east coast departure
We departed Inverness Marina on the high
tide at about lunch time and immediately
set full sail with a fresh northerly blowing.
Dolphins accompanied us for the first hour
through Chanonry Narrows and eastward.
It took us about 12 hours before we left the
Moray Firth behind and headed out into the
North Sea bound for Lindenes Light on the
southern tip of Norway.
At that time of the year it never gets dark
so the sailing was superb - with a full moon
Whilst the Moray Firth offers unspoilt sailing shining and a lovely steady breeze we were
with easy access to the Orkneys and Shetland soon over halfway across. Another night
it also serves as an excellent departure or followed by a great day of sailing and we
landfall point for sailors crossing the North were in sight of land. We made landfall at
Sea to or from the Scandinavian and Baltic Farsund, a wonderful safe harbour at about
cruising waters. A perfect example was 1800 hours – total passage time of less
when we sailed on Light of Dawn with than 55 hours. In the morning a lady in
Swedish friends last summer. We had Norwegian National Dress called with fresh
delayed our departure because of a bad rolls and newspapers courtesy of the village.
storm in the North Sea, but with modern What a welcome and so easy.
weather forecasting only had to wait a short
while to find a suitable weather window for Geoff Ashton, Inverness Marina Ltd
the passage to Norway. www.invernessmarina.com
a memorable breakdown
Any (honest) boat owner will readily confirm Head before making their way south to I asked the skipper to make for the new
that boats have an uncanny knack of breaking Inverness and the Caledonian Canal. The marina at Wick and, even though it was a
down when least convenient. Operators crew reported that an instrument alarm had local holiday, managed to arrange for a local
of charter businesses whose boats are on sounded advising them of low voltage. On engineer to meet the boat and confirm that
charter week after week throughout the being asked what the voltage was I was told the alternator had failed. The boat was
season quickly learn to dread the mid-week “It is OK – batteries are reading 10.6 volts”! plugged in to shore power by 11am and the
call from a charterer reporting the latest Further exchanges confirmed that the batteries were fully charged by 5pm. As the
challenge to be addressed........... (isolated) engine battery was fine and that, batteries are large (almost 400 AH) it was
even with the engine running, there was no agreed that they would continue to head
Ayla was in the middle of a six week charter improvement in the domestic battery status. for Inverness, using the tricolour light when
to the Polish National Sailing School when Furthermore, although the boat was sailing necessary during the short night hours to
the call was received. The group were in at over 7 knots, they were actually making minimise battery draw.
the Pentland Firth (between Orkney and the 17 knots over the ground due to the tide
mainland), heading east to round Duncansby – turning back was clearly not an option! Meanwhile, we had ordered a new alternator
which had to be flown in from Belgium. This
arrived in Glasgow at 08.30 the following
morning, from where I collected it before
driving up the A9 to Inverness. We had
chosen Inverness as the rendezvous point
as there were two marinas at which we
could meet – the new Inverness Marina just
outside the Caledonian Canal, or Seaport
Marina within the canal itself. As the boat
had made good time the crew managed
to enter the canal by early afternoon – 30
minutes later the new alternator was fitted
and tested and they were ready to continue
their charter, still on schedule! I drove back
down to Crinan to prepare for the Friday
turnarounds and the next set of challenges.
Tony Bennett, Argyll Yacht Charters
www.argyll-yachtcharters.co.uk
www.sailscotland.co.uk
East Coast.indd 6 11/12/09 13:36:52
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