The willkcraft tours The Corryvreckan

willk · 03 August 2010, 20:27

It was all BruceB's fault. He fired us up for Scotland and then wussed out. So, when the clouds parted and the winds subsided, we gassed up every damned can we had and surfed out from Greencastle bound for Rathlin with a fine following F3/4. The lunch was had in (ironically enough) Bruce's Kitchen Restaurant.
Pics of the route, the UpsideDown Lighthouse (with swell) and Church Bay on Rathlin.

willk · 03 August 2010, 20:45

The run to Islay was uneventful (apart from my foolish sally into the capricious overfalls off the NE corner of Rathlin where we shipped the only water of the entire trip).
donegaldan's gekkos (thanks again Sonar) did get a wetting south of Islay but he got tired of my incessant humming and switched the comms off. That was the last rain we actually had.
Port Askaig was made in good time and after some auld chat with the local lads, we got snuggly with the pot boats in the tightest wee harbour that I've had the pleasure of tying up in. The Hotel comes highly recommended and the Seafood Platter (at £22) was a massacre of lobster, langoustine and squat lobster tails. The bar was friendly and housed a confusing selection of malts. At least I think it was "confusion" that I was suffering from.
Pics of Port Askaig/willkcraft/Paps* of Jura, Jura Ferry, The Port Askaig Hotel/willkcraft

________________________________
* Gaelic for "Jugs"

Mollers · 03 August 2010, 21:00

Stunning scenery.

Nice busy dash, in a Jardon-esque stylie.

Poly · 03 August 2010, 21:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by willk

The bar was friendly and housed a confusing selection of malts. At least I think it was "confusion" that I was suffering from.

crazy - I thought they would have sorted that out by now - last time I was in there (about 10 years ago) I seem to remember being "confused" also.

willk · 03 August 2010, 21:12

Reveille on Day 2 at 0730hrs (AKA Silly O'Clock)

donegaldan assures me that we ate a cracking Scottish Breakfast and gassed the barque before 0930, departing Islay at 0950. I believe him. Certainly the VISA bill supports his thesis. Petrol and diesel are available about 50m uphill (uphill - thank God) from the quay, normal prices apply.
Conditions were now flat calm and we raced up the west of Jura, an uninhabited wild coast with stunning views, cliffs, caves and raised beaches. We kept a keen eye out for deer but saw only goats.
About a mile south of the Gulf of Corryvreckan we hit our first and only glitch of the trip. Sudden cavitation saw me haul off the power and spot a trailing line - we had snagged a floater. Drifting in 90m of water just off a rocky lee shore, our stress levels were elevated as we raised the legs, only to discover that we had lucked out as the 8m rope had wrapped itself around both legs but missed the props (I think we cut it). I reckon that it was an old floater that had lost the marker buoy.

Relieved, we headed up to the Bay of Pigs and The Corry. We arrived an hour after high tide so things were calm, but as we looked around the gulf picked up and we had a hint of what it could be like. We met some of the Seafari ribs from Oban and the Islay ribs having the Craic.
We hailed Jambo on the VHF but he was in hiding so we headed south down the east coast of Jura to Craighouse for lunch and a Whisky Check. It was ok, so we wrote the Cheque (Isle of Jura).

Pics of Goats, Whirlpools, Craighouse.

willk · 03 August 2010, 21:29

We left Jura in high spirits and made the run to the SE of Islay watching ominous rain storms flit over the hills. However, as we made The Turn for home, the skies lightened and the sea settled some more. The 40Nm leg to Donegal was made over glassy seas, interrupted only by the enormous wake of a supertanker. I was stunned by the panorama arrayed around our drifting horizon - the entire north coast of Ireland, Kintyre in Scotland, Jura, Islay, Gigha, Rathlin - a Constellation of Islands through which we passed...
Pics, East coast of Islay with Rain, Heading Home

willk · 03 August 2010, 21:36

The actual log shows just under 180Nm over two days, using c.270 litres of fuel. I had a ball and the barque performed without a single fault.

donegaldan must be thanked once more for "suiting up" at no notice and abandoning his missus yet again

Mollers · 03 August 2010, 21:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by willk

..interrupted only by the enormous wake of a supertanker.

Interesting. We had a convo on Alderney along the lines of, the really big 'trawlers', don't kick-up much wash these days.

willk · 03 August 2010, 21:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mollers

Stunning scenery.

Nice busy dash, in a Jardon-esque stylie.

Thanks.

There's nothing wrong with my dash - I need ALL that shit

Incidentally, I finally got to grips with the fluxgate thingy - nice bit of kit, glad the previous owner paid for it

willk · 03 August 2010, 21:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mollers

Interesting. We had a convo an Alderney along the lines of, the really big 'trawlers', don't kick-up much wash these days.

There it was. The tanker was a good mile away by then and the wake had spread out with a perfect triple wave, each tall and steep and very close together, very tricky had we hit them at cruise speed. We came off the plane to cross them. It was glassy calm though, which may have allowed the wake to "develop" more than usual.

Bear in mind too, we're only little, and waves seem bigger when you're alone

Mollers · 03 August 2010, 22:03

A quick Wiki.

In a conventionally shaped bow, a bow wave forms immediately before the bow. When a bulb is placed below the water ahead of this wave, water is forced to flow up over the bulb. If the trough formed by water flowing off of the bulb coincides with the bow wave, the two partially cancel out and reduce the vessel's wake.

Bigmuz7 · 03 August 2010, 22:15

Good report man ... well helmed and all that.... enoyed the pics

.. not as much as you enjoyed the drachm check tho eh ? .. and ye know what ? I'm off for one now seeing as I'm on me hols .. and has been doing a fair lock a' crusin' round those summer Isles ... whenever we can, given the sea and rain

good cruising to ye fella

and Sláinte

willk · 03 August 2010, 22:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

.. and ye know what ? I'm off for one now seeing as I'm on me hols .. and has been doing a fair lock a' crusin' round those summer Isles ... whenever we can, given the sea and rain

good cruising to ye fella

and Sláinte

Sláinte mhath! Sippin' a wee(ish) Jura "Superstition" at this end - not entirely convinced, I might add. Still, it works :-)

BruceB · 03 August 2010, 22:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by willk

It was all BruceB's fault. He fired us up for Scotland and then wussed out.

I did have an excuse, the boats still broke!

Hopefully back on the water by the weekend if I get a dry day or so to finish it off once the modified light pole is ready in the next day or so.
You should have said you were going to be about and we may have come down and met you round Scarba way

willk · 03 August 2010, 22:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceB

You should have said you were going to be about and we may have come down and met you round Scarba way

yeah yeah, that's what thon Jambo said too...

wussies!

Brian · 04 August 2010, 16:29

Willk,

Just done the self same trip meself.
If only we had co-ordinated better........we would have escaped all the bad weather that we had!
JK is going to post up my trip report when he gets back from his hols. in the "Features" section. I cant post it myself because, in my naivety, I wrote it in Word with photos, and then tried to Copy&Paste to ribnet. Doh!

willk · 04 August 2010, 17:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian

If only we had co-ordinated better........we would have escaped all the bad weather that we had!

Alas, but that this were possible! In practise I have found it nigh on impossible to plan ahead with ribbing buddies and have the weather play ball. The hop across the North Channel takes us wee Donegal boats well out into the lonely stuff, so if we don't want to get stuck Islandside, we need the weather to work with us.

These days I just watch the longrange and if it looks like a Go, I phone around the boats and crew to raise a posse. I have been on the ball this year and have had a series of great trips including:

Gigha 100Nm (with Redbay), IOM 90Nm (Ribnet), 110Nm linear daytrip around Donegal, 80Nm Tory daytrip, 60Nm Inishtrahull daytrip, 180Nm Islay & Jura overnight whisky worryin' cruise. Sundry joyrides and jaunts not counted. And it's only August.

Now if that waster BruceB gets his pole sorted, we could finish the season in style

martini · 04 August 2010, 17:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by willk

Incidentally, I finally got to grips with the fluxgate thingy - nice bit of kit, glad the previous owner paid for it

Is that a KVH Azimuth 1000?

Mine fogged up not long after fitting and stayed like that ever since

Otherwise a great bit of kit, often on a long leg I'll get a course to steer from the plotter then just follow it with the KVH

BruceB · 04 August 2010, 18:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by willk

Now if that waster BruceB gets his pole sorted, we could finish the season in style

It would be quite easy to delete you from my Xmas card list you know

No wonder you were nervous about certain folk that may have turned up on the IOM trip actually meeting you face to face..................

willk · 04 August 2010, 21:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceB

It would be quite easy to delete you from my Xmas card list you know

Ha!

I have tried Blandishment and other Inducements to entice you off your sofa, all of which have failed. I thought I'd try a bit of Tough Talk

I can see you are Unswayed

Quote:

Originally Posted by martini

Is that a KVH Azimuth 1000?

Yes, that's her. Mine has lost it's back-light, which seems to have been a common fault and a pricey RTM repair, so not an option. My comment referred to just your observation. I reset the damping, freed the buttons and worked out how to set the "steer-to course" option. It's legend!