Scotland is about to spit me out over to Ireland

Post date: Jul 06, 2015 5:30:33 PM

I've had a few lovely days here on the west coast of Scotland (and a few rainy ones too) and I've only managed to get a taste of this spectacular cruising ground. So while I'm a bit sad to leave I have to admit i'm happy to have "done" Scotland.

Various problems have built up concerning the boat and I now feel satisfied that many of them have been addressed or at least mitigated. The lack of a mast head arial and wind direction indicator (windex) was the most serious and I'm pleased to report that it got fixed today. We positioned the boat so that it could be approached by a mobile crane and James got hoisted up (3 times) to attach a new arial and windex. Nice job James. I watched with my feet firmly on the ground.

I was also getting more and more disturbed by my battery needing very frequent charges. It's a 70ah battery and I performed a test that revealed that it was behaving like a 12ah battery. In other words, it was shot. So I bought a new one and did the same test and there's a world of difference. So I've now got much more battery power on tap. No more starting the engine just to get it charged up.

I have complained about my damp sleeping quarters and I believe this was due to my anchor locker getting full of water as the drain had blocked. That's been unblocked and things are better now. I also have to air it out in the morning as, bizarrely, condensation forms underneath the mattress which then seeps into the mattress ?!?

What else? I've got my new autopilot that works a dream. I've even got 2 oars. Wonders.

So I reckon I'm ready to continue on more serious passages. Tomorrow's passage 27 on Tuesday will be a rather wet and miserable affair tacking down to Gigha Island off the west coast of the Kintyre peninsula. On Wednesday I will bash across the north opening to the Irish sea to Glenarm in Northern Ireland. I'll have, unusually, good winds behind me and so that should be a blast.

Look out for my passage notes to see how they went.