Troon to Milford Haven anchorage

Well, it seems that miracles can happen. After 18 days of Force 6 or higher winds, the local forecast turned into this:

Somehow not having strong wind warnings in August doesn't seem too much like a miracle but after the unending grim weather that had run through the whole month (bar one day!) it was worth celebrating.

As the forecast for the Irish sea was OK we just had to move. Because things had been so unsettled, we decided to head direct to South Wales, abandon the idea of stop-offs and take advantage of the two day weather window that all the different sources said would be coming up. It would be a bit splashy leaving Troon and getting into the Irish sea thanks to the F5 and earlier stronger stuff. Then it should be OK for the long run down to St David's, where you turn to the east to head up to Milford Haven. That last bit would be bumpy as a F5 easterly was coming. Just at the wrong time.

Planning a Troon to Milford trip is not simple at our cruising speed. You don't really want to fight the strong current around the Mull of Galloway or St David's head and then up to Milford. However, our speed means you have to do it for one of them pretty much! We opted to fight things at the Welsh end as having an east going tide would lessen the wave heights dragged up by the forecast winds there. Things get very messy in that area, lots of depth changes confusing and creating waves too and so anything we can do to make it a better end to the trip, was good.

So, we headed off early evening, threw up some spray and then got into the shelter of Ireland and settled in for a gentler overnight run south in the dark. The FLIR just showed us lots of waves and a few seabirds to keep us on our toes:

It still amazes us how good the images are at night - naturally newer units are even better but this version will do us nicely thanks. Keeping awake on watch at night isn't too hard. You have three screens to watch (we set them up as FLIR image, plotter and radar) and a gentle glow is created in the pilothouse:

Using the satellite TV dish we can either listen to the radio or watch some TV - mind you the TV offerings at 2am are less than exciting. We do a pretty informal watch system. When one of us wakes up and feels fit, we take over. At changeovers, the captain gets to check the main engine and pump some more fuel from the storage tanks into the day tank that feeds the engine. That way it is already filtered before it goes through the two other filters en route to the engine. We like to keep the big Lugger running happily on clean diesel.

We had good conditions although the next morning we heard on the radio, Belfast Vessel Traffic Service calling a freight ship and telling them to stay outside their area until the visibility improved and that the pilots would not commit to a time to take the ship into Belfast. Keith (the man with the ultra cute Jack Russell dog you've seen on here before) reported that you could not see from one pontoon to the next in nearby Bangor marina. We were fine though.

There are some pretty deep areas that we pass through and a couple of times the depth sounder just gave up when we were in over 210 metres of water. It woke up again:

when we re were "only" in 194 metres of the salty stuff. To be more precise it was probably 197 as we display the depth below our keel less a little bit for safety, not the true depth of water.

Here is the full route we took, according to MarineTraffic:

During the run down the middle of the Irish sea you amuse yourself with wildlife spotting, commercial ship spotting, radio and TV or just enjoying the ride. And we did - sunny and calm enough to go and have a shower so you feel more human as day 2 of the trip unfolds.

There was one strange move by an overtaking commercial guy. He had been approaching us at a nice angle from astern and was going to pass astern of us with plenty of clearance heading to the east of our track:

The CPA - closest point of approach - shown was over 500 metres so all good. Then he passed astern of us and immediately turned towards us, running parallel and then back towards the west in front of us:

Why the officer on watch didn't just alter course to the west earlier and head down the other side of us rather than doing the "loop" around is a mystery. Still, it was lovely weather and all was well:

We had one hitchhiker with us for a while:

who might just have been having a rest. The crew had a more stressful time during her watch when we passed through a gaggle of fishing boats - this time, amazingly, they all appeared to have their AIS equipment turned on so you get to see them like this:

 

There is a huge firing range in Cardigan bay and we would be transiting the outskirts of it in the early hours of the following day. Luckily:

and we settled down enjoying the sun setting across the water:

Our second night at sea was quiet - relatively calm, not too much trouble with shipping and all the ferries to and from Ireland were well clear of us. If you look at the last part of the route:

you can see where we turn around St Davids towards Milford. Well, this area was payback time. Although seeing the sun come up through the window in the pilothouse over the rocks off St Davids was nice:

it was getting breezier and we were pushing into a strong tide as expected:

2.3 knots speed over the ground does feel very slow.... However, although we were throwing up some spray, it did mean that the sea state was way better than it would have been with a favourable tide. Passing Skomer and the now puffin free island (shame) we were happy to turn into the shelter of Milford Haven and take advice from a local yachtsman we know (you've seen pictures of their yacht before if you are mad enough to read this stuff regularly)  on the best anchorages in an easterly wind. After around 38.5 hours underway, we dropped anchor in Kilroom Bay and relaxed. After a clean up for the humans, we had a very lazy afternoon to catch up on some sleep.  The crew seemed rather reluctant to say hello though:

The anchorage had two yachts in it, hardly crammed:

:

with nice rocky cliffs  to admire, containing some great colour schemes. Looking the other way, you get one of the old fortifications:

this one being Stack rock. It is worth reading about the history of the fort in this Wikipedia link .

Overall, our trip was pretty much as per the forecasts, splashy at both ends but a nice calm run down the Irish sea for the bulk of the time. We ended up with a very salty boat but as that was all, we cannot complain. A nice calm sheltered anchorage and a "happy to be nearly back to our second home" feeling.

This unending windy stuff

During Ann and Martin's visit, we had the joy of just over a week of strong winds. then a lovely sunny one day lull that we used to head to Troon. After that, a full week of strong windy stuff but as we were out and about by hire car getting culture, it wasn't a big deal. When the third week in succession of nasty stuff was forecast, we were less amused: 

The warning was right. A typical day:

They were not all as wet but 40 mph gusts of wind were typical and the white horses in the bay didn't tempt us out to sea at all. Our original thinking had been to head to Bangor, then either Dun Laoghaire or Peel (Isle of Man) for a week before returning to Wales. The way the weather was going, we might have to park all those ideas. We used the train a bit, initially to head to Irvine which is a full 7 minute trip up the coast. Why go there - the Scottish maritime museum of course. An amazing building (an engine shed from Clydebank that was dismantled and rebuilt here) and plenty of exhibits from the glory days of local shipbuilding. Very interesting place. They also have the last remaining Scottish built Puffer outside:

with a long history:

The train was pressed into service again for a day in Glasgow. A good, if blowy walk around and time in the Museum of modern art. Some things that were thought provoking, some that were "oh yes" but plenty of  "The Emperor's new clothes" to our untrained and cynical old eyes..

Closer to home, we discovered a bad place.  Bloom in Troon (see Bloom website ) has excellent coffee and great cake served in huge slices. Luckily it is closed on Sunday and Monday and was full on the Saturday so our arteries had a break. Unlike the mooring ropes that continued to contend with rubbish like this:

40 plus MPH gusts and generally miserable. A good excuse to hunker down and do very little but that wasn't always what we wanted to get up to. Somehow Bloom cake made up for it and as we had a couple of pretty dry days, the little Brompton bikes got exhumed from the lazarette, the tyres pumped up and they took us south to Prestwick and also north to Irvine where we needed to replace the calories we had burned at GRO (see GRO weblink ). They have a great outside courtyard, some of it covered, plenty of space for two folded Bromptons, great brunch offerings and the ride there goes through a wooded wildlife park area too. All in all pretty good. We just need to give the bikes a good clean now. Sometime.

Maintenance News:

On the very active Nordhavn Owners group, there had been lots of emails about the shaft coupling for wing engines - folks reporting loose bolts and in one case a key dropping out from the keyway in the shaft. That was enough to prompt the captain to remove the guard and check all the bolts involved. Ours were nice and tight we are pleased to report:

It was still good to check it, to help the sleeping at night thing! If the keyway did come out thanks to loose bolts, then there would be no drive just when you needed it and the possibility of the shaft just dropping back a few centimeters until the anode clamped on the shaft outside the boat hits the P bracket. Not at all ideal.

On a particularly wet and windy afternoon, the Seagull water filter in the galley was replaced, a slightly overdue job. Then the challenge of the rather loose loo seat in the guest cabin was tackled on a similar day. A way less enjoyable job though, as you have to move the entire toilet assembly. It is now much better fixed for our guests. We doubt they appreciate just how much messing about was involved in that little repair of course.

Getting culture and educated -

Berthed in Troon, we had the pleasure of being next to this lady, nearly as old as the captain and a teeny bit older than the crew:

Why do we mention her - well she is one of the original pair of Dorus Mor class yachts (only 6 were built in total) and Simon our surveyor friend restored and owned a particularly lovely example - the last one ever constructed. Brought back memories of time we spent on board and a couple of excellent Xmas lunches too.

Sadly, the weather forecasting computers were right and the whole week ahead looked very windy and showery. So, we opted to hire a car - using Enterprise in Ayr as they will collect you which saves the PITA trip to Glasgow airport. (train, then local bus from Paisley) By the time you add in the cost and grief of that return trip, Ayr actually becomes cheaper too. Our first excursion was to Culzean castle. Oh yes. Sunny day, warm (out of the wind) and so so beautiful a setting:

The castle / house was "built to be imposing" and manages it quite well:

In one of the entrance rooms, there is some strange wall decoration - swords and flintlock pistols arranged in interesting patterns:

Not quite to everyone's taste but very impressive. Like many country houses, the family that owned it added bits and extended / remodelled it over the years. The glorious central staircase was not original - the house was not built around it, rather the oval staircase was designed by Robert Adam to link old and "new". It managed that very impressively:

One generation of the owners was heavily into sailing / racing and owned the famous yacht Bloodhound. They also set up the Ailsa shipbuilding business in Troon / Ayr and the skills of some of their team were used to make cribs for the children in proper clinker built boat fashion:

Lovely grounds, a good coffee in the tea-room, what more could you want.  Well, we continued the cultural tour by visiting the Robert Burns museum and birthplace. Some lovely artwork was in the grounds:

We took the chance to learn more about his varied, busy and short life - ending up as an exciseman, collecting taxes on beer etc. Another example of someone who has their artistic value recognised well after their death. Following on from the museum / house, we went to Rozelle House, the home of an amazing set of paintings that depict one of Burns famous tales - that of Tam O'Shanter. If you know a little of the tale, then this link to a you tube video of the paintings is a must see. If you don't, read a bit about the tale and why it was composed in the first place, then look at the images. In real life they were very powerful and absorbing. Well worth a visit, they are housed in this lovely building too:

After absorbing so much culture and enjoying it, we opted for more. Robert and Deborah who keep their yacht in Troon had stayed down south in their house for some reason. Avoiding us or the weather or both? Anyway, they recommended we go to Dumfries house. Oh yes, another fascinating place with great grounds to explore: 

A mini guided tour let us appreciate the extensive Wedgewood collection (50 items) including apparently the most valuable piece in the world, see weblink .  If the guide is to be believed, today it would sell to certain well heeled collectors for £20 million. The place was rescued from a private sale that would have broken up the collection and property by royalty not long ago.  Look at Dumfries house website to learn about that. Another good day, sunny, dry just 30 mph plus wind gusts all day. When will that end???

Our last excursion in the hire car was debated. The car was a horrible little Fiat 500 (we seem to get those from Enterprise) with the strange two mode steering. "City" which is quick to respond, light and lifeless with no feedback. "Normal" which is heavier, inaccurate and equally lifeless and lacking in feedback. Naturally the thing is slow and not terribly comfortable either. Oh - this one did just the same as the one we hired from Plymouth - as soon as the temperature dropped a bit the tyre pressure warning came up. Basically, not a car to do long distances in. However, we wanted to see New Lanark which had positive reviews from Ann and Martin. Tricky as it would involve too many Fiat 500 hours in a day for comfort or sanity. We compromised, drove through lashing rain and arrived just as it eased up:

The location was an 18th century cotton mill, together with accomodation for the workers, a school for their children, an on-site shop and an "Institute for the formation of character".  It is a UNESCO heritage site now. Basically the mill owner was a great social reformer of his time who organised better working conditions for his staff, on site housing and education and even the services of a doctor. Unheard of in other mills. The setting enabled use of the water power from the river Clyde that runs through the site to drive the machines:

and later on to also generate electricity for the site too. Some of the equipment is still used but now to produce wool, not cotton:

You get a great sense of how the owner tried to reform working practices and the education / lives of his workforce. He still liked making a profit too of course! He wrote books on his approach and defined a curriculum for the children at the company run school that was wide-ranging and ground-breaking for the time. He kind of foretold what would happen if employers neglected their staff and education during the industrial revolution which was changing the world of work dramatically::

 

An amazing place and very thought provoking too.

To save deafness / sore backs from too much time in the Italian buzz-box, we stayed nearby overnight and on the way back, went to the Scottish museum of rural life. Loads of Tractor pictures were taken for Robert's father who has a small (??)  tractor fetish. One was for the captain who recalls a Field Marshall tractor in use at the Herbert Woods boatyard on the Norfolk Broads, when he worked there as a summer job:

A single cylinder diesel, preheated with a blowlamp, started using a shotgun cartridge, it would sometimes start running backwards and would happily tick over that way all day, shuddering gently. Of course, as it was used to launch / recover boats using a slipway and grease boards, it was helpful to know if it was running normally or in reverse that day..... Enough said. No damage was done. Or none that the captain will admit to.

The working farm had a few little animals to admire and amuse including some piglets:

plenty of calves and a beautiful Clydesdale horse. The original farm house was a real time capsule. Owned by one family through 200 years or so, the last surviving owner moved out in 1992 leaving pretty much everything in the place with most of the furniture and fittings dating back many years. As an example, the more recent renovations had been new fire surrounds in the 1960s. We had a great day, then pedalled the little Fiat back to the boat. (Yes, we could hire something better, but we are mean and it gives us something to moan about - you know how old people like complaining...)

Rhu to Troon in a calmer spell

Finally, after a full week and a bit of unending windy stuff, there was a calm and sunny day promised by the met office folks. Even better, it materialised too. So, we took advantage of it for the start of our trek back south. We planned to head to Troon initially so a gentle little run down the Clyde area was planned. As you can see, the sun was certainly out:

and the wind strength was a tenth of what it had been the day before:

when we had seen nearly 50 knot gusts. All good really! We even had some pictures taken of us and posted onto Marine Traffic as we passed Gourock:

Rare to get a picture underway - Tommy the photographer kindly sent us all of the images he'd taken. The boat looks a bit naked - no bimini cover as we had decided not to bother to replace it on the spreader bars. Why? Well, because the forecast for the days following was a return to strong winds and the odd torrent of rain too. We left the cover in a locker to protect it from the upcoming gales. 

It was good to be underway again and to enjoy the sun and gentle conditions too - at times the true wind speed dropped to 1.6 knots, pretty much nothing. The route to Troon kind of hugs the coast of the mainland with nice island views on the way:

We had a very chilled trip, even the ferries to Great Cumbrae passed in front of us and didn't force any course alteration. Totally spoiled really:

Somehow, Ardrossan lingers in our minds as a sad sad town, where even the bookies was shuttered up. Passing it is preferable to stopping - even the daymark on the little island off the harbour looks a bit sad:

This slightly larger guy was anchored just south of the place:

and forced us into a diversion - most irritating! The odd thing is how the camera showed the sky colours so differently in the two pictures when they were taken within a minute or so of each other. The sky really was blue by the way:

We'd seen a couple of baby superyachts anchored on the trip. One off Kip marina and this one off Troon as we approached:

Their AIS transmission had been set up rather amusingly (or should that be optimistically?):

 

Check the destination....

The wing engine had a good half hour of exercise to make sure it was all OK and the main had a nice little wide open throttle blast to give it a clean out too. To heck with the fuel consumption - remember that we were burning about 9 litres per hour doing 6.3 knots and then 33lph doing around 8.5 knots. You can do the maths. 

We had called the Troon folks and arranged a berth for a week or so and were given a nice big finger to back into. The boat was well trussed up in prep for the coming blowy days, topped up with water and we just enjoyed the sunny evening. It felt like a treat.

Maintenance News:

Nothing exciting except that the toilet seat in the fwd heads was pretty loose and needs sorting out. The fixings are blind (incredibly annoying design Raritan) and the thing was fitted ages ago after Andrew and Linda brought it to Oban by train all the way from Weymouth. You might well ask why - this earlier blog post will explain it all 2014 blog post link and show you what a proper chap Andrew is.

We opted to wait for a wet day to dismember the fwd heads - that kind of fun can wait......

Doing the post trip engine checks, the captain noticed that the steering reservoir pressure ought to have a  top up before our next longer passage. It was sitting at around 8psi, having dropped from the normal 15 during the summer's travels. The book says to run at around 20 / 25 but we've heard of folks doing that and blowing out a seal.