Crinan Canal

We have been steadily moving and exploring. I may write additional posts on the different legs, but for now there is too much. Let me sum up: We left Holyhead harbor the very night we arrived, and arrived at the Isle of Man the next morning, where we spent 4 adventurous days. Then we were off to Northern Ireland, bowing to the dictates of the prevailing winds. After 2 nights in Northern Ireland, the winds were good for our sail back across the North Channel to Loch Ryan in southern Scotland. Next morning we had a cracking sail north, past Ailsa Crag (clouded over or we would've stopped to climb it), and into Ardrossan Harbor, just south of Glasgow. There we sadly said goodbye to Ry, enjoyed a day in Glasgow, then took the train to Edinburgh for an overnight and to pick up Ella, another of Natalie's friends. 

With Ella in tow, we sailed to Arran and anchored right under Brodick Castle. The next day we went further north to await our appointed date to go through the Crinan Canal. 

The next morning at 8:30 am we were waiting at the lock...and thus began our day in the Crinan Canal - what an experience. 

It's a beautiful waterway - so serene and cozy. At times also a little mind-bending as we glimpsed cars, houses, and even the sea below us. The narrow green corridors were periodically interrupted by the hard work of negotiating the locks. 

Mentally it's challenging to repeatedly dock, throw/secure lines, and manage the turbulence as the locks fill and empty. 

Physically the kids thrived on the work of cranking open and closed the locks, and running from one lock to the next. Murray and I stayed on the boat, so didn't get the workout they did, but I was still tired at the end of the day.

We went through the 15 locks in a convoy of 3 boats and developed a sense of camaraderie over the course of the 7 hrs. The kids, especially Sam, enjoyed being part of a larger team and he was thrilled to be invited to join their crews...But we wouldn't agree to give him up.

The hero of the day was another wonderful connection: weeks ago, a friend from Pomfret had emailed us that he had a friend who lived near the Crinan Canal. He mentioned, but we missed/forgot, that his friend was a pilot on the canal. The canal recommends private pilots to take people through, and we naturally thought after reading the literature available that we could probably do without. But the morning of, as we were arriving at the canal and thinking a pilot would actually be quite nice, Murray re-read the email and saw that George's friend was a pilot.

So we emailed him, just to introduce ourselves and ask if he had any advice...not only did he reply, but he came right down! And really made the day wonderful. I don't know what we would've done without him - I mean, obviously, we would have made it (I think), but the crews of the other boats (who had done the canal before) both raved about how smoothly and well this transit went all due to him.

We were all knackered when we got to the final basin, where we rested a day, explored, kayaked and ate at the lovely hotel/pub. We also met Mike's wife and got to see their amazing farm, overlooking the canal. A highlight of the trip.

Liverpool

We made it to Holyhead, Wales by the appointed date to pick up Ry from the Glasgow airport. Murray was excited about visiting Liverpool, so, with the Young Larry set on a secure mooring, we boarded a train to Liverpool, planning to stay 2 nights with a day trip by Natalie and I to Glasgow in the middle to get our newest crew member.

I'd never had a yearning to see Liverpool - I knew very little about it aside from the soccer team, Beatles, and industrial past but was up for the experience.

After checking in to our room with a view

we set off to explore.



Sam noticed that an ornate building we passed was the Liverpool Central Public Library, and insisted that we stop in...and we were so glad he did. We were blown away! It blends old and new design in a public space that is so welcoming and invigorating.

After spending quite a bit of time in the library, we walked to the waterfront for dinner and messing about.

The next morning Natty and I took the train up through the Lakes District and southern Scotland to Glasgow...such a nice relaxing ride. There is a soothing quality to staring out the train window at the landscape whizzing by on a train.
We smoothly caught our connections and were there in time to greet Ry as he came out of security!

The way back was hampered by connections missed by mere minutes that snowballed into more and more time, but as the public transportation is so good, it really wasn't a terrible thing. However, I watched myself get tightly wound as the bus from the airport to the train station fell the crucial 5 minutes behind schedule but talked myself down...repeatedly.
And it was fine.
And we got dinner at the train station.
And even though the next train was packed with commuters for the first hour, we couldn't find seats together (or even good seats at all) and I embarrassingly crushed some people with a near fall on a turn, we still arrived in good time and in one piece to Liverpool.

Travel tip: VirginRail (who we took on the way up) is the rail company to ride if you have the choice.

We spent one more night in Liverpool and then took the train back to Holyhead.

Wooden ships, iron people

Tuesday June 24th.

This is Murray taking a spin at the blog helm.   It has been a great trip so far, for more of the highs read on below, but I want to start with the last 24 hours.  We were coming off a 30 hour day.  That morning we had left our beautiful tranquil anchorage way up the Helford River at a place called Tremayne Quay.  We had spent 2 nights there due to weather and it was shocking how tiny the river got on each of the low tides.  Fortunately we were anchored in a small pool in the remaining channel.  When we went to get the anchor up on Friday morning the chain pulled up a huge waterlogged branch.  The branch and the chain were intertwined and it looked like a bad situation.  Fortunately we were able to get in the dingy and cut through the branch with a hacksaw and that allowed the chain to shake free.  Phew!

Only slightly delayed we headed out around the Lizard and Land’s End.  Yet more spectacular coastline - the whole thing has been so far: cliffs, dramatic headlands, wave dashed rocks.  All very wild, in some ways similar to Unalaska (seriously), but Unalaska if it were scattered with occasional villages, castles, and green fields full of sheep and cattle!  Jen has turned in to our navigator - I love navigation, but hate planning.  She likes (and needs) to plan.  Which in fortunate, because these British Isles are completely surrounded by powerful currents due to the huge tides.  In New England, where I grew up sailing, the tides were mostly less than 10 feet.  Here they are much bigger.  Almost Bay of Fundy-sized in places.  Alaska has big tides, but most of the places we sailed there were very deep, so the currents were usually slower than they are here.  It is critical to understand the tides and the currents and look ahead, which fortunately is one of the many things that Jen is great at.    

Jen timed our trips around the Lizard and Land’s End perfectly and we rounded them both easily and then started the longest “open sea” passage of the trip: 110 miles across the Celtic Sea/ Bristol Channel to Milford Haven.  We began with motoring, but around 1 a.m. we were able to get the sails up.  Which is when the dolphins showed up!  I had just gotten Natalie up to experience sailing at night under the stars.  Suddenly we were surrounded by about 10-20 dolphins.  They stayed with us for 20 minutes.  I don’t recall ever having them stick around that long in Alaska.  We got Sam up and both kids went up to the bow to watch them play all around our the boat.  The sailing got better through the night and the next morning the dolphins were back for another 20 minutes play session.  We particularly enjoyed - or should I say they particularly enjoyed? - swimming behind us tickling (scratching themselves?) on the bottom of our dingy (the Portland Pudgy, who we have given the name Iliuliuk which is one of the bays in Dutch Harbor and means Harmony).  The kids sat on the seat on the afterdeck (which the Brits call the push pit, a term I had never heard back home) and watched them play.  We arrived in Milford Haven in the early afternoon.   The Haven is an incredible deep water harbor, open in all weather and all tides - which is a rarity on this coast.  It has been a strategic spot for centuries.  The Vikings were here.  Oliver Cromwell’s fleet left from here to subdue Ireland during the 17th century Civil War.  The Royal Navy had a dockyard here through the First World War.  It is a stunningly beautiful place.  It is also a major petrochemical port in the UK with LNG and petroleum terminals and the largest refinery in the UK.  If you do a panorama head swivel it is a remarkable contrast.  Beautiful bays, cliffs and headlands interrupted by massive smokestacks, docks, tankers and shore tanks.   We anchored in a lovely bay that was 300 degrees postcard gorgeous and 60 degrees Newark, NJ.  Jen and the kids rowed to shore.  Jen went on a hike and Sam and Natalie played on a beach and played beach soccer with some kids.

The next morning we got up early and started our push around St. David’s Head and Cardigan Bay.  It was going to be another long passage ~ 80 miles.  It started gloriously.  Lots of wind and current in our favor.  We had the sails up and were doing 9-10 knots as we rounded St. David’s Head……and then the tide turned.  The wind was from the East, and flukey, so we didn’t have the dreaded wind over tide situation which can set up nasty waves (we saw plenty of that in the fjords of SE Alaska).  But against the current and hard on the wind - which was flukey as I said - we were going nowhere.  We spent about 4 hours going about 9 miles.  Our ETA up at Porth Dinllaen on the Lleyn Peninsula kept getting pushed back further and further.  

And did I mention it was raining all day?  

And that both kids were seasick?  

Morale was low.  

And then the wind clocked ahead and the current got a little stronger and we threw in the towel and turned around and sailed down to Fishguard, to which we arrived at 3 in the morning in the fog.  (Luckily the huge fast ferries that run to Ireland were done for the night.)  We were so relieved to be there.  And then when we went to put the anchor down it wouldn’t budge.  The windless only wanted to go up, it had no interest in releasing the chain and the anchor.  So we scrambled and put out the 2nd anchor and went down to get some much needed sleep.

I am so proud of my crew.  I say my crew because I am the one who cooked up this whole adventure and Shanghaied them into signing on.

Sam has been a trooper.  He hasn’t lost his passion for playing on his iPad or voraciously reading books, but he is contributing more and more in the running of the boat.  He is our helmsman when we need the 3 of us to get the mainsail down.  He (reluctantly) is becoming the next great Buttner male dishwasher.  Most importantly, his perky energy and humor seem to kick in when the rest of us are flagging.

Natalie has been a super trooper.  Positive, brave, up for anything.  She is our designated mast climber and part of our foredeck duo (me and her).  She has been playing guitar, painting, writing, and learning about how everything works.  Yesterday she got really low during the long slog to Fishguard (if we had set out to go there from Milford Haven directly we would have gotten in 8 hours sooner [sad face emoji here].  And so she taught herself how to tie a monkey’s fist knot and practiced guitar.  And when we finally threw in the towel and turned the boat south she rallied and helped us anchor the boat at 3 am.  

And Jen.  What can I say.  She is incredible - anyone reading this blog already knows that.  But except for the crew of the the Amber J out in Bristol Bay (you know who you are) you haven’t seen Jen at her strongest until you have seen her on a boat.  She has such reserves of strength and willpower.  Like yesterday when she spent 40 minutes fighting the diesel heater that wouldn’t stay lit.  She won - thank goodness because we needed to warm up and dry out the cabin.  I have already mentioned her planning skills in regards to her methodical approach to the charts and tide tables.  But her organizational skills go much deeper than that.  As some famous military figure once said, amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics.  Logistics: 1) the detailed coordination of a complex operation involving many people, facilities, or supplies. 2) the organization of moving, housing, and supplying troops and equipment.  That's Jen!  She is our logistician supreme.   

So yesterday was hard.  Our first “bad day”.  The previous 30 hour passage had been long, but the sailing was as good as it gets and dolphins!!  And there is nothing more ethereal than sailing at night under a clear sky.  But yesterday was type 2 fun, maybe type 3 (we have a divergence of views on how fun is typed).  It could have been so so much worse.  The wind and seas were uncomfortable, but totally non-threatening.  Kids were seasick, but no one was throwing up or incapacitated.   When I had cooked up this whole scheme I knew that there were going to be some tough days and that they were going to be one of the best reasons for doing what we are doing.  Our modern world doesn’t often offer the challenges that our ancestors experienced regularly.  Sadly we are hermetically separated from this amazing world by our screens, windows and windshields.  We get upset by traffic congestion, slow internet speeds and poor cell reception.   I have thought a lot about what it must have been like sailing to America in the 1600s.  Even my grandparents who travelled by steamer pre-commercial jet travel lived in a very different world.  We are reading a really fun book called "Topsails and Battle-axes" by Tom Cunliffe.  It is about the Vikings who sailed to the Iceland, Greenland and North America centuries before Columbus.  

There is a saying about the past: the boats were made of wood and the people were made of iron!  Hopefully this trip will give us all more appreciation of our past and our present and so many other things.