4th June 2011 - Fort William to Oban

Jeff's blog of his life living aboard a yacht, at anchor, in the UK, with his wife, a dog and a baby.

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Jeff
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4th June 2011 - Fort William to Oban

Post by Jeff »

Quite an eventful few days since the last post. Going to tell it with pictures and videos...

We went out of the final three locks of thr Caledonian Canal in the evening and spent the night on the British Waterways waiting pontoon. As expected my fears began to evaporate almost immediately. The "sea" was calmer than Loch Ness had been. It was calmer than most mill ponds in fact!

Here's us on the pontoon just outside the last lock. Ben Nevis and Fort William in the background.

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We left the following morning and made it to an anchorage in Loch Leven where there _should_ have been good internet. There wasn't. Se we relocated to a small island. Net wasn't good enough there either. So we moved to another island (now some 11 hours after departure) and dropped anchor. Net access was fine but the wind was increasing and I'd managed to block to toilet (which required a 3 hour epic and very horrible repair job that necessitated a shower). We had 40 knot winds on the first night and I deployed more rope and a second anchor. We dragged about 30 meters then stopped. The reason for the dragging became apparent when we left 3 days later. I put on both anchor drag alarms and also a shallow and deep alarm on the depth sounder. Fortunately we didn't need to worry about the power to run these things as the wind was giving us about 5 amps the whole time.

Here's a video of parts of our internet hunt...

http://youtu.be/6wzoq-qXYNk

Here's an aerial view of the island. We anchored top right of the picture to get shelter from the seas coming in from the SW (bottom left). The beach between the two islands did a good job of stopping most of the swell - but none of the wind.

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On the island we found some stones someone had scratched their name in, with a message saying that anyone finding them should send them a text. We did this and received an immediate response. I promised to post up a picture...

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Lunar on seal watch one evening...

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Pulling up both anchors to depart, we found the reason for the dragging. Both anchors were completely wrapped up in seaweed. Unsure why we didn't continue to drag!

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We then motored across the 4 miles to Kerrera Island off Oban, and another gorgeous anchorage. Another boat was already there, the luxury 37 meter long (6.5m draft!) charter yacht "Northern Spirit" which rather dwarfed us :)

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We were just settling in to a night in this gorgeous location when Northern Spirit suddenly upped anchor and moved further out into the bay. This concerned me. Half an hour later the wind suddenly picked up from the North West (not predicted at all by any forecast we'd seen) which made the anchorage increasingly untenable (we were being pushed towards the shallows in increasing swell heights). I re-checked the forecast and a strong wind warning had come into force. We had to move, quickly.

So we're now tied up to a vacant mooring buoy behind Kerrera Island. No idea who's it is or if someone will turn up to charge us for using it. I notice that Northern Spirit at some point in the night also came and joined us. They're anchored in unfeasibly deep water (none of these buoys are big enough for them) about 200m to our East.

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Additional.

The plan was to take a couple of weeks off work and head out into the islands further from the mainland for a while, but we discovered this in Rose the other day, resulting in the need for us to make relatively regular shore visits for the next 6 months or so...

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So we'll be keeping in a bit.

This wee beastie is due to land in December.

We're going to need a MUCH bigger boat!

Current plan is to finish this trip then sell Isabella (hopefully to our friend Adam) and move back to land for 6 months or so while saving up for something larger. We're thinking also of selling our house and buying something more suited as a holiday let rather than long-term let. We'd then be able to have more time on land when we wanted - especially in the winter - while offsetting as much as the mortgage as we do now due to the higher rental rates achievable. I can see a number of issues with this plan though, not least that we may well struggle to afford something suited for holiday letting - we'll see how it goes.

Boat wise, currently I'm looking at something like a Colvic Victor 41 or a Nauticat 33. Both have really nice pilot houses are are "motor sailors" rather than sailing boats like Isabella. They also have a lot more living space.

I'm really excited about this new adventure (fatherhood), but a part of me is very worried it will put an end to boat life.
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cdogg
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Joined: Fri Nov 12, 2010 4:00 pm
Location: Portavadie Marina Loch Fyne

Congratulations

Post by cdogg »

Well you are certainly getting your monies worth out of Scotland's variable weather!
I still follow your blog with interest and of course wish to congratulate you on your 'discovery'.

Here is hoping the weather improves for you on the next legs of your adventure.
Wishing you continued safe passage
Regards
Clarke
(we met at Whitehills)
methodman
YF Newbie
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Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:34 pm

Post by methodman »

OMG jeff! i thought it was some satellite photo at first. you old sea dog you. congrats to you both.
now you need to check the gps due dates and show us a google earth photo of suspected area of impregnation, the geek in me would.

again congrats.
Jeff
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Post by Jeff »

Thanks guys :)

GPS was off at the time :(
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Discus
RNLI Supporter
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Location: Floating around the SW

Congrats

Post by Discus »

Hi Both

Congratulations on your news, I'm sure you're well pleased. Just think of the extra crew you'll have in a few years. At least we know you've kept busy when you've had no internet connection!! :o

Rob
Jeff
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Post by Jeff »

Thanks Rob :)
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