BLUEMOMENT

For the last few years I have moved my boat from the Clyde to Port Edgar for the winter months. Why? - well, there is racing on Sundays from the start of October right up to Xmas and I live in Edinburgh so getting to the boat and pretending to work on it when it's on the hard from Jan - Mar is easy. The downside is the wave of depression that hits me when I step gingerly onto the rickety, decaying pontoons - Portavadie, Rothesay, Oban, in fact every other marina, should carry a health warning for Port Edgar users!

Anyway, I digress. My dilemma this year is getting there. I usually go through the Caley Canal and then non-stop sail for about 36 hours past the east coast boring bits. I have been through the Clyde/Carron ditch 3 times and my 1.65m draft is greater than their 1.83m advertised depth, never mind the steel piling booby traps + there is a ridiculous £100 mast stepping charge at PE and the repair to the scuffing on the encapsulated keel ain't cheap. I have always intended to go via Orkney but the weather has never seemed propitious. Lorry transport has always seemed beyond my time rich/money poor state.

So, my timing is I have 2 weeks to do the move. The forecasts are for southerly quadrant winds from about Thursday until the ever less confident foreseeable future. If the GFS predictions are right, getting to Orkney or the Caley might necessitate the Crinan rather than the MoK but there are sufficient gaps between the blows for either. Getting south again looks more problematic - winds and waves are likely to be south easterly coming from near gales in the German Bight so that while the winds may not be too bad, except for direction, the seas, especially with waves against tide off Rattray Heid, are going to be a scunner.

That leaves me with a simple decision set

Abandon all hope and go through the ditch at the end of September

Head north and make a Caley/Orkney decision at Oban when I get there, say at the end of this week, then hole up wherever until the wind gets a bit more north, preferably northwest - I wasn't going to win the races anyway

Give up and put her ashore in the Clyde somewhere for 6 months and wear out my bus pass

Incidently, for the Port Edgar apologists who think the decay is balanced by low prices, 6 months pontoon/3 weeks hard costs >£1600 at PE compared with Kip at ~£1200. I suppose someone has to pay for the trams!

The northern route is very good, at least as far as Stromness. Great cruising in the north west and Orkney. From Scapa south is pretty dreary; we did Stromness, Wick, Peterhead etc. But I think the key word is "cruising". Once north of the Inner Sound its all fairly open: not a place to be sailing to a timetable.

I enjoyed the passage back to the Forth through the Caley Canal. We made a "mini cruise" of it by spending a couple of nights in the Moray Firth then Peterhead etc

I think though at this time of the year I would be very tempted to get into the Clyde, enjoy a week or so amongst the fleshspots there then grit the teeth and take the wondrous waterway eastwards.

(Were you a member of the less august of the Granton clubs you would be able to use their mast crane for free.)

The pontoons at Largs seem to be getting a bit shonky these days. There are some very soft bits, and I suspect that a lot of the wood is going to need replaced quite soon.



Polite cough?



For what it's worth, Port Bannatyne charges £20/foot whether afloat or ashore (includes lifts out and in). I still haven't decided for this winter. the summer has been such a wash out, for personal and weather reasons, that I'm very tempted to leave the boat in. I may try to negotiate a half-and-half deal ...

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Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity - Hanlon's Razor
But don't rule out malice - First Corollary to Hanlon's Razor

Whit aboot getting an East Coast winter boat?

It needn't cost much - an old J24 or a Ruffian perhaps - something you could stick on a trailer like a Micro 18?

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Regards

http://www.yotblog.com/claymore/

what wi` nick trying to drum up a syndicate for a second boat in the budgerigars, aquaplane, ubergeekian and yer good self, it`ll no doubt soon be a prerequisite for membership of the forum to own at least twa boats

Doesnt everyone?

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Regards

http://www.yotblog.com/claymore/

I seem to have a fleet of around 12, but only 1 cruiser, & 2 of the 5 canoes are only big enough for the G-kids to use.

I have a spare 9' wooden sailing tender & a grotty GRP Minisail if anyone wants them & ever passes thro the Midlands to collect them.

So what did you end up doing to get yourself to one of Port Ed's more desirable fingers?

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Ken
Rival 38 Cherry Ripe
Yes, isn't it odd that a boat named like that should be green?

I came through the ditch - ran heavily aground 3 times - just before Auchenstarry where there are the concrete remains of an old bridge (tape measure read 1.58m to the bottom); at the "Devil's Elbow" where a stream runs in and deposits lots of shingly stuff; and on the culvert. There were a lot of other soft touches and one sharp knock in the middle of nowhere (GPS references available). Weed was pretty bad from Bowling up to the top of Maryhill - I lost count of the number of filter cleans - 1 plastic bag round prop. Mast up at Grangemouth for £40 cf 250% more at Port Edgar. At the Carron sea lock there were 3 lassies, students of marine and freshwater biology at Glesca Uni, using an awfy neat wee ROV to look for invasive mussels. Persuaded them to inspect my keel and there is obvious scuffing and lack of anti-foul but not too bad. The brown Clyde scum seems to have been quite successfully cleaned off by the copious weed patches.
As for getting a desirable, slop facing, almost long enough for the boat, enough cleats, minimal rotten planks, pontoon - pure charm was all it took. You should try it sometime!

Perhaps BWS should contract the PE guys to go through with Thumper the Dredger. All sounds a bit tedious really, I'm glad we decided to bring Cherry Ripe through by road. You should expect to see her on a pontoon near you (charm is my middle name) in less than a fortnight all being well.

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Ken
Rival 38 Cherry Ripe
Yes, isn't it odd that a boat named like that should be green?

I guess your escapades on the ditch is what convinced your mate Peter to opt for Rothesay dock then?
Lovely boat is Solpeiter.
C_W

Aye, but he has a lousy taste in beer!

Jings, all that just to get to the east coast?