Mar 022024
 

2-March-2024

Wow it seems like we just arrived home and its almost time to depart ! We were so busy last season – 2023 – we only managed to up date the web site once – so here’s an overview of where we sailed in 2023, I’m just working on some YouTube stuff now, and an outline of our sail plan for 2024 and 2025 !

Best Sailing – Mike & Jayne

Cruising Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, Orkney, Fair Isle & Shetland

We flew from YYZ to Edinburgh Scotland (see https://gonesailing.finnevans.ca/highland-spring/) in early April 2023, spending a few days in the Scottish capital, taking in the sites, museums, restaurants etc. of that wonderful old city, and then travelled by train to Oban, in Scotland’s West Highlands, where we’d left our boat, Loon’s Lace, in the fall of 2022. We spent several weeks in Oban, in a wee rented apartment, working on our boat and waiting for the weather to improve, April in northern Scotland is a bit cool and damp! New Solar panels & controllers, new windlass motor and controller, Jayne updated our watchkeeper shelter, painting and waxing. We replaced the seals on our Volvo sail drive with the help of the mechanic at the Kerrera Marina.

Spring days turned into early summer and we were finally ready to go sailing, leaving Kerrera for Tobermory near Point Ardnamurchin, and then to the beautiful Island of Coll, where we spent a few days decompressing. We sailed west and crossed The Sea of The Hebrides, anchoring off the white sands of Vatersay, to swim in 9C water and beach comb for a few sunny days. After a wee sail of only 5 miles we tied up at Castlebay Marina, on the Isle of Barra. Kisimul Castle was unfortunaly closed but the town is nice and we enjoyed fine Hebridean dining at the hotel, with our new Norwegian sailing friends, Colin and Randi. Sailing north up the island chain there are peaceful anchorages on South and North Uist, with wild ponies, and quiet walks along rugged cliff lined shores.

After an idyllic crossing of The Minch, we anchored off Dunvegan Castle on The Isle of Skye, and took the dinghy ashore to tour the castle, for 800 years the home of Clan MacLeod. From there we sailed west back accross the Little Minch to Berneray in The Sound of Harris, West Beach is not to be missed, again the water was a little cold for swimming. Sailing north we visited the Shiant Islands, where there are 100,000 nesting sea birds, and then to Stornoway, the Hebridean capital, and road tripped on the Islands of Harris and Lewis. Rounding Scotland’s Cape Wrath in the company of new Scottish friends Alex and Kathy, we anchored in Lochs Laxford and then Erribol, and from there crossed to Orkney’s Hoy Sound, docking at Stromness. Beautiful farms, Neolithic sites & the 13th century St Magnus Cathedral are some visitor highlights.

Sailing from Pierowall Harbour on Westray Island, at the north end of the Orkney chain we crossed 50 miles east to Fair Isle’s North Haven, where there is just enough room for a few boats to share the ferry dock. Nice walking, there are no cars, we searched for handmade “Fair Isle” sweaters, and visited some of the largest puffin rookeries in the Atlantic, and then sailed 50 miles north to Shetland’s bustling Lerwick Harbour.

A North Sea Crossing & Cruising Norway’s Southwest Coast: Sognefjord to Oslo

In Lerwick Harbour on Mainland Shetland, we rafted up with visiting boats from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany. Just 200 miles of the fearsome North Sea separated us from Norway’s West coast, and we picked what looked like an easy weather window to make the crossing.

Once checked in with Norwegian Customs and Immigration at Bergen, the “Fjord Capital”, we were free to explore Norway’s second largest city, and plan our summer cruise along their magnificent southwest coast.

Traversing Sognefjord nearly 100 miles inland, we sailed up Fjaerland Fjord to hike the Mundal Valley and view amazing Boyabreen Glacier, dock next to the cruise ships at Vic and visit their “Viking” Hopperstad Stave Church. From Flam on Aurlandsfjord we hiked to Brekkefossen, rode the Flamsbana railway and then sailed Naerofjord, to anchor under the towering rock faces at Holmaviki. Sailing south we visited Bergen a second time, to re-provision and maintain our boat, before entering Hardanger Fjord, to hike up to the glacier park at Sundal.

With snow forecast and the long summer days growing shorter, we sailed south to Skudeneshavn, rounding Cape Lindesnes to Kristiansand, Arendal, Jomfruland, and found Loon’s Lace a winter home at Wector Yachts in Stathelle, a few hours by car south of Oslo. On our way home we spent a few days in Oslo, its a wonderful city to walk in, and enjoy the museums, shops and restaurants surrounding its historic waterfront.

Spring/Summer 2024 – Norway – Sweden – Finland …

We’ve just driven up to Ottawa to visit the Swedish Embassy, and apply for 6 months extended stay visas. Our sail plan this season is to cross from Stathelle, on the south coast of Norway to Sweden’s west coast. We’ll visit Henan, & Najad Yachts of course!, Gothenburg, Malmo, and then sail into the Baltic, to see dear old Stockholm, and possibly Helsinki, in Finland. On our way south from there the plan is to visit Copenhagen in Denmark, then take the Kiel Canal west to the North Sea, Netherlands and UK. From the UK we’ll make our way to Portimao on Portugal’s Algarve for the winter! Our crew friend Matthew may join us for the crossing from UK to Spain ?? we’ll see…

Well that’s the plan anyway !

Some pix from 2023 – The Outer Hebrides and Norway

Apr 272023
 

Anxious to get sailing we departed Ontario in late March, snow still in our backyard, bound for Edinburgh and then Oban in Scotland’s west highland, our wee boat Loon’s Lace had spent the winter of 22/23 there.

Edinburgh is fascinating, lovely to walk, filled with history, and it was even sunny for a day! We rented a flat at the top of 65 stone stairs, overlooking the old Bank of Scotland, and carried our too much luggage up. Three days to wander and enjoy The National Gallery of Scotland, The National Museum of Scotland and the Scottish National Portrait gallery, with lots of restaurants and pleasant park walks in between.

A few hours north west from Edinburgh by train is Oban, the west highlands capital. Caledonia MacBrayne ferries, Oban whiskey, seafood, book stores, outdoor equipment, supermarkets and hardware, the perfect place to get our boat ready. We had a wee cottage rented for two weeks while we made the boat liveable, the early spring weather of the Highlands hovered below 10C with pretty much daily rain and wind storms, it was still snowing at home!

The boat was just 15 minutes away across Oban Bay at Kerrera Marina. From our rented cottage on Breadalbane street we organized our spring boat projects and walked the few blocks each morning to catch the water taxi, ChiChi the drivers wee doggie snuggling with Jayne. Painting, waxing, cleaning and reassembling the interior must be done, we’d pried ceiling panels, the floor and salon table out last fall, fixing leaks and cleaning water tanks etc. This year a major refit of the boats sail drive seals was needed but luckily the mechanics at Kerrera would help with that.

Days of back and forth saw much progress under sunny skies, in rain gales and one morning a dusting of fresh snow on the hills of Mull. Jayne judiciously worked to restore our lovely Najad’s twin red water line stripes, with red car wax while I polished the white top sides and helped Julian remove and reinstall the Volvo drive, I’d removed the propeller in the fall and had to paint and reinstall it too. The outboard had been left for service in the fall and it was nice to find it ready and waiting in the Kerrera shop along with our sails which had been cleaned and serviced over the winter by Owen Sails, they have a convenient sail drop box right at the marina. Between boat works we had time to enjoy our Kerrera Island’s paradise, few if any cars, farms, dogs, sheep, coos and an ancient castle 4 miles walk south.

Sadly our home built Solar arch had let go of three 100 watt panels, over the winters storms, and they needed to be replaced, we hunted for new ones to fit, hunched over our laptop in the evenings, watching CBC news by YouTube and following other sailing channels as they dealt with life aboard and abroad.

Jayne caught a nasty chill waxing the boat during a gale, and developed an even nastier cough, after 2 solid weeks of early mornings, long days, and tired trips home across the bay, she sadly missed the launch, but happily Loon was back in the water, looking very nice and shiny new with updated waterproof seals around the sail drive unit too.

Today we’re just in Oban for the day, Jayne has seen the doctor, probably a viral cough that may take another few weeks to cure, she’s got a prescription to help, and Scotland’s excellent national health service, as temporary residents did not charge us anything!

The 1415 water taxi will take us home to Kerrera in just a few minutes, after an excellent lunch at The Lorne in Oban. Back to boat work tomorrow, our new Solar panels should arrive soon, I’ve almost finished installing the new windless motor, Jayne has been modifying the Watchkeeper dodger shelter, it protects our pilothouse from the highland rain & wind, I’ve been up the mast to check the rig and install a new flag halyard…soon we’ll be sailing to the Outer Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland & Norway…

Azores, Ireland, Scotland

 Comments Off on Azores, Ireland, Scotland
Feb 142023
 
Jura

We’ve been doing some sailing, unfortunately not updating the web site as much as we should, but here goes, our latest news! We crossed from the Azores to Ireland in June/July of 2022 and spent the summer and fall cruising Ireland and Scotland! Lots of details in the videos I’ll list below, please like and subscribe ! All the best sailing for everyone in the coming season, hope to meet up with you along the way, Mike & Jayne Cobourg, Ontario February 2023

Loon’s Lace our Najad 405 is at Kerrera Marina since October of 2022, a lovely setting just across the bay from Oban, in the Scottish West Highlands, we are home in Ontario, saving our UK tourist visas so we will have lots of time to get sailing in the spring/summer of 2023. As Canadians we are allowed 180 days out of 360, we used about 60 days in the fall of 2022 so that should leave us lots of time to sail from Kerrera/Oban to the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland, from Shetland we plan to cross to Norway and spend the rest of our 2023 summer season cruising Scandinavia. The plan at the moment is to overwinter in South England for 2023/2024 of then start sailing towards Spain, Portugal, Madeira and the Canaries, from there we plan to cross to St Vincent in the Caribbean. Maybe home to the Great Lakes from there or perhaps Panama and wind up out in Vancouver, that’s been a long term dream for both of us!

Right now we’re busy packing, flights are booked and we’ll be in Edinburgh on March 26, spend a few days there in an Airbnb doing some touristy things then return to Oban by bus probably. We have an Airbnb booked in Oban for the first 2 weeks in April while we get Loon’ Lace ready to launch, and will probably be in that immediate area for at least a month until the weather gets a wee bit better. Lots of little things to do on the boat, Jayne has a new “Boat” sewing machine and will update our “Watchkeeper” shelter while I clean and wax the hull, touch up the bottom paint and tinker with the Solar panels & batteries etc.

As I mentioned we have 5 new videos on our YouTube site, hopefully they’re not too bad, we worked a lot at getting some good footage and correcting as much as possible with edits here at our home studio. I’ll list them from new to less new, here they are:

Sailing Scotland’s West Highlands EPISODE 14

From Ballymastocker Bay on Lough Swilly in the Republic of Ireland Jayne & Mike prepare to round Malin Head and cross the Irish Sea to Scotland. Cruising the Scottish west highlands into the fall they explore, Islay, Jura, Crinan, Mull and Oban and then find a home for Loons Lace at Kerrera Marina, where they make ready to haulout for the season.

Sailing Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way Part 3 EPISODE 13

Sailing east from Killybegs on Donegal Bay we take a mooring at Teelin Harbour then anchor at Arranmore Islands Rosillion Bay, from there its a short sail to Gola Roads with a view of fantastic Mt Errigal. Sailing north to Lough Swilly we avoid some poor weather then walk the sands of Ballymastocker Bay at Port Salon, sadly our last anchorage in Ireland, from here we set sail up and around Malin Head for the Highlands of Scotland.

Sailing Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way Part 2 EPISODE 12

Just back to our boat after a road trip to Dublin we sail north from Galway Bay to wonderful Inishbofin where we hike, paint and photograph, then wrap a crab trap anchor around our prop on the way to Little Killary, forcing us to sail into anchor. Sailing north from Inishturk we round magnificent Achill Head to anchor at Inishkea. Relaxing in pastoral Broadhaven Bay we wait for good weather to sail up Donegal Bay.

Sailing Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way Part 1 EPISODE 11

In Part 1 of Sailing Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way we’ve just arrived in the Republic of Ireland, having sailed 1300 miles from Praia da Vitoria in the Azores. With fine summer weather and fair winds we setout to discover some of Dingle’s secrets and then set sail for the Blasket Islands, Brandon Bay, Inishmore, Galway and Dublin.

Offshore Passage Azores to Ireland – EPISODE 10

A North Atlantic Crossing – Azores to Ireland In Part 3 of “Loons Lace Atlantic Circle” Mike & Jayne arrive in Praia da Vitoria Azores from where they set out on a 200 mile shakedown to Sao Miguel, for some site seeing, hiking and to enjoy Ponta Delgada, the Azores capital. With new crew member Matthew aboard and a favorable weather forecast the crew of three set out to sail 1100 miles across the North Atlantic to Dingle Ireland.

Mar 112022
 
Velas Harbour – Sao Jorge

In the summer of 2021 we sailed from Fogo, Newfoundland on July 14th, reaching Horta in the Azores July 25th, after a fairly easy 11 day crossing (click to open Azores Crossing post). As Canadian citizens we were granted 90 day tourist visas to visit the 9 islands that make up the Azores archipelago. Almost 4 weeks went by exploring Faial and Horta, we spent our remaining time sailing, anchoring, walking and very much enjoying the other central chain islands of: Pico, Sao Jorge and Terceira, with a brief trip to Sao Miguel flying home (click to open Azores Archipelago pdf link).

This season, In 2022 our plan is to visit the other 5 islands of the Azores archipelago: Graciosa, Flores, Corvo, Sao Miguel (by boat this time) and Santa Maria, or as many as we can get to before sailing to Ireland midsummer.

After 12 hours in transit from YYZ-TER we’re sitting in our rental suite in Praia, waiting for the wind and rain to die down, so we can get down to the marina and uncover loon, and get some work done.

It’s a bit early in the season to be here but we’ve got three leisurely weeks to get our boat ready and just enjoy Praia!

Happy sailing,

Mike & Jayne

Praia Da Vitória, Azores March 11 2022