Winding up - finally

It's time to wind up Follyfin's 2012 UK Tour - long overdue I know but then we are retired! Our almost-circumnavigation, clockwise round the UK mainland, officially started at Eastbourne and officially ended at St Katherine's Dock, London. [The final 80-mile passage from Whitstable round to Eastbourne will be completed in Spring 2013.] From London we then retraced our passage back up the East Coast to Hull for overwintering. The map shown in a separate post entitled Tour Map, shows all the locations visited on our circumnavigation.

St. Michael's Mount

Crinan Canal

During the voyage, we spent 141 days away, 80 of which were on passage, 36 resting in port or at anchor, and 23 on side trips away from the boat. In total, we covered 2,809 miles. We took Follyfin past the most southerly, westerly, northerly and easterly points on the UK mainland and into 74 different locations, visiting a few places twice as we returned North from London. We safely negotiated the Pentland Firth, well known for the strength of its tides, survived a hair-raising passage in thick fog, and effected a heart-stopping rescue of Follyfin when she 'escaped' from her anchor and was within 5–10 minutes of foundering on rocks. Some of the more interesting locations we visited include St Michael's Mount (Cornwall), Skomer Island (wonderful bird sanctuary in South Wales), 

Isle of Whithorn (first port in Scotland when sailing up west coast), Crinan Canal (Scotland), Loch Moidart (beneath the ruin of Castle Tioram, Scotland), Stromness (Orkney, near to Skara Brae – the late Neolithic settlement inhabited between 3200 and 2200 B.C.), Arbroath (of 'Smokies' fame), Whitby (Bram Stoker's 'set' for Dracula), Southwold (home of Adnams brewery in Suffolk), River Stour (the depths of Constable country), and of course St. Katherine's Dock beside Tower Bridge in London.

Arbroath Smokies

Southwold

Constable Country, R. Stour

Skara Brae, Orkney

Whitby Abbey & Harbour entrance

Tower Bridge, London

Now for some interesting statistics (or not-so-interesting depending on your point of view). 
VOYAGE: Total time underway 560 hours (equivalent to 23 full days and nights – but we made no night passages). Maximum distance covered in one day was 106 nm, from Whitby to Spurn Point at the entrance to The Humber, and was also the longest passage in time, taking 18.5 hours. The highest maximum boat speed recorded was 11.3 nautical miles (nm)/h, average max speed 7.7 nm/h. The highest average boat speed recorded was 6.2 nm/h, average speed 3.9 nm/h. 
SAILING: on 8 days, over 70% of the passage was made under sail alone (the maximum on any one day was 93%); on 39 days over 50% of the passage was under sail alone. Overall, 43% of the whole voyage was spent under sail alone. 
WIND: Average wind speed over course of voyage was 20 knots (equivalent to 37 km/h). Maximum wind speeds experienced were:  41.4 knots (77 km/h) on 1 day (or almost 50 mph for anyone like me who still thinks in Imperial measures – a Force 9 'strong gale'), 34-40 knots (F8) on 2 days, 28-33 knots (F7) on 9 days, 22-27 knots (F6) on 12 days, 17-21 (F5) on 20 days, 11-16 (F4) on 21 days, 7-10 (F3) on 7 days, and 0-6 knots (F0, 1 or 2) on the remaining 8 days. On 17 days the sails were not hoisted at all, and on another 7 days were hoisted for less than one hour, so 30% of passages relied totally on the engine but the remainder were wind-assisted. 
ENGINE: we motored for a total of 317.6 hours, consuming approx 316 litres of diesel, costing £300 (average cost per litre £0.95). 
BERTHING: we anchored 21 times, picked up 19 buoys, spent 59 nights in marinas (23 of which were when we were away), berthed alongside on 32 harbour or town pontoons or quays, and 'took the ground' (by virtue of our lifting keel) 11 times. Average berthing cost per night was £13.66. 
WATER TEMPERATURE: Max 23.4°C (74°F) on 25 August at Woolverstone, River Orwell; Min 11.4°C (52.5°F) on 5/6/ May in Weymouth and on 7 May in Fishcombe Cove (west of Brixham). On 19 days the temperature was 20°C or above, on 13 days it was 14-19.5°C, on the remaining 48 days it was under 14°C.

Loch Scavaig, Skye

Isle of Whithorn, Galloway

Whitehills Harbour Entrance

Summarising, I can safely say that this voyage was a great experience and is the first of many we hope. The best part was that we were not in a hurry so could take our time, stopping where the mood took us, waiting for the weather when required and generally being free of normal everyday ties. We saw many varieties of marine life (including seals, dolphins, Basking sharks and Minke whales), and sea birds in profusion (including puffins, guillemots, razorbills, shearwaters, various species of tern, kittiwakes, gulls, gannets, cormorants and skuas).

Puffin, Skomer Island

It’s hard to record which were the best places but here goes: the most beautiful anchorage was probably Loch Moidart in the Scottish Highlands; the most dramatic anchorage was also in Scotland: Loch Scavaig, on Skye.
There were many picturesque spots but we particularly liked Isle of Whithorn, location of St. Ninian’s retreat. Finally, probably the most nerve-wracking harbour entrance was Whitehills (Morayshire), because of the big seas, narrow entrance and sharp right-angle bend just before a stone wall. And now ...  onwards, to plan the 2013 voyage!

Loch Moidart