Round Britain day 58

Concerto

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I was in no rush this morning to leave as I still felt tired when I woke up without any alarm. Still left about 9 am, but decided to change my destination to Lochboisdale on South Uist. Once the sails were set, I started sailing nicely on a broad reach doing just over 5 knots in the light breeze. I thought about setting the spinnaker, but I was not really awake. I even nodded off for about 15 minutes. Gradually the wind eased and slowly veered from NE. The boat speed kept dropping and when it reached 3¾ knots, I turned the engine on. I kept the revs to only 1800 rpm, whereas I normally cruise at 2200 to 2400. The sails aided the speed and kept doing 5 to 5¼ knots.

To keep myself occupied I did a couple of small jobs which I had been putting of. Then I looked across the cockpit and a dolphin broke the surface. Grabbing my phone I headed to the bow. He (or maybe a she) danced on the bow wave for several minutes before disappearing. About 5 minutes later a pod of 8 to 10 dolphins appeared and played on the bow for about 20 minutes. I was having a field day filming them as I had never had a pod on the bow in all the decades I have sailed (wrong waters obviously). I felt so privileged to see them.

As they left the wind veered even more and the genoa started backing, so I rolled it away. The speed dropped to 4¾ knots, but I just left the throttle alone. Gently chugging along, I was chatting by text with my wife, daughter and a non sailing friend about the dolphins as I had sent a short video clip of the single one. My daughter was hugely impressed and asked all sorts of questions about the dolphins, which I am happy to say I knew the answers without looking up the information.

About an hour later, the sea had a mainly glassy look with the occassional ripples from some wind. Well blow me down, a second pod of dolphins appeared. There were 6 to 8 in this pod, but the smooth water made it easy to film then swimming. They also seemed to swim slightly differently, possibly a little smoother through the water. Then one of them started jumping out and splashing down. He repeated this for about a minute. What a sight as one plunge was right alongside the bow as if he was trying to splash the boat. He then went slighty further away behind the beam and did some more leaps and splashes. That really made my day.

Motoring on I decided to increase the speed to just over 5 knots. The wind veered even further to right on the nose, so I dropped the mainsail. Still 15 miles to go. As I approached the entrance to Lochboisdale, I realised I was half a mile further offshore than I needed to be, but I had not altered the compass course since leaving Scalpay nearly 50 miles back. Once I was about a mile from the waypoint, I pulled out the fenders and warps and prepared to moor starboard side. Inside the entrance of the shore line, a third small spod of dolphins appeared, but did not stay long or play on the bow wave. What a day.

Entry into the new marina is very easy and there were plenty of spare berths. As the wind is increasing overnight, I wanted to be bow to the wind. The empty berths on the other side of the pontoon meant I had to reverse into the berth. As I was approaching the berth, I heard "Hello Roger" from a boat I did not recognise. One person assisted with my warps and plenty of other people just watched from their boats. Good job I did it almost perfectly. The gentleman who greeted me then came over to say hello properly and to thank me for the advice I gave him ............. on Concerto at the Southampton Boat Show. He was changing from a 30ft half tonner to something bigger. Like so many at the show he disliked the Ikea boats. He like the quality of my Fulmar but wanted something slightly larger. He then went to the Westerly Owners Association stand for further discussions. He did not buy a Westerly, but he has changed his boat. Whilst at the show he like the Halberg Rassey, but admitted he could not afford one. They suggested he visit them after the show at their base in Plymouth as they had a number of secondhand ones there. That is what he did and bought a 1997 HR36 which is now based in at his home marina in Ardfern. It is such a small world.

Tonight I had planned to edit a video of dolphins, but as I have about half an hour of video to work from, it is too late to start now. I have watched all of the videos and I am very pleased with what I have to work with. I will try and make it about 5 minutes long. A job for tomorrow if it is too wet to use my bike and drone.

Not many photos today.

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Leaving Scalpay Marina

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Looking towards South Harbour, Scalpay

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Salty splashes from the first pod of dolphins

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Approaching Lochboisdale

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Lochboisdale with the ferry berthed overnight and ready for laoding in the morning

RB map 17 1.jpg

For anyone wanting to read the reports from the start, this is the link to first one.
Round Britian day 1
 

westhinder

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Thanks for all the reports.
I do think it is a pity you seem to be in such a hurry. You are passing by so many outstanding places without taking the time to enjoy them. It even looks like you are going to pass by Skye altogether. When I did my trip round Britain (admittedly via the Caledonian Canal) I spent six weeks in the inner and outer Hebrides and left feeling I had only scratched the surface. I know you have said you will go back and take more time to cruise the West coast, I hope you will indeed. I know I will go back for more.
 

Blueboatman

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Lovely.

I expect Concerto is pootling south to get back into t shirt skies ? ☀?

Of course, If an Anderson 22 were to do a circumnavigation I suppose there wouldn’t be camera fast enough not time to take any photos ?????? ( joking)
 

Concerto

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Thanks for all the reports.
I do think it is a pity you seem to be in such a hurry. You are passing by so many outstanding places without taking the time to enjoy them. It even looks like you are going to pass by Skye altogether. When I did my trip round Britain (admittedly via the Caledonian Canal) I spent six weeks in the inner and outer Hebrides and left feeling I had only scratched the surface. I know you have said you will go back and take more time to cruise the West coast, I hope you will indeed. I know I will go back for more.
With a minimum of another 27 ports I want to visit before the 20 September when I must be in the Solent, there is little chance I can investigate all of the nice places that have been mentioned that I should see. This does not allow for extra days spent looking at the places I am visiting or any allowance for adverse weather (like the heavy rain at present), so there is little time to spare in the 59 days left.

I have made one decision on this trip, when I move to Cheshire in a few years time, Concerto will be based in Scotland, not N Wales as I initially planned. Then visiting lots of these places will become part of my regular sailing area.
 

Concerto

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Better still, don't move to Cheshire, move to Scotland?
Don't think our daughter and grandson would appreciate that. The only reason I cannot move yet is my wife's parents are very elderly and suffering advanced dementia problems. By the time the estate is settled, our grandson will be starting school and we shall (well more my wife) be the emergency backup team so our daughter can continue working. Scotland is a little too far away to be any help.
 

Concerto

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Today has been heavy rain almost all day and evening. After a lie in, a visit to the harbour office and showers, I spent most of the time editing the dolphin video. There were a huge amount of clips and the finished video is just under 10 minutes and used less than 25% of the clips. I feel you will enjoy the dolphins antics. Keep an eye out for some of the skin cuts as the same dolphins can be identified in many clips, but not in the other pods.

https://youtu.be/lGF2gY54GaY
 

westhinder

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T
Today has been heavy rain almost all day and evening. After a lie in, a visit to the harbour office and showers, I spent most of the time editing the dolphin video. There were a huge amount of clips and the finished video is just under 10 minutes and used less than 25% of the clips. I feel you will enjoy the dolphins antics. Keep an eye out for some of the skin cuts as the same dolphins can be identified in many clips, but not in the other pods.

https://youtu.be/lGF2gY54GaY
There is absolutely nothing that creates such instant happiness as dolphins playing around the boat. I have never known anyone who didn’t respond to their presence.
 

ProDave

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Wonderful video, thank you. It really is nice to see creatures that have enough energy, time and intelligence to clearly just be enjoying themselves in a social group.

I have not seen the jump up and belly flop before.

I took a friend out for a sail once and suddenly he shouted out "Stop the boat, stop the boat" I questioned what peril awaits that I need to stop the boat and his reply "There are dolphins under the bow, you are going to run them over" No I don't think so.
 

steveeasy

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Dunvegan has fabulous gardens from memory and I believe a new visitor pontoon. A great place to visit.
Steveeasy
 

Minchsailor

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Dunvegan has fabulous gardens from memory and I believe a new visitor pontoon. A great place to visit.
Steveeasy
Agree, I quite like Dunvegan. 5-6 buoys for visitors, but beware, some are quite close together. Technically, the pontoon is for dinghies, and should not be used for long stay by yachts (only for taking on stores), and probably gets a bit shallow at LW. Has a water tap.
 

dunedin

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Concerto

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Concerto

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Just been loading the photos taken today and realised I missed the photos of the marina in Lochboisdale.

Last night the loading of the dolphin video was very slow and took nearly 3 hours due to the poor upload speed as the signal was weak. Even the harbour master could not get his card machine to work, so paid in cash. So be warned Lochboisdale is not a good place for internet connection. I did read one couple found better speed by using the free wifi at the ferry terminal by sitting outside after the terminal was closed.

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This morning, just before leaving.

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Yesterday before the rain started.

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The rain had just started.

Other than walking to the shower block, I never went anywhere here due to the heavy rain.
 
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