West Coast of Scotland

[MarcJ]

I was up there last summer. My advice is to read the Irish Sea Pilot which explains the tides and races. It's sensibly cautionary; not as bad as the 'watch out for the rock the size of a house' pilots I've come across (I'd put Martin Lawrence in that category although tbf some of his is 20 years old).

We/I did, Crinan, Gigha, Glenarm, Belfast, Bangor, Arklow, Serries, Howth, Arklow, Skomer in 10 days with one day off for bad weather. On the way up we took four weeks plus five weeks in the Mull and Skye areas. Reckon I saw about 3% in that time.

Join the Cruising and Sailing Scotland FB group; very friendly and lots of advice

Hi Mattonthesea,
Hopefully I'm not creating too much of a thread drift - I'm looking for some cruising guides for this area which Irish Sea Pilot are you referring to?
The David Rainsbury one?
Also looking for cruising guides for the small isles/outer hebrides.
Thanks!

 

[JumbleDuck]

I was up there last summer. My advice is to read the Irish Sea Pilot which explains the tides and races.

The current Irish Sea Pilot gets very weak as you go north: Ramsey and Jack Sound are covered in excruciating detail while Cumbria hardly gets a mention. I would strongly recommend getting the tidal stream atlases for the Clyde (NP222) and the North of Ireland/West of Scotland (NP218) which make it all clearer than text ever can. And don't trust the CCC for getting round the Mull of Kintyre: their advice is hours out.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Also looking for cruising guides for the small isles/outer hebrides.

The Clyde Cruising Club books are pretty definitive for the West Coast. The modern ones tend to leave out smaller, more remote anchorages but keep an eye on the "For Sale" section, as I shall soon by unloading half a dozen of the much older ones which have greater detail.

 

[cpedw]

I would strongly recommend getting the tidal stream atlases for the Clyde (NP222) and the North of Ireland/West of Scotland (NP218) which make it all clearer than text ever can.

IMHO a more useful alternative to the paper atlases is the Absolute Tides app. It has all the tidal atlases round UK with the bonus that it shows the correct page for any chosen time (to 1 hour) and date. That's in addition to its other useful functions, tide .heights/times and (if you've got mobile data) Met Office weather.

Derek

 

[mattonthesea]

Hi Mattonthesea,
Hopefully I'm not creating too much of a thread drift - I'm looking for some cruising guides for this area which Irish Sea Pilot are you referring to?
The David Rainsbury one?
Also looking for cruising guides for the small isles/outer hebrides.
Thanks!

Hi Marc

yes it is the David Rainsbury one - and yes it is thin on Cumbria. For the Small Isles I'd get advice here and then grab one of the freebie magazines (?Scotland Anchorages?) that have up to date info for many places. And then get local knowledge; I found very helpful people in just about everywhere I visited.

 

[mattonthesea]

The current Irish Sea Pilot gets very weak as you go north: Ramsey and Jack Sound are covered in excruciating detail while Cumbria hardly gets a mention. I would strongly recommend getting the tidal stream atlases for the Clyde (NP222) and the North of Ireland/West of Scotland (NP218) which make it all clearer than text ever can. And don't trust the CCC for getting round the Mull of Kintyre: their advice is hours out.

Not noticed that as I went up Irish coast. Planning to do the Welsh coast in a few years time.

Re the tides that's probably one of those words or pictures things. I like both but the words Rainsbury uses convey it very well. The idea of the Atlantic trying to squeeze around Mull and Galloway (mind you I'm a white water kayaker !

 

[JumbleDuck]

Not noticed that as I went up Irish coast.

The Irish Coast coverage is weird, It starts at Dun Laoghaire and heads south, then it starts again at the top and heads to Howth, missing innumerable small places (Carnlough, for example) on the way. Which means that the two main marinas for Dublin are 90 (from memory) pages apart.

As you say, David Rainsbury writes nicely, but I think they should have made it a two hander, with him doing the bottom half and someone better acquainted with the area doing the north. Also, they needed to shoot their editor, or at least have strong words about the random and occasionally duplicated placing of chartlets.

 

[MarcJ]

Thanks JumbleDuck and Mattonthesea, will keep and eye out for the ones mentioned!

 

[SteveGorst]

We did Oban to Gigha, Gigha to Bangor, Bangor to Peel, Peel to Conwy. All nice day sails and with the tide, mostly...