3 Men In A Boat

On Thurs. 6th of June 2013 Kirk( Three Cheers), Rod (Dreamcatcher) and myself, Paul(Sandpiper) set sail in Kirks 54ft hammerhead trimaran "Three Cheers" an American designed missile!, for the Scottish isles. 

Our itinerary was to cruise the waters covered by the excellent Clyde Cruising Club guide 'Mull of Kintyre" to Ardmaruchan point. Courtesy of Dave Dewsbury. The boat is 34' wide so cannot easily negotiate small Scottish marinas so anchoring was our intention whenever possible - and highly recommended! The entire 14 day trip was blessed with sunny days and light winds providing ideal cruising conditions.

Three cheers will sail at 26 knts in the right conditions, creating a whistle-stop tour if necessary! 

Two overnight anchorages, in Burren Cove,Lambay Island. and Chapel bay, Copeland Island, off NE Ireland saw us leaving early to avoid any adverse tides en route for the W. coast of the Mull of Kintyre, finally anchoring in W.Loch Tarbert, a must see location. Crossing the Sound of Jura took us to Loch Tarbert on the Is. of Jura, heading for the stunning inner loch following several, essential sets of leading lines. If you like isolation, this is Utopia!

Next day, our windiest at SE 5-6,  saw us rocketing past everyone up the W coast of Colonsay at a leisurely 18 knts? bound for the treacherous Gulf of Corryvreckan boasting the worlds 2nd biggest whirlpool and a standing wave of a meagre 8 metres! Well it would have been rude not to! Despite arriving 1 hr early, (I wonder why)? and deciding to go through against the last hour of adverse tide, we still had 6 knts against us and gained absolutely nothing timewise but it was well worth the experience of a watery waltzer ride! A short jolt took us into L. Melfort  where we unwittingly entertained the locals over a wonderful supper of local Haddock and Chips, washed down with a bottle of refreshing local spring water.

As if!!!! 

Day 10 we fetched the Sound of Luing, past Fladda Is. for the rarely visited Loch Spelve, Is. of Mull. Very, very deep with little to offer by way of anchorages and had there been a close alternative we would have taken it! Alas there was'nt.

Dunstfaffnage, a location where you can spot amongst other things, people dressed in strange outfits hitting and then losing little white balls with sticks, finding them, then hitting them again only to lose them again? Later we discovered they even have to pay large sums of money to do it!

I digress, Dunstfaffnage was lovely, boasting a waterfront hotel, specialising in, yes Haddock and Chips Fort William via L.Lhinne  then up the stunning Sound of Mull, past picture postcard castles to our final destination The highly colourful village of Tobermory where again we impacted well on the locals and emptied a barrel of beer over
two nights, pretending to celebrate the memory of William Wilberforce and Bonny prince Charlie!

The return trip was interrupted with a planned overnight stay at Ardminish bay on Ghiga Is. Kirk,who is Bermudan compared the island to his homeland with its turquoise seas and pure white sands. The island has just one pub/hotel to accommodate its 150 inhabitants and we could only find one thing wrong with it, They don't sell Haddock and Chips!

The trip home saw Ireland's anchorages once more and a dodgy sail through Bardsey  sound at midnight. Easy peasy! we are veterans of Corryvreckan! total trip was just shy of 800kn mls

We learnt a lot during the trip about do,s and don't,s etc. Anyone wanting any advise feel free to get in contact via the cruising club, many thanks, Three men in a boat, next jaunt, Falmouth and SW Peninsula.