Doodles_McStrife
New member
Hi All,
My partner and I have a charter yacht (31ft, fixed 1.6m draught) from mid-August this year to the Start of November, out of Portsmouth. Its insurance covers it up to 20nm off the coast of the UK and it will just be the two of us crewing.
With a UK scale chart and almanac in hand I'm starting to work out how far we can realistically get in this time and whether a circumnavigation (via the Caledonian Canal) is realistic at all. Given that this is a charter, we do have to be back to Portsmouth on time, so in all cases we'll be carefully watching our timing and planning the remaining (or backwards!) passage to make sure we don't get caught out. We see this as more of a cruising holiday than an all out attempt to get around the country, so generally don't intend to be doing long overnight passages with single-handed watches.
Looking around online, it seems most typical for people to go around anti-clockwise, but one of my major concerns is that if our progress is slow and we are forced to return down the east coast, we will have missed out on everything on the west coast. My gut instinct is that if we are to stay stuck on one side of Great Britain, it should be the West.
Firstly, I'd love any thoughts on what I've noted so far from those with experience of a circumnavigation (or part thereof).
In starting to plan the clockwise circumnavigation (very roughly), I have come up against the following:
a) Depending on prevailing winds, the passage around Land's End from a starting point of Penzance (close to the tidal gate to help get the timing right) might end up being a continuous passage all the way to Lundy (100nm or so!), because our fixed 1.6m draught will not allow us to make use of drying ports on the North Cornwall coast and the few and far between anchorages may not be sheltered. Relying on Padstow also appears to be quite a risk as the entry and exit over the bar is very dependent on conditions. Would you just wait until the right weather window for being able to anchor at St. Ives before making the rounding?
b) Without overnight passages, my estimates make the journey from Portsmouth to Lundy approximately 12 days if we sail every day (which is weather dependent). That's with a rough plan of overnights at: Lymington, Portland, Bridport, Torquay, Salcombe, Plymouth, Fowey, Falmouth, ?, Penzance, ?, Lundy. Extrapolating this progress very roughly (270nm bee line along coast over 12 days), I make it about a month and a half to get up to the Firth of Lorne, which doesn't leave us enough time to get up the canal and back down the east coast (based on the same rate). On that basis I'd also be worried about getting all the way up to the Caledonian Canal and back down the west in time, given that we could get caught out with tides and weather trying to round Land's End again and Portland Bill to get back to Portsmouth on time. What are people's thoughts on the rate of progress estimation?
I haven't yet started looking at the anti-clockwise options and rate of progress, but on the assumption that we can't make it up to the Caledonian Canal, is there any argument for being on the east coast?
That's all for now - thanks in advance!
My partner and I have a charter yacht (31ft, fixed 1.6m draught) from mid-August this year to the Start of November, out of Portsmouth. Its insurance covers it up to 20nm off the coast of the UK and it will just be the two of us crewing.
With a UK scale chart and almanac in hand I'm starting to work out how far we can realistically get in this time and whether a circumnavigation (via the Caledonian Canal) is realistic at all. Given that this is a charter, we do have to be back to Portsmouth on time, so in all cases we'll be carefully watching our timing and planning the remaining (or backwards!) passage to make sure we don't get caught out. We see this as more of a cruising holiday than an all out attempt to get around the country, so generally don't intend to be doing long overnight passages with single-handed watches.
Looking around online, it seems most typical for people to go around anti-clockwise, but one of my major concerns is that if our progress is slow and we are forced to return down the east coast, we will have missed out on everything on the west coast. My gut instinct is that if we are to stay stuck on one side of Great Britain, it should be the West.
Firstly, I'd love any thoughts on what I've noted so far from those with experience of a circumnavigation (or part thereof).
In starting to plan the clockwise circumnavigation (very roughly), I have come up against the following:
a) Depending on prevailing winds, the passage around Land's End from a starting point of Penzance (close to the tidal gate to help get the timing right) might end up being a continuous passage all the way to Lundy (100nm or so!), because our fixed 1.6m draught will not allow us to make use of drying ports on the North Cornwall coast and the few and far between anchorages may not be sheltered. Relying on Padstow also appears to be quite a risk as the entry and exit over the bar is very dependent on conditions. Would you just wait until the right weather window for being able to anchor at St. Ives before making the rounding?
b) Without overnight passages, my estimates make the journey from Portsmouth to Lundy approximately 12 days if we sail every day (which is weather dependent). That's with a rough plan of overnights at: Lymington, Portland, Bridport, Torquay, Salcombe, Plymouth, Fowey, Falmouth, ?, Penzance, ?, Lundy. Extrapolating this progress very roughly (270nm bee line along coast over 12 days), I make it about a month and a half to get up to the Firth of Lorne, which doesn't leave us enough time to get up the canal and back down the east coast (based on the same rate). On that basis I'd also be worried about getting all the way up to the Caledonian Canal and back down the west in time, given that we could get caught out with tides and weather trying to round Land's End again and Portland Bill to get back to Portsmouth on time. What are people's thoughts on the rate of progress estimation?
I haven't yet started looking at the anti-clockwise options and rate of progress, but on the assumption that we can't make it up to the Caledonian Canal, is there any argument for being on the east coast?
That's all for now - thanks in advance!
