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Sailing across the North Sea
July 11-17, 2021 So after almost a year away sailing it was time for us to start our last longer sailing leg. We would sail from Scotland to the south-west coast of Sweden where Petras parents live. We left Inverness in the afternoon and sailed with the tide out towards the North Sea. The first evening was calm and we motored all night. The following morning we got some wind and could set sails. Usually during our previous crossings we have filled in what we’ve been doing each day in the log book, but for this crossing we unfortunately did not. So this blog posts will be some snapshots of…
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Caledonian Canal with sailboat
July 8-10, 2021 We had decided to go through Scotland, on the Caledonian Canal with our sailboat instead of sailing around Scotland. One of the reasons is the time saved and also cool to sail through Scotland and on the Loch Ness. We arrived to Corpach quite late, after the locks had closed for the day. There was a small dock we could moor against next to the first lock. It wasn’t the best spot but it was good enough. We had pre-booked and paid for the canal before we arrived (at the Scottish Canal website). We showed our paperwork to the personnel and proof of payment. The following morning…
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Sailing along the Inner Hebrides
July 6-7, 2021 After we had said goodbye to Sanuti we got up really early to start sailing towards the Caledonia Canal, a canal that allows to you to sail through Scotland instead of around. It was to far a distance to do in one day, and you also have to time certain narrow passages with the tides. We anchored at an anchorage on the northern tip of the island Luing for the night. It was a very pretty anchorage. It was a calm evening, there were cows walking on the shore, a seal swimming in the anchorage. The following morning we got up, made sure to time the passage…
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Whiskey and wine on Islay
July 4-6, 2021 We did an overnight sail from Wales to the island Islay in Scotland. Once again we had a lot of fog in the morning when we got close to Islay. We entered the marina at Port Ellen early in the morning, we ate some breakfast and then took a walk in Port Ellen. After lunch we took the whiskey path, a walking path that goes past three distilleries. Islay whiskey is famous for being smoky. After the walk we had a nice dinner out with Sanuti. It was our last night together. We met in Bequia, St Vincent and the Grenadines half a year earlier and sailed…
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Sailing through the Menai strait
July 3, 2021 The Menai strait is a shallow and narrow strait that separates mainland Wales from Anglesey. The tidal currents in the strait can be really strong. The most dangerous part is the Swellies, located between the two bridges in the strait. There is a lot of shallows in the part of the strait and the tidal currents can create whirlpools here. The tidal current can be up to 8 knots at worst. Don’t want to have that against you… When sailing through the Swellies you use slack time for Liverpool as a reference. More about when to time sailing through the Menai strait can be found here: Passage Through…