Largs, Firth of Clyde After our lovely anchorage at the north end of the Kyles of Bute, we headed back across (southeast) the Firth of Clyde to Largs Yacht Haven for protection from the next bout of heavy weather. We made friends with a cruising couple from Germany who also owned a Hallberg-Rassy (25-year-old HR!). […]

Holy Loch We enjoyed being on a mooring ball and hanging out in Millport, but it was time to go to a marina because the weather was about to turn. We went up a small loch to Holy Loch. The passage from Millport to Holy Loch was like a game of “dodge ’em” with ferries

Too often this summer, this has been our view of Ireland and W. Scotland. We tie up in a marina, wait out windy, rainy weather for 4-5 days, then scoot to the next port on a fair weather day, and REPEAT. We’ve got our fingers crossed right now, because the current forecast shows that we

Ballycastle While sitting out the bad weather in Port Ellen, Islay, we realized how very close we were to Northern Ireland – just 25 miles!  So we thought: Why not? So after three days in Port Ellen (with two days of winds gusting over 45 mph), we set off for Ballycastle, Ireland in lighter winds

While at Craobh, we saw that we were going to have a one day weather window before more bad weather was on the way. After reviewing possible destinations that we could hole up in bad weather, we decided to head to the island of Islay (pronounced EYE-lah), about a 48-mile-trip south. MJ and I spent

Caledonian Canal Inverness Marina is directly adjacent to the entrance to the Caledonian Canal. Transiting the canal avoids the need to sail through the treacherous Pentland Firth that runs between Scotland and the Orkney Islands to the north. The Caledonian Canal is 60 miles in length and consists of 29 locks, 10 swing bridges, and

North Sea Crossing As noted earlier, Torrey and Sara Lawrence joined us in Norway to help us cross the North Sea (as well as to see the sights of Norway, Orkney Islands, and Scotland). The North Sea is a relatively shallow body of water with a reputation for rough, choppy seas and large obstructions, such

Stavern (auto-pilot broke) We sailed up to the north part of West Sweden (town of Stromstad) so that we’d have just a short distance (40 miles) to cross the Skaggerak Sea to Norway. The weather forecast was calling for rain and light winds, so we assumed it would just be kind of a light misty

Taking Care of Business We ended up spending a week at Brodernas Martinsson boatyard getting an engine service done and a few items installed (life raft, engine mount, large fire extinguisher). It was rainy and windy much of the time we were there, so we stayed longer than planned (didn’t want to head out in