Sweden-Scotland-Wales

[stevel]

My son and I are planning to bring a boat back from Sweden to Wales in May - either round the North of Scotland of through the Caledonian Canal - and then down to Wales. Does anyone have any experience of any part of this route? Any advice to offer?

 

[HaraldS]

Did this last summer. We went from Henan (near Gothenburg) up along the Norwegian coast and then from a bit north of Stavanger we went over to Inverness and through the Caledonian Canal and after some sailing in the Hebrides down to the Clyde area. All slow and leisurly family cruising.

All very nice sailing areas. The Swedish west coast alone is worth some extended cruising, and fantastic cruising goes on in Norway, I can tell you some lovely anchorages there if you like.

I also liked the Caledonian Canal, even so coming off the Noirth Sea into the first basin in Inverness and tieing up between houses and having ducks around your boat is kind of an odd feeling. And surfing under spi through Loch Ness is also great fun.

All together highly recommendable. Just be just above a thousand miles if you don't zig zag around as much as we did.

Don't know how much time you plan, given that you might have to wait out some bad weather in May, two weeks is probably the minimum, but you'll miss a lot.

 

[tomboy352]

You might consider crossing the Jutland Peninsula via the Limfjord. Not as Scenic as S.Norway but if the Wx is poor, there is plenty of shelter....a bit like the Norfolk Broads. You also have the advantage of being South ofThe Inverness Latitude which would help you point if the wind is westerly. The pilots say that Thyboron should be avoided in poor wx but we have found that there is more shelter there than the pilots suggest. A comment born up by the locals.

 

[tomboy352]

You might consider crossing the Jutland Peninsula via the Limfjord. Not as Scenic as S.Norway but if the Wx is poor, there is plenty of shelter....a bit like the Norfolk Broads. You also have the advantage of being South ofThe Inverness Latitude which would help you point if the wind is westerly. The pilots say that Thyboron should be avoided in poor wx but we have found that there is more shelter there than the pilots suggest. A comment born up by the locals.
You might check that the C Canal is open as they sometimes have down periods.

 

[ponapay]

There is excellent sailing in Bohuslan (W Sweden) and in southern and SW Norway. Why not take in Shetland en-route too, its lovely country with beautiful peaceful anchorages and delightful friendly people.

The Caledonian Canal I have travesed many times, usually the weather is the opposite of that that you wish and is often cluttered with ghastly power boats driven a sthough they were cars without brakes.

It well worth doing the west coast properly, from Cape Wrath southwards.

Have a great trip, I shall be doing the same in 2003. My boats in Stockholm for this winter then Denmark for winter 2002 and home in 2003.

Ponapay

 

[Ohdrat]

I have sailed extensively on the North Coast of Scotland and also thro the Caley Canal.. depends what you enjoy really

North Coast of Scotland is FABULOUS but you do need a boat that is good (if not excellent on the wind) and sea friendly. You will have a Sea .. quite often big heading you. It can be wild and extremely envigorating in the right boat and hell in the wrong boat.. you may also find that the prevailing wind is NE so the North Coast becomes a hostile lee shore. Scrabster is an OK harbour but is liable to gusts powering down from the cliff above, there is an OK anchorage at Tongue. Cape Wrath is well.. exciting!

Caledonian canal is a gin or more correctly a malt cruise! However you may find that you have a head wind all the way down the Great Glen.. and some interesting squals down the various glens/mountains you will be sailing thro'

At the moment we (Highlands) are having an extremely wild time wind wise.. we have had a succesion of gales which is not very usual at this time of year.. we always get gales around the Equinoxs

Suggest you watch the weather patterns v closely and asses how you and the boat feel about the conditions you may meet.

P.S. there is a fair amount of Lock work that you will need to do.. so have some good long sturdy lines and fenders.. and Nessy is definately friendly

 

[extravert]

See my round UK website at

www.xrayted.freeserve.co.uk

which describes Pentland Firth to Wales (or the other way round at least).

Pentland Firth to Cape Wrath needs to be trated with caution, especially going Westwards. There is a list of dos and don'ts in the Clyde Cruising Club's pilots. In addition to the strong tides and exposed sea there is not a lot of shelter along the North coast of Scotland. However, once you have rounded Cape Wrath shelter and harbours get much better despite the lack of yacht specific facilities. Kinlochbervie, Lochinver and Ullapool are all safe havens. Further south still you will be in the shelter of the Hebrides. You could (like we did) slip up the side of Skye and Mull, where it doesn't really matter what the weather is doing out at sea. Once South of Kintyre thinks can get a bit bleak again, especially round Galloway. The Irish Sea should not be underestimated either, as often there are few places you can go with a deep keel at low tide.

I've not done the Caledonian canal, but I would recommend all the west coast of Scotland, therefore I'd go round the top. We met plenty of Scandinavian boats doing just that.

 

[gunnarsilins]

Did it the other...

...way round 1999. Glasgow-Crinan Canal-Caledonian Canal-Inverness-Thyboron-Limfjorden-Hals-Varberg-Gothenburg-Trollhatte Canal-Gota Canal-Stockholm.

A five week trip in mostly nice weather.

Highlights were West Scotland and Caledonian Canal. But being a Swede and done Limfjorden and the Swedish Coast several times these areas might have lost some of it´s charm.

If yo need information, especially about Swedish and Danish waters, please get in touch.

 

[Ohdrat]

Re Prevailing Wind ... spot my typing error it should of course be NW! sorry if I caused any confusion

 

[Guest]

What sort and size of yacht is it?

I would suggest going through the Caledonian Canal rather than round the top. It would be far less dependent on the weather. May is quite early in the summer so the weather may not be too hot. With the Caledonian Canal, you will be able to keep going, though it is probable that the wind will be against you.

On the other hand, if you have plenty of time and want to see the scenery, go round the top. The scenery is fantastic but right up North, it is bleak.

Apart from the Xrayted website (2001), have a look at www.boozeroo.freeserve.co.uk which has details of my trip round the top in 2000.

Regards

Richard

 

[Ohdrat]

I have pm'd you with this link.. but thought I'd post it here for anyone else who sails in Northern waters.. It's the Icelandic Maritime Administration site

http://www.sigling.is/enska/weather_sea_state.html