Having been reunited with each other and the boat last night, this morning we moved on into new waters. Leaving at about 7am, we made our way westwards (almost for the last time). We arrived in St Ives at 2pm, and are expecting to stay until the morning, before we make our way round Land's End (weather dependent obviously!)

Some other news: we have reached 60% of our fundraising target! So far, over £6000 has been donated to enable those who need a visit to FACT most, be be able to come and benefit from all that a stay can offer. Thank you to all who have helped us get this far- please help us spread the word even further!

(Lat: 50.2142 Long: -5.4731)

We have now been in Padstow a few days.  Becky has had to go back to university for her graduation, and I have been trying to not spend all my money in the fudge shop or buying cornish Ice cream.

There are plenty of families here on their holiday, with most of them seeming to want to go crabbing right next to Jelly Fish, in the gap between the boat and the quay side we are moored to.  The result: I am constantly removing ‘bait’ from the decks and un tangling fishing lines when they get caught around our wind generator.
It has been really nice to have a break and catch up on sleep properly. We are hoping to set sail again on Friday.

Jelly Fish barely visible moored in Padstow on a rainy day.

Having arrived in Padstow yesterday, and spent a while on a mooring buoy waiting for the tide, we eventually made it into our most picturesque harbour yet.  The little quay was bustling with holiday makers enjoying the sunshine.  It turned out to be Sea Sunday, and we were both surprised when the lifeboat drove into the harbour with a number of vicars on the bow.  They led a short service (using a load-hailer as the PA wasn’t working), and about 300 people joined the brass band to sing the hymns.  It was quite a special time (for me anyway) as they prayed for all sea-farers and their families.

Today we had a day off enjoying the sunshine (I think we left the rain in the north) with a visit from my (Becky) Uncle we were able to visit Falmouth and see my brother.  It being the summer holidays, Cornwall is full of people, and today really felt like a slice of holiday.  This is such a blessing after our long hours coming down the west coast.

Thank you all for your comments and support.  We have almost reached 50% of our target, and it would be great to reach £5000 by the end of the week!

Padstow is lovely. Just joined in the sea sunday service on the quay. It is a bustling town.

After a month of being away we have finally returned to England. We crossed the Bristol Channel last night arriving at Padstow just now. Now waiting for the tide to enter the harbour.
(Lat: 50.5460 Long: -4.9326)

Firstly, an apology for not blogging very often, or fully, recently. We have been out of mobile signal between the Isle of Man and the mainland, and also crossing Cardigan Bay- making updates impossible. We have also been doing some sailing at crazy hours (like 4pm until 3am from Fishguard to Dale), meaning the only thing we do when we arrive is go to bed! We endeavour to do better.

Today we have been busy sorting the boat and re-stocking. We got out our inflatable tender and rowed ashore to find water and fuel. Water was easy to find, but to get  to the petrol station we had to get a bus- which was a bit of an adventure. We made friends with a walker at the bus stop and the bus driver, as well as an old man outside Tesco, and a little boy at the other bus stop!

As I write this, we are on a floating pontoon, with the boat nice and tidy, and ready to go in the morning. We are hoping to leave at a more respectable time than recently (about 11am) and start making our way across the Bristol Channel.

Moored for the night at Lat: 51.7050 Long: –5.1535

Just got the bus into milford haven to pick up some fuel. Now sitting on the grass outside tesco waiting for the 3 hourly bus.

Yes, it is 3.15am and we are just cooking dinner, having enjoyed a great sail downwind at last!

We reached this landmark in St Georges Channel, where we also saw more dolphins!

We have spent this morning searching for the nearest petrol station, which turned out to be not very near! Then rowed petrol and people back to Jelly Fish in our tender. Mary deserves to have been the rowing team at Cambridge!

Having left Hollyhead at 6.30am we have just arrived at Fishguard at 1am! Now it is time to sleep!

Currently sailing past the peninsula with the sun shining. Taking it in shifts so we can both rest as likely to be a long trip.
Lat: 52.9700 Long: -4.8020

We just beat the fog as we arrived in Holyhead after a very calm sail.  The wind has now died completely and we hope it will pick up a bit more tomorrow from the North to help us on our way.
Moored, Lat:53.3207 Long:-4.6422

We left the Isle of Man at 4am in fog and are now enjoying sunny sailing to Hollyhead.
Lat: 53.4082 Long: -4.6387

We took the bus to Douglas today as we are waiting for the weather to clear up. Hopefully set sail again tomorrow.

Pictures from our trip down to the Isle of Man.

We had some engine trouble earlier, having alerted the coastguard they chose to launch Erin lifeboat to check we were okay. Many thanks to the lifeboat crew who sped up our return to port from 2 knots (sailing) to 8 knots (towed).
Lat: 54.0871 Long: -4.7649

We are on the Isle of Man after a very wet and windy overnight sail. Taken us a while to recover. Doing some minor repairs, drying the boat and waiting for the wind to calm down. Moored at Peel. 
Lat: 54.2296 Long: -4.6939

As night falls, the wind continues to increase, and we are still sailing towards the Isle of Man. Lat: 54.8598 Long: -5.2483

We are eating mackerel for breakfast that was caught last night by our Norwegian friends. Moored, Lat: 55.5892 Long: -5.1299

We are enjoying sailing down Loch Fyne although the wind is variable in both strength and direction!
Lat: 55.8944 Long: -5.3673

The sun is out for the first time in over a week and we are enjoying the beautiful Crinian Canal. Sorry for the lack of updates, signal is very poor here.
Lat: 56.0296 Long: -5.4447

Today has had many adventures: 9.9 knots due to tides, force 10 winds, 4 hours on a mooring and 7 locks. Sailing down on the Crinian Canal.
Lat: 56.0599 Long: -5.4851

We are currently moored in a small bay off the Isle of Luing, just outside the strong tides which pass through the sound of Luing. Hope to get to the crinan canal tomorrow

Lat:56.215 Long:-5.6617

Finally after spending the entire week under engine in the canal we have the engine off and are sailing under full sail between some lovely islands. Already planning a return trip!
Lat: 56.3022 Long: -5.6648

Well we finally left the canal today, in style, going down Neptunes Staircase – a set of 7 locks, in a light drizzle, no wind and plenty of Scottish midges!  As we left the canal the rain got progressively worse and the clouds lower.  We motored through some of the ‘best’ scenery we are expecting, with only the base of the hills visible, due to the cloud. 

The wind began to pick up but from dead ahead, we hoisted the main.  The wind increased some more and we put two reefs in.  Pretty quickly afterwards there was a 90 degree wind shift, the spinnaker made another bid for freedom – this was unsucessful, and the wind began to howl through the rigging.  Our third reef was called into action.  The main sail was now smaller than that of pico! 

The waves had picked up and, despite an extremely small fetch, were pretty large to be sailing side on to.  The Genoa, strapped on at the bow decided that the spinnaker had the right idea and it was time to try swimming, another trip to the foredeck with the bow going under the waves.

Half an hour later we were tucked behind an island, the sun was shinning and the wind was gone, and Becky said she had enjoyed it! (She didn’t go on the foredeck as often as I did!)  We called up Oban marina as our Canal friends were all there, only to be told there were no free berths.  We carried on regardless, found a berth next to the Danes and will shortly be having dinner with the Norwegians on the Danes boat.

Just been told it gusted a 9. The weather forecast? Cyclonic 4 or 5, becoming variable 3 or 4!  Sorry no pictures, we were a bit preoccupied!
Mary (and Becky)

Lat: 56.4179 Long: –5.4967

After almost a week in the canal we have finally locked out! Lat: 56.7790 Long: -5.1755

We are still waiting at the pontoons near Neptune’s staircase, a series of 8 locks to take us back down to sea level.  However, the wind is dropping and the sea state decreasing, so we are expecting to leave as soon as the locks open tomorrow morning, and make our way to Oban- quite a long journey to make up for all this waiting around we have done!

Last night we went to a nearby pub to watch Spain vs Germany, with a couple of Norwegian sailors (who are on their way to the Caribbean in a 30ft boat).  While we were their our friendly Danes turned up, so we spent a lovely evening sharing sailing stories!

Some pictures from our time on the Caledonian Canal.

So far today we have just moved the boat to the other side of the canal, so as to be nearer the toilets and showers, and to (hopefully) be able to plug-in and charge some of our electrical equipment.

We did manage to get the bus into Fort William and explore a bit.  I think the best thing was lunch, which consisted of some very very tasty ‘roast’ rolls.  The meat was really wonderful, and the rolls really soft and fresh- quite different to the bread and meat we normally get on Jelly Fish.

It looks as if the weather is going to take a while to improve, particularly the sea state which remains very rough or even high, and so we may possibly be stuck here again tomorrow. I think both of us would really like to get going again, and could both do with just one sunny day to get everything dry again!  We can but pray.

The sun is finally shining, although it is still windy, and we are having pancakes for breakfast!

We have had another day of motoring, rain and locks- but we are still enjoying it!  We also met up with some people sailing the ‘other-way’ round Britain, who we had already been in touch with, as we passed through the same lock, one after another in opposite directions.  Both boats tied up on pontoons and it was wonderful to be able to show them Jelly Fish. We also had the pleasure of looking in their boat ‘Minstrel,’ a beautiful gaff-rig. We were also given a cup of tea and piece of very tasty carrot cake!

The other highlight of the day was seeing Ben Nevis which still had snow.  We tried to capture it in a photo, but I think the clouds got in the way (see below)!


Lat: 56.8492 Long: –5.0885

Jelly Fish is now higher than ever before- at 32.5m above sea level. It's all down hill from now on. Lat: 57.0580 Long: -4.7846

We have been so busy keeping our eyes out for nessie ( and big waves ) that this is a bit late Becky was sure she had spotted her, but i think the icy conditions has kept her in hibernation! We are now moored

Well, as we updated earlier, the weather has been pretty bad today.  As the forecast predicted it has been blowing strong winds, and there have been some really heavy downpours- so much so that the rain even did most of our washing-up that we had put outside!  As a result we have not been out sailing, although we hope to go westwards through Loch Ness tomorrow.

We have therefore spent the day doing non-boat related activities.  We walked to see the waves at the Loch- which were not as big a we had expected (or experienced before) but the wind was still too strong for us to be out there really.  On the way back we enjoyed an ice-cream, and then we have been on the boat playing ‘Mahjong’ a game Mary brought back from China.

There have been a couple of interesting moments, generally involving holiday makers on powerboats that don’t really know what they are doing.  Our powerboat instructor skills have been exercised to show people how to tie up to a pontoon! So far our boat has been safe (the wind generator is going slightly crazy in this wind!), as have we.

Thank you from us both for all your encouragement!

With a gale blowing outside, we are moored for the day and are playing games and baking cakes.

We are truly in the canal now, having passed through 6 locks today. Only 23 more to go!

Once in, we motored for while and are now moored for the night with our new friends on board ‘Genesis’- they were in the sea lock with us, an have been kindly looking out for little JF, as well as passing on all sorts of useful information to us on our canal debut.

We had to leave Inverness Marina in a bit of a hurry, when we radioed the Clachnaharry Sea Lock and they said we needed to be there within 20 minutes or he would be shut for lunch (despite only just opening because of the tide!)  So we set off and got there in time, even if a little wet from the spray when motoring the short way there.

The lock-keeper was very friendly, and also very understanding when our attempts to throw ropes up to him failed (many times!)  We were also sharing the lock with another boat, who were equally as understanding.

We are now lunching at Seaport Marina (waiting for the swing bridge) before heading through Muirtown Locks. Neither of us can quite believe we are in fresh water, or that we no longer have to plan around the tides!

Lat: 57.4857 Long: –4.2493

Becky is being interviewed today at 9:45 on Premier Radio, you can listen on www.premier.org.uk

We would like to say how much we appreciate all your comments and messages, it is really nice to know that there are so many people supporting us.  It has been great to talk to loads of local people during this trip about Fellowship Afloat and the bursary fund, hopefully the canal will give us plenty more opportunities as we pass through the locks.

Mary

Today saw the first ever ‘small yacht, heavy-seas, motor race’.  The rules are simple, each boat must leave their chosen starting port and get to Chanonry Narrows at midday with two sails hoisted.  From there, they must start their engine, drop both sails, and motor up Inverness Firth. The finish line is signified by the Kessock Bridge.  The first boat to pass under the bridge wins. The prize - pride.

This years contenders were ‘the little blue boat’ (crew- unknown), ‘the white boat’ (crew- an older man and his enduring wife), and ‘Jelly Fish’ (crew- two 20-something females and some extra ballast in the form of the skipper’s father).  Each struggled hard,  but there could only ever be one winner.

The ‘little blue boat’ (LBB) had the best start, cutting the corner and taking the shallow channel near Fort George extending their lead to almost 1nm.  The second boat to start was the ‘white boat’ (WB), who had a good line around the corner. And finally came Jelly Fish, who, after a slow start from Hopeman was struggling to keep pace with the bigger boats.

However, off Fort George WB were struggling with their sails.  Many frantic minutes were spent with crew on the foredeck furling the jib by hand, while the mainsail flapped it’s discontent. It was then that JF came into play, with swift crew work on the foredeck, and clever preparation with the rigging design meaning that the sails were dropped in seconds.  JF than overtook on the outside and moved up into second place, with LBB still up ahead.

With large choppy waves off Chanonry Point, the tactical game was played out.  LBB found it difficult to steer into the waves, and veered off towards the shore.  This gave them smaller waves, but against a fierce wind, they also lost the all important current taking them up the channel.  WB stayed in the current longer, but couldn’t stand the struggle and ended up pitching their way into the shallower waters.

JF and her crew (and ballast) were undeterred by the change of course of the others, and bravely stuck to their dinghy background, and stuck it out in the waves of the deepest channel (with 4 knots taking them towards the finish).

The dinghy training paid off, and JF soon over took LBB.  However, the trip was not easy. Crew were positioned acutely astern (to keep the outboard propeller in the water), and helm was struggling with the amount of spray coming off the bow (at one point a wave did make it completely over the bow and rolled down the boat into the cockpit- fortunately everybody there was so wet that it made no difference). 

Meanwhile there were dolphins trying desperately (and succeeding) to distract all involved in the race, by jumping energetically out of the water a little way off.

Eventually the current and engine combined beat the wind, and Jelly Fish crossed the finish line first, and thus became the winners of the first ever ‘small yacht, heavy-seas, motor race’!

NB: All boats successfully crossed the finish line before the tide turned to rush them back out to sea.  Also, the winner, Jelly Fish, is currently moored at Inverness Marina (Lat: 57.4942 Long: -4.2344) for the night, before entering into the Caledonian Canal sometime tomorrow, and the crew have enjoyed a rare shower and are finally dry.

We are on our way west towards Inverness and the canal. Wind is dead on the bow but tide is now with us. (Sailing Lat: 57.6541 Long: -3.8214 )

We started today with some much needed extra sleep (we sailed over 50 miles yesterday and have been up before 5:30am three days in a row!) We then enjoyed some home-made pancakes and met up with Mary’s parents for a cup of ‘real’ tea (we often have UHT milk and plastic cups).

Sailing out of Buckie we expected strong winds and big waves, but were pleasantly greeted with both moderate sea and wind (although the latter increased significantly whilst we were out there).

After a short 16 mile sail we arrived at Hopeman (Lat: 57.7111 Long: -3.4378 ) a charming little harbour with some really welcoming locals who were all interested our little boat, our all female crew and the fact that we had made it all the way from Essex!

‘Never mind the North Sea, these girls have come from Essex’ (Quote from a Hopeman local, to his fisherman friend looking out into the North Sea).

Arrived here yesterday evening and moored for the night. Even got a rare lie-in this morning! It is meant to be windy today so we will probably only sail 10 miles or so. (Lat: 57.6806 Long: -2.9543)