Round Britain - which way?

[Fascadale]

I’ve been both ways and couldn’t say one was much better than the other: it all relies on that most unreliable of elements, the weather. Just go whichever way looks best on your seven day forecast

How do you plan to divide the time you have available?

If I had twelve weeks I would want to spend eight between Wick and Campbeltown, two in the South West of England and the remaining two on passage between the good bits.

If I had 24 weeks I would probably pro rata the above and maybe leave a day or two for the East Coast rivers but the Outer Hebrides, the West Coast of Scotland, the Shetlands and Orkney are the best bits.....by far.

Tin helmet on

 

[madabouttheboat]

I think the Gulf Stream gives slight advantage to anti clockwise - about 1/4 knot.

We went that way and enjoyied easterlies for most of the south coast. More luck than planning

I have read that a few times and it doesn't make sense. Is it just me?

Surely easterlies on the south coast, if you are going anti clockwise, is a bad thing. Isn't it?

 

[Halo]

I think madabouttheboat is right. I didn’t want to be first to stick my oar in!

 

[rib]

I've been around the long way about ten times. Once in a rib. Sailing I have always gone anti clock wise. April / may being the best weather all sailing times in six weeks. The rib clockwise 9 days. Scotland or scillies being the best. Never been weathered in in Scotland. Even experienced drought and mountain fires while there ??

 

[rib]

Mine you rathlin Island is not to bad either

 

[MidlandsMcGuffin]

When are you planning to start your trip?

I am planning to go round this year, but later than most - starting at the end of July. Currently thinking anticlockwise with a starting point of Plymouth.

Probably late May or early June. Hoping to be in Lerwick at midsummer.

 

[Romeo]

If I was to do it, again, I would turn left coming out of the Firth of Forth. I would take my time on the East Coast, stopping every night. Jump off from Wick to go up to the Northern Isles before going down the Western Isles. I know many people are happy to take a shortcut on the round Britain by nipping through the Caley Canal, so I think I would probably do the same after Ardnamurchan and slip back to the Forth from Inverness.

 

[TernVI]

I don't understand why so many people have this desire to round Great Britain.
Starting from the Solent, I would definitely not go clockwise, as I've met so many people who've not really enjoyed the last few hundred miles.

Sailing up GB's west coast, there are enough places to keep anyone busy for many months. While you're at it, there is the whole of Ireland.
If you're going to venture into the North Sea, then I really can't understand not crossing it.

'I had a whole Summer to go sailing and I went to Hartlepool' just seems bonkers to me.

If I had that amount of time and a strange aversion to leaving the Uk, I'd be tempted to go up the West Coast, Islands, Shetland, Moray, Cale canal.....

 

[Concerto]

I am planning so go singlehanded round in 2022. I will probably go anti clockwise from the Medway. My plan is to proceed fast up the East coast, heading for the Orkneys and Shetland. Then work slowly down the west coast of Scotland before shooting over to Northern Island. Then over to Isle of Man and North Wales. Slog down to south Wales and then over to the Isles of Scilly. Finally a quick dash along the south coast and home. Estimating 4 to 5 months for the trip. In a few years time I expect to keep my boat in North Wales, so I can visit most of places nearby at a later date

 

[WoodyP]

Someone I met from the Humber said once past Spurn head he went where the wind took him. No point in setting off into a head wind, unless you really need to be somewhere.

 

[newtothis]

If leaving from the south coast, I heard an argument somewhere along the lines of, gett up the east coast to catch the best of the long nights/good weather up north, then take advantage of the longer summers/warm bits in the southwest on the way back around. The KTL principle, really.
But if leaving from Wales, I guess go the other way, but for the same reasons.

 

[Daydream believer]

I don't understand why so many people have this desire to round Great Britain.

It is a different cruising ground every trip. It usually means places one has never been to before, which is better than the old " along the coast & back"
So it has lots of little challenges, but they are not very difficult, so one can always stay in one's comfort zone. It is a fairly easy trip to do.
It is safe, in as much as if something goes wrong one can get on a train & come home for a while easily enough. Which i did when I lost my rudder. It was so much easier getting it repaired in Scotland than, say, France
It keeps one in the conversation with the bar pundits at the sailing club.
I find it addictive-I have done the X channel stuff so many times I needed a change
I did it SH & 2 years later did it again & want to go again - covid has delayed it for now, unfortunately
A friend of mine did it with his son & as he was sailing the last 10 miles I phoned him & asked if he thought he would like to do it again.
He replied, " if we had more time we would keep going"
Like me , he is waiting for conditions to improve & be off.

 

[owen]

There was a good 12 page article in YM in may 2014 on circumnavigating UK. It suggested that anticlockwise was probably best but with caveats.

 

[Mudisox]

Been both ways, but I am biased with the memory of not enjoying the brown water bits. Probably i would cross to Brittany on a SWly and forget about going North.

 

[Stemar]

Were I younger and fitter - actually, I'll just settle for fitter, it's something I'd love to do, but I think I'd want to take a year or several, calling in at all the lovely spots on the way, taking in the distilleries and the Isles - I reckon there's a whole season just there, and there are some lovely places on the E coast as well, just not so many.

Leave as soon as the weather's good enough, probably late April or May and keep going until the autumn gales set in, stopping for as long as I feel like stopping and no more than a few overnighters - there aren't many bits where the next port is more than a day sail, and sitting out nasty weather. Leave the boat where I happen to stop for the winter and go home to sit out the cold, dark and damp and picking up where I left off next spring.

 

[Sandy]

I don't understand why so many people have this desire to round Great Britain.

To quote a greater man than all of us

Because it's there

Many get quite excited about racing in large numbers round the Isle of Wright. Having sailed round the island twice in October, I am not so sure I understand their excitement.