Setting off around Britain

westhinder

westhinder

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I am setting off on saturday on a four month clockwise circumnavigation of Britain. My main aim is to spend as much time as possible on the Scottish West coast, having travelled north along the Irish East coast. The Orkneys are definitely on my programme. From Land's End to Aberdeen everything will be new to me, at least looking from seaward. So any last-minute advice on places and things along the way not to be missed is greatly welcomed.
And if you happen to see Ossian, a blue-hulled, Belgian-flagged Starlight 39 in the coming months, feel free to come and say hello, we're pretty harmless people.
 
CET1 said:
Perhaps if you told us where you intend route then recommendations of places to see could be filled in.
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Basically: starting from Nieuwpoort, English South coast, West Country, Isles of Scilly, Milford Haven, Irish East coast, Clyde, Hebrides, Orkneys, East coast, back to Nieuwpoort.
 
Don't miss out Belfast on the way North well worth a visit and the new marina is right in the heart of the city. I stopped at Glenarm last year it was nice but it was closed :rolleyes::rolleyes: Also Ballycastle in Northern Ireland is worth a visit, you can get a bus to the Bushmills distillery and giant's Causway is on the way.

Some places I'd recommend If you're visiting the Clyde. I don't know if you intend to Head up the Clyde far but a few places I'd aim for are Brodick on Arran. Spend a day or two visiting the castle and climbing Goat fell. then up to Lochranza and visit the distillery. Moorings are all free in these two places although someone might want a donation at lochranza. Then I'd head up Loch Fyne to Portavadie Marina for some luxury and across to Tarbert for some culture. From there you could head further up an out through the Crinan canal to the west coast or back down round the Mull of Kintyre and make for Islay or Gigha. After that the world is your Oxter. Others will know the area further north better than I do and could advise better.
 
westhinder said:
Basically: starting from Nieuwpoort, English South coast, West Country, Isles of Scilly, Milford Haven, Irish East coast, Clyde, Hebrides, Orkneys, East coast, back to Nieuwpoort.
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We spent 5 months from Portsmouth to Skye and back last summer.

We had just one date on our calender when we were to meet up with a sailing pal and take him and his young son up through the Caledonian for a week to Loch Ness and back down again to Corpach.
This meant that we had to plan fairly carefully our positioning during the last week/few days prior to meeting them.
Even though we enjoyed our friends company, if at all possible I would avoid such specific venue meetings. If you have guests that wish to join you, (imho) as much as possible make it their responsibility to come to you wherever you are rather than you go to them. With so many ferries running between the islands this is usually easily done.

As we had no set route it meant that if winds and weather were favourable in any one direction then that generally was the way we went. There are almost endless places to go see in the western isles and with careful forthought always safe havens from those storms which you will inevitably experience.

Communications are improving every year and it was rare if we had no phone signal close to land.
 
Hi

on your way up the Irish Sea from Milford Haven, Holyhead is a good stop off point with an easily accessible, sheltered harbour.

Good luck and bon voyage !
 
erich27 said:
Hi

on your way up the Irish Sea from Milford Haven, Holyhead is a good stop off point with an easily accessible, sheltered harbour.

Good luck and bon voyage !
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Not so sheltered in strong easterlies I believe.

We were told that due to a long fetch accross the harbour, it can send a big swell through the club moorings and on into the marina on a bad day.

If you leave the boat there for any length of time OTT snubber, fenders, lines were advised to us.

However, Holyhead was a good place for us on the way up as it broke up the transit time satisfactorily yet the town seemed a very sad place with boarded up shops and little in the way of quality facilities.
 
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chrisbitz said:
You should make a video blog of your journey, with fascinating, interesting films of every place you visit.
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We did just that and now have a video diary that swmbo and I have presented to our inshore 'offshore club'.

A great experience editing it all (Gordon Bennett it takes a long time!) which for the Scotland part alone takes us an hour and a half to present.
 
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Scotty_Tradewind said:
If you have guests that wish to join you, (imho) as much as possible make it their responsibility to come to you wherever you are rather than you go to them.
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Thank you, sound advice. All my guests are experienced sailors and they are very well aware of the fact that a sailing boat does not work to a schedule. They know they will have to be flexible.
 
chrisbitz said:
You should make a video blog of your journey, with fascinating, interesting and educational films of every place you visit.

you could have a clever name, like Keep going to the left, or something like that :-)
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Thank you, I will leave that to Dylan.
Much as I would love to meet up with him on the way around, I am afraid that my draught will keep me out of most of the nice spots he spends his time in.
I will keep a blog though, which unfortunately for you will be in Dutch. But you are always welcome to have a look at the pictures :)
www.ossian.be
 
Scotty_Tradewind said:
We did just that and now have a video diary that swmbo and I have presented to our inshore 'offshore club'.

A great experience editing it all (Gordon Bennett it takes a long time!) which for the Scotland part alone takes us an hour and a half to present.
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What ya waiting for? Get it up on You Choob and post a linky!
 
it would be a shame to miss out on the top end of Cardigan Bay by sticking to the east coast of Ireland. Make a detour to see the spectacular Snowdonia mountain range.
 
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