Late Again and Distant Dream: a Centenary Cruise around Great Britain

by George and Julia Trevelyan and Bill Darley

One part of the Centenary fun hasn't had much mention to date: the decision of two cruising skippers to mark the Centenary with an exceptional cruise around Great Britain. Both boats started in mid-April, and both were back in time for the Centenary Regatta on 18th June. Neither skipper had done it before, and they both felt they had enjoyed a tremendous voyage. There the similarities end, because each skipper visited different places, did different things and experienced different weather!

Late Again - George and Julia Trevelyan

Late Again arrived home at the RLym Pontoon at 10.05 on Wednesday 15th June. We had been away for 58 days, lost 14 days to allow strong winds to blow through, and set aside another 14 days for family gatherings (at two sites - Loch Broom/Ullapool and Balmacara/Lochalsh – the families following the path of the boat). The shore-based interludes were delightful and allowed us to explore these magnificent areas of Scotland at leisure. We also had a brush with Covid, but it didn’t greatly affect our sailing plans. We had sailed and motored 1750 miles by our return.
 
Our passage crews were George, Ivor and Colin (and briefly Jeremy) – two of whom had sailed to Galicia together in 2017 on Late Again, and indeed a Fastnet in 1983 on a GK29. Our cruising crew were George, Julia and Annie. Passage crews also stayed on to cruise Orkney, and to help the boat south from Oban, so we were rarely down to three. Zinta and Nick helped crew from Lochinver to Ullapool when Julia and Annie were sick, and Ali, Simon and Ros from Ullapool to Plockton. With these arrangements we survived eight weeks of tricky weather and testing pilotage. Thanks for sticking with it guys!
 
Without the layovers and family-time we had some 30 days available for both passages and cruising – which still seemed a lot.  Over the period we visited 4 ports on the passage North (Dover, Harwich, Lowestoft, and Peterhead, pronounced Peterheed!); 4 in Orkney (Kirkwall, Rousay, Westray and Stromness); 12 in the Hebrides (Kinlochverbie, Lochinver, Ullapool, Plockton, Inveree, Mallaig, Tobermory, Iona, Puilladobhrain, Oban, Craighouse (Jura) Port Ellen (Islay) and 3 in Ireland (Ballycastle (NI), Bangor (NI) and Dun Laoghaire).  Most of these ports were new to us: and in most we were on marinas or HM’s moorings, readily available these days in boat-friendly ports.
 
The passage from Lymington to Kirkwall took 5½ days sailing time with the interruptions removed, but 12 days on the calendar (19th April to 1st May, with a 4-day layover for strong winds in Dover, and three 12-hour rest-breaks at Harwich, Lowestoft and Peterhead. Similarly the passage South from Bangor to Lymington took just under 4 days sailing time, with three lost to strong winds in Dun Laoghaire.
 
While cruising we also lost days to strong winds at Lochinver, which stopped us exploring the Summer Isles on the way to Ullapool, and more days in Ullapool, which meant we didn’t explore Gairloch and Loch Torridon as we’d hoped. But, because we had secure land bases and good harbours throughout the area, we never felt threatened by the winds – only frustrated from time to time! The missed ports will have to wait until next time.
 
Magic moments: when we

• tacked onto Starboard off Lowestoft, found we could lay Kirkwall and sailed 150 miles in the next 27 hours
• raised Copinsay island in the approaches to Kirkwall 4 days from Lowestoft
• explored the Ring of Brodgar and Skara Brae in Orkney next day (on foot)
• rounded Stoerhead lighthouse in a bad blow, and directly after raised the Assynt mountain landscape on our way into Lochinver
• were welcomed by Janet and Greg, old friends from Drumbeg, who kept their boat at Lochinver
• collected the grandchildren from Inverness and started to explore Scotland with them (mostly in rain)
• became familiar with the endless birdlife at major headlands
• went for a day sail without objectives off Castle Duart and Oban (in the sun)
• found quiet anchorages in the Bull’s Hole Iona, and Puilladobhrain, and unexpected beauty and an otter in Craighouse, Jura – also in the sun
• were received with great kindness as a passage crew by Colum Kelleher, our former Finance chief at RLymYC, as we sheltered from strong winds at the Royal St George YC at Dun Laoghaire on the last leg home.

Distant Dream - Bill Darley