverished. Dump the chip, sweetpea.
Where do you think Croabh and Kilmelford get their spares?
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