agurney
Well-Known Member
Interesting, but very misleading. It gives the impression that the tide around Shuna is as strong as in the Sound of Luing and Cuan Sound (which it isn't).
Round Mull of Kintyre into Clyde
- Thread starter dunedin
- Start date
Interesting, but very misleading. It gives the impression that the tide around Shuna is as strong as in the Sound of Luing and Cuan Sound (which it isn't).
misterg
Well-Known Member
FWIW: The figures are straight out of Edition 4 of NP218 (1983) - the Admiralty tidal stream atlas.
Andy
Juggler7823
Well-Known Member
Kintyre to Clyde
This is the advice given in the CCC Sailing Directions. It does not take into account the speed of the boat! Its much better to give the time that a yacht should arrive at the Mull. Reeds uses this approach on page 69 of their Western Almanac 2009. Section2.9 on page 72 gives a series of tide chartlets which show the tidal flows in detail. Briefly, the tide close in goes to the East from HW Dover -6 to HW-2.
Hope this helps, if gives the info you need. Its up to you to match your probable boat speed.
This is the advice given in the CCC Sailing Directions. It does not take into account the speed of the boat! Its much better to give the time that a yacht should arrive at the Mull. Reeds uses this approach on page 69 of their Western Almanac 2009. Section2.9 on page 72 gives a series of tide chartlets which show the tidal flows in detail. Briefly, the tide close in goes to the East from HW Dover -6 to HW-2.
Hope this helps, if gives the info you need. Its up to you to match your probable boat speed.
Aja
Well-Known Member
Yes, but if you read the sailing directions it states that the directions are written "for yachts of moderate draft, of 2 metres or less..." from that would expect that sailing is the main from of propulsion... so in effect for the Mull they are advising that you should be able to get from Gigha round the Mull in less that 6 hours or you will find the tide against you - otherwise, switch the engine on ;-)
Donald
Juggler7823
Well-Known Member
Kintyre to Clyde
Moderate draft, less than 2m is hardly a good indicator of a modern yachts speed!
Moderate draft, less than 2m is hardly a good indicator of a modern yachts speed!
dunedin
Well-Known Member
QUANDRY - thanks very much for your kind offer. Didn't pick this up till we got back. In the end due to other plans changing we ended up with three boat crew, driver and 1 small dog! Got through fairly quickly, albeit busily, due to the last of the West Highland Week boats going in the opposite direction, so mostly locks were ready for us to nip into as they came out ;-) thanks for the offer though
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
It's fine - there are much worse places further north that no-one worries about at all. It is less worrying (for example) than the Sound of Luing or the Doruis Mor. And Sanda provides a handy stopping place (complete with pub!) in any weather you'd be likely to make the passage in.
The main thing is not to do it on an iffy weather forecast.
I think the Mull of Kintyre has got its reputation because in rough weather it can be VERY nasty; much more exposed than many places with bigger tide races and so on. And in the winter, it is extremely exposed. But in reasonable sailing weather, it is not a problem; of course, you need to carry the tides - but even these are less than those around Rathlin Island, the Sound of Luing, the Doruis Mor, and Kyle Rhea.
Personally, I'm not tempted by the Crinan Canal - pay a lot of money to spend a day working locks? There's no time saving that I can see.
Ubergeekian
Well-Known Member
The very inshore passage is a bit of a paradox. It gives you a slightly early tide and much smoother water BUT if you are sailing it has to be a lee shore, as you are so close in that the cliffs blanket offshore winds. I've used it, but saving and hour by sailing 20m from a rocky lee shore isn't the sort of decision one takes lightly...
Ubergeekian
Well-Known Member
I've done the Crinan Canal loads of times with self plus one crew - it helped, though, that I can get through a single open gate, and normally went through at quiet times of year: it's MUCH quicker to do it without cack-handed visitors pratting about.
I've also done it single handed a couple of times, by rafting up to another boat going through. In one case it was a (reasonably non cack-handed!) visitor so I let him drive while I supervised the shore crew, and on the other occasion it was a fishing boat who were more than happy to do all the work - at incredible speed - while I pottered about, did the washing up, read a book and occasionally looked up to see which lock we were at.
snooks
Well-Known Member
The Wiley Nautical Almanac, free to download and use online almanac type thing now has tidal streams on it and you can scroll though in much the same way....easier than making animated gif files 
asteven221
Well-Known Member
I went round (east to west) for the first time a few weeks ago and it was easy enough even although it was quite windy. Managed to do a consisitant 10.5 knots over ground through Sanda where it was most turbulant. Anyway.... the Mull itself was fairly calm but their were lots of eddy's and confused seas where i thought was the inshore route. It turns out however that after speaking to an old hand, he said if you can't easily see the waves on the shore then you are too far out. I guess I was in the middle of all the ****! On the way back I hugged the shore - about 25 meters out all the way round and it was fine. The wind picked up big time after going around to about 30 knots which was fun, but of little concern as the sea state was unusually smooth for that wind strenght.
I got a program called Tideplotter 2008 and it has lots of great info including animations for tidal streams i.e. you pick the time and it shows you the stream. There are loads of ports to choose from, so you don't have to adjust times reference to HW Dover etc.... and it's in the correct time i.e. the actual time. There are tidal graphs and text. There is a simple passage planning tool that will allow you to mark a series of waypoints for your planned journey and it will give you the passage time. Not for navigating with, but handy nonetheless. It costs next to nothing for a 3 year licence and would definately recommend it as it takes a lot of the brainache out of passage planning i.e. worrying that you've got it wrong! The link is http://www.belfieldsoftware.co.uk/ and there is a free trial version to evaluate the software.
Spyro
Well-Known Member
The Wiley Nautical Almanac, free to download and use online almanac type thing now has tidal streams on it and you can scroll though in much the same way....easier than making animated gif files
The demo only shows the channel and north france, does it cover Scotland?
snooks
Well-Known Member
Ah! Well spotted, I'll stick to taking photos!
It was handy for the animated tides around the Channel Islands though
Ubergeekian
Well-Known Member
That's the one. The edge of the inshore route is a clearly defined line of confused water and it is only about 50 - 100' out from the shore. That's the problem: you have to go so far in that you are right under the cliffs. Fun!
Clyde_Wanderer
Well-Known Member
Not sure about times, but dont play much heed to the coast gaurd weather forecast or sea state, as yesterday all their forecasts were smooth to slight, when in fact we were experiencing waves of 5-8ft on the east side of Holy island while returning after a failed attempt at rounding Ailsa Craig.
Most uncomfortable trip I have done and first time to be seasick.
I was much happier when going south into the waves than when heading north with a following sea.
The weather forecast was totaly wrong and very inacurate to say the least.
Still, enjoyed the experience.
Most uncomfortable trip I have done and first time to be seasick.
I was much happier when going south into the waves than when heading north with a following sea.
The weather forecast was totaly wrong and very inacurate to say the least.
Still, enjoyed the experience.