Sailing spectator Scottish style

31st May 

I'm exhausted.  I'm physically and mentally shattered and yet I have hardly left my chair. Why?  My

Third night at sea

husband has been involved in the most challenging sailing and fell running race. He began on Friday at noon, did not stop and finished on the Monday afternoon.  What's it all about and why am I shattered? 

I began writing this whilst they were mid race and started by writing the post thus: 

Grab a coffee and help me stay awake, if I disappear for a moment every 30 minutes or so, do excuse as I am trying to see where his latest position is, let me explain...

But I was not able to concentrate on blog writing whilst also trying to keep track of them so here is their race in Scotland now that they have thank goodness successfully completed it.

Race briefing

Normally our boat Brimble is kept in the south of England but for the past three years she has made her way with help from us! to Arctic Norway and now is currently on her homeward journey via Scotland and Ireland.  Whilst in Scotland we thought  John thought it would be a great idea to compete in the Scottish Islands Peak Race.  Not really knowing what is was other than a bit of sailing and running, both of which he does regularly I told him to go for it.  Umm, had I realised I wonder if I would have been so keen or encouraged him as much...




Fast and furious sailing to begin

The race takes place over several days non stop and involves difficult sailing navigation and strong tides, passing by the third largest whirlpool, Corryvreckan in the world and sailing close to the Mull of Kintyre made famous by the Rod Stewart song but known to have strong currents and dangerous outfalls for boats.  On top of that the race involved climbing Ben More, the highest mountain on the inner Hebrides, the Paps of Jura and Goatfell on Arran.  All this takes place non stop and as the organisers of this race were heard to say on BBC radio Scotland,  the category called 'all rounders' generally consisted of nutters as the crew on board have to do everything both sail, run  and try and get some sleep in-between.  Other classes in the race had sailors for the sailing and runners for the running, but not my husband and team, oh no, they were one of 5 boats who chose to enter the all rounders' class.

 

This year the organisers insisted that all boats had trackers on them and that runner could if they so wished use the tracker whilst running also.  Not all boats decided to carry the tracker on their hill runs but after the first run and sail when Brimble, the smallest and oldest boat in the race were in a time frame of their own and so ended up running all the mountains mostly in the dark, the organisers insisted that a tracker be carried at all times.  For me as the armchair spectator it meant that I could see where Brimble and her  crew were 24 hours a day.  The yellow brick tracker as it was called was refreshed every half an hour and so consequently I refreshed the computer page so I could follow them in almost real time.  Below is a speeded up version of the yellow brick tracker.  Boats that you see are stationary are some that have had to retire for various reasons.

On returning home my husband began to explain how they started to climb Goatfell at about 4am, I know I responded, I was there with you refreshing the page... this is why I am shattered and the house looks like a bomb site...

Injuries in this race are not uncommon and many boats have to retire.  Of the 38 that began only 29 completed the race.  One poor chap fell on Mull in difficult wet and dark conditions and had to be helicopted to the mainland and under went surgery.  I'm surprised more were not injured.

Second race was on Mull and conditions were 'horrendous'
according to the tweets that were flying around. 

 

Visibility on Mull became like pea soup

One boat retired after the run on Mull which by all accounts seems to have been hellish.  They write as their reason for retiring from the race as, we can see we are only a few miles from the distillery at Tobermoray so are going to make our way there after this hellish run.

The odd run was conducted in daylight

Having climbed one large mountain/hill, there was time for
a quick stop to look at the next climb!

Scotland at it's best

The bluebells were still out

Having spent much longer on some of the runs than anticipated mainly due to the bad weather and night time running it meant that Brimble and crew were having to sail against the tide, they had missed the tidal gate and made for slow painful sailing progress, it could be said they were pushed backwards for a while.  At this point another boat retired as they couldn't be bothered to battle the tidal gate and turned round and sailed home.

Light house in the Sound of Luing, here the boat missed
the tidal gate and almost moved backwards for several hours

  

No engines allowed in this race.  Runners rowing
to shore to begin their running leg

After strong winds and rain, being pushed backwards by missing the tidal gate having completed three of the four runs, the wind died down and there was not a whisper to be had.  Out came the newly purchased wooden oars and the crew had to row as no engines are allowed.  By this time everyone was almost exhausted.  Another boat retired at this point stating being becalmed with so many more miles to sail meant they had had enough.

Becalmed at night and so it was time to bring out the
3m long oars and row the 28 foot sail boat

With strong winds and rain battering down, one boats mainsail ripped and so they had to retire from the race also.  Small but steady Brimble soldiered on.

The weather was often not kind

Having completed running up and down the
3 Paps of Jura, it was time for the sail to Arran

 

Light house on Mull of Kintyre, the sea was rough and 
outfalls  difficult & yes they did play the
Rod Stewart song as they sailed past

Another boat retired at this point as they needed to push on and get in so as to be able to allow crew members to get back to work as the race had taken longer than anticipated.  Their engine fired up, they motor sailed to the finish.

 

Being the smallest boat in the race, there was not actually
enough sleeping bunks for all.  It was a tight squeeze



All sorts of weather was experienced

Whilst sailing the easiest food to eat is that which can be cooked
quickly, fits into a bowl and can be eaten with only a fork

Another night time approaches

Steep hill climbs with loose rocks everywhere, dangerous
running, especially when conducted mostly at night



Stunning scenery but can you spot our runner?

In the anchorage of Jura one boat had to retire as they were quoted as being a 'bit too friendly with some rocks'. What they meant by that was that the sailing navigation of this race is difficult and they hit underwater rocks and their keel fell off!

Oh yes, all three need to be climbed

By this last race John said everyone was utterly exhausted.  Little sleep had been had by any of them and they had all been pushed to their limits.  They completed the run and sailed to the finish line at Troon, south  west of Glasgow.  Celebratory beers and dinner was had with one crew member falling asleep before the main arrived and awoke to the pudding!

Top of Goatfell on Arran, half way through the last climb

All throughout the race twitter was alive with the arm chair spectators like me fascinated by the yellow brick tracking system and cheering on all the boats.  Camaraderie was strong and supportive and even though I was not racing was made to feel part of the group.  The penultimate tweet from the organisers on cheering the last boat home, Brimble read:

SIPR ‏@SIPeaksRace May 23

It's Brimble! With a finishing time of 15:13:28. Hooray! #sipr2016

Would John do it again?  Indeed if Brimble were to find herself in Scotland at the right time of year, the answer was a resounding yes.  Despite having had terrible weather at times and little sleep, John felt the race was extremely well organised and he loved it in a challenging sadistic way.  Me?  I'll stick to arm chair spectating and engaging in the social media whirr that took place unbeknown to sailors and runners alike. 

Eclectic ramblings

Bunad purse and silver

20th May


Celebration

17th May saw National Constitutional Day in Norway and I was not to be left out, there may not have been a National Holiday here in the UK, but I baked my cake and wore my bunad (national costume).  Outside of Norway the largest parade for 17 May takes place every year in London and despite the fact that I could not attend this year, I streamed live both to the London and Oslo parades.  A girl wants to feel part of the party after all! 



To see more about this day and how to make kransekake pop along to my previous post... here

Traditional Norwegian celebration cake: kransekake

Exams begin with tradition

As with many other households across the UK we are at the beginning of exam fervour.  A tradition has been set up and whoa betide us if we now do not follow it, so in true eclectic home style we had waffles for breakfast as a good luck feast before heading off into the hall in silence, with a see through pencil case, you know what I'm talking about right...

Breakfast waffles

 Sewing for the first time this year

The Great British Sewing Bee began this week and as in previous years I sat glued to the TV, not being a great TV watcher, this is somewhat unusual for me to actually even know when a programme is starting, but I was there in front of the goggle box with a few seconds to spare.  AND it got me to thinking when did I last dust off the old sewing machine and make something?  The following day out it came and from my chaotic craft cupboard, that everything falls out of when you open it because it is crammed full of 'this might come in handy' random stuff, I found very suitable material and a funky chunky red zip.  I had the beginnings of a skirt... 

No pattern, so I had to wing it...

Really happy with the material and red combo

It's so hard to photograph yourself!

I'm not entirely happy with it as the waistband is a little large, so really I need to un pick it and trim it all in but I was running out of time and now I wonder if I will ever get round to it *sigh*

Teaching & Learning

My day job hours are always reduced in mid May every year and this is my frantic time to make, bake, craft, learn and teach.  It began in earnest this year.  Crochet class number 3 began, (actually the first  course of this year)  Still being a tad nervous at teaching crochet I try and dot my 'i's' and cross my 't's' so to speak for days before checking I know exactly what to do and how to go about it.  I think the first class went well, it was on National Day, so the ladies were treated to kransekake, that seemed to wash down well with the refreshments, what to bake for next week?  Any suggestions?  I like to bake something new for each class...

Beginning to set out for the course

And this is week 5 of the Scheepjes CAL, I'm loving it and learning new crochet tit bits all the time.  Ester's videos are totally brilliant, just love it.  To find out more, see this post here

Watching Ester on the video, although with
 the crib sheet and crocheting at the same
time, multi tasking indeed and loving it

 

 

Hard to see in the photograph, but this
week we made seagull prints on the sand!
You have to look very closely...

 

 Nature

What weather!!! you would think we were in April still.  What is right to wear, I seem to get it wrong every day.  I'm either freezing cold or too hot.  Here's what it looks like in my village and garden right now...

Clematis montana in beautiful sunshine. 
Can you spot an animal shape?

Then came the rain.  Leaf of honeysuckle

The wild flowers are literally having a
 field day with the rain and sun

Buttercups in the centre of our village

Such cheery wildflowers

Everyone's wisteria is in full bloom, ours every
 year is behind by a few weeks, odd!

Simply stunning

Sharing with you my five moments from my week and joining in with  Amy

 

♥  Have a glorious week end  ♥

APOLOGIES TO WORDPRESS BLOGGERS
Massive apologies and I have been trying to remember to say this for some weeks, but for some inexplicable reason I cannot leave comments on WordPress.  I write them, click on publish and vamoosh, they disappear, gone into thin air.  I then often try again but to no avail, after now having tried again on two different WordPress blogs I know not what to do to rectify this solution. 
Anyone, can you help?

Spring Sailing in Scotland

April 9th   



Brimble, our 28 foot sailing boat has seen us safely across the Atlantic, North Sea, the English Channel, the Norwegian Sea and many other waters, including the Caribbean and Artic.  She is a small or in estate agent speak 'bijoux' boat who was built to tackle heavy seas and bob along very happily.  Both home and transport, we love her to bits.  This year we had  wintered her in Inverness after bringing her back from the very north of Norway and the midnight sun.  Instead of sailing her around the north of the UK we decided to try a different kind of sailing and ventured to take her through the Caledonian canal.

The canal was the brain child of Thomas Telford in the 1800's and joins the Scottish lochs with canals including 29 locks so that vessels could safely carry their cargo from west to east and east to west.  History of the canal  We were travelling from Inverness on the east coast of Scotland to Oban on the west coat.

On arrival we had various chores to undertake but as she is a small boat we have to make sure we kept out of each others way.

Servicing the engine requires much
to be moved and dismantled

Who says our boat is too small?

Our penultimate night at Inverness marina kept me awake all night.  A gale came through, nothing unusual about that, especially in Scotland at this time of year, but for some reason the wind kept changing direction and so the boat would heel one way and then a few minutes later would lean the other way, it would tug on it's warps, the halyards were frapping against the mast, the cockpit cover was flapping wildly and the fenders were squeaking against the pontoon.  All this led to my inability to sleep and the howling of the wind and the pelting rain was as if it were inside the boat.  The next morning on discussion  with our friends I heard John tell them that he could have slept through the gale but he could not sleep through my constant commentary about all the aspects of the night.  I did blush a tad.

As with every new sailing season, it's a sensible idea to have a 'shake down sail'.  Here you check everything is working and has been put back correctly.  This years shake down was the best we have ever had, nothing went wrong, the weather was perfection itself and we were welcomed to the season by a cheeky Scottish seal who kept popping his head up at every opportunity.  The guillemot birds in their winter plumage were in abundance and everything felt great.

Cheeky Scottish seal

Inverness bridge and many guillemots

Returning back to the marina for the final night before making passage through the canal was not as easy as we had hoped.  By now the tide had turned and the current was picking up.  We were sailing alongside our good friends in their wooden boat, Thembi  (Tim built it himself) and we really struggled to make it past the north cardinal buoy and turn into the marina.  Half an hour later and we would not have made it.  Something always has to happen on the first sail of the season, right?

See the force of the current pushing on the north cardinal buoy

The following morning dawned and aware of the strong current from yesterday we were determined not to be caught out by the potential six knots.  We checked and double checked the tides, called up the harbour master on VHF to check the time we could enter the sea lock and made our way into the Caledonian Canal.  The stillness of the water bode well for the day.  What could go wrong?

Beauly Firth just outside the sea lock

Having made our way through the sea lock, motored through the canal and through a couple of more locks we entered Loch Ness, somewhere I have wanted to go since I was a little girl.  Of course I do not believe the stories of a Loch Ness monster, but I couldn't help but keep a sharp eye out and admit to having to look more than once at the shadows on the water.  Loch Ness is the deepest water in the UK and most of it is actually deeper than the North Sea.

Thembi making way ahead of us

The day and week saw a mixed bag of weather often turning quite quickly from one to another making for dramatic skies.

And then the sun came out

Fantastic architecture was to be found along the way

When the sun hid behind the clouds it became
quite chilly but the great sailing made up for it

Our first evening we decided to anchor in Loch Ness over night.  We do not have a mechanical chain for our anchor, so anything that we let out and generally you should let out a minimum of 3 times the depth of water, we have to pull back up by hand the next day.  We therefore, not surprisingly like to anchor in quite shallow water.  Not an easy feat in the deepest waters of the UK. 

Being ahead of Thembi we decided to sneak inwards to see where to anchor for the night.  We have a depth sounder which lets us know how much water is below the boat but it stays blank if the depth is over 100 meters, so as we approached the shore line having had a blank screen for most of the day we suddenly saw we had 30 meters below us.  Drawing 1.6m, meant we had more than our requirements and far too deep for us to anchor in, forget pulling up 90m of chain, we don't carry that much for a start!  Before you could even blink there was a large thud, the depth sounder was reading 1.2m.  We had gone aground in the deepest water of the UK. 

Thembi at anchor near to
 where we went aground

Quick as a flash we sprang to one side of the boat deck, leant out as far as we could so it looked like we were falling over the side of the boat backwards and then leapt to the other side of the boat and did the same thing on that side, leaning as far out as we could trying desperately to move the boat in a rocking motion from side to side.  John and I ran from one side to the other in quick succession together whilst our daughter held onto the tiller and suddenly we somehow managed to get our selves free.  My heart pounding  and palms sweating we motored away from the shore having also somehow in all of that called out to Thembi not to follow us into this shallow patch.  Having two boats stranded in the deepest water of the UK (have I mentioned that yet?) would have been completely disastrous!

Hamish (8) on Thembi laughed and said he thought we were going to fall off the boat as we were leaning out so far and that it must have been Nessie who had grounded us.  Tim, however thought it was a perfect 'get out of jail' manoeuvre he had ever seen, perfection he said.  Under my breath I know I muttered perfection would have been not to go aground.



The Caledonian Canal is well used by all types of boats from commercial vessels, private boats, not so many sailing ones, admittedly and many hire cruisers for holiday makers.  Many use the canal as a green gym as there is a tow path along the entire side of the canal and lochs, extremely well maintained.  Cyclists, walkers and runners are to be seen along the way.

Pathway along Loch Oich

Pathway along the canal

Through the canals themselves we could not sail as it was too narrow

Lots to see along the way

The highest point of the canals was 106 feet above sea level.  It felt very surreal having a sail boat so high above the sea.  We looked everywhere for a plaque to state the fact, thinking a photo of that with Brimble in would be fantastic, but none was to be found, although the lock keeper confirmed the height above sea level.

Looking down at Brimble moored up above sea level

The highest point of the canal
at 106 feet above sea level. 

Being desk bound most of the year sailing on a small boat means you are 'outside' nearly all the time, it's the tonic we need.  Nature and all the elements surround us all day and night.

The trees were covered in lichen

 

 
 
 
 

The gorse despite our high latitude was already flowering

Dawn and dusk were often spectacular

We even had the first BBQ of the year in March, not bad, eh?

Activities to stretch legs ashore are all important too

Each lock keeps cottage was beautifully tended,
we saw lawns cut, mole hills flattened
and weeds being dug.  All was well looked after.

Through the locks themselves we rafted up along side Thembi, the bigger boat and her lines were attached to the shore.  Two walkers, usually myself and someone from Thembi then walked those lines along the locks.  It was all very calm and made us all reflect on days and an era gone by.

Brimble and Thembi rafted up along the canal lock

Lock doors, filling up to raise the water level

Fort Augustus by Loch Ness

Winter/Spring sailing in all it's glory

Breath taking scenery

Close haul sailing

Dramatic Scotland

8 locks one after the other at Fort William in the shadow of Ben Nevis,
known as Neptune's Steps

Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK

Sailing towards Ben Nevis

Lighthouses are a necessity for navigation but a welcome beautiful sight too

Thembi sailing inside the islands towards Oban

Making way towards our final destination of Oban

 

 

Brimble's home for the next month

 

It is always hard leaving Brimble, especially as she has not been 'home' for three years but each mile we sail her from now brings her closer to us and it won't be long till we see her again.

 

 

♥  Scotland you were fantastic   ♥

 

We have another blog which is dedicated to sailing and there are posts about all the places we have been on our faithful boat, if you are interested, take a peak...

 

Brimble boat blog