CNG - Sailing By

What a day! We got off to a great start but by the time we were South of Helmsdale after sailing for a while we had to take the sails down because the weather came up and it was a hard South Westerly wind blowing right in our nose! I hear you say, how unusual! No, not all of you. I know that you know that is the only weather Little Don can/can't sail in! Anyway, we battled on all the way to Little Ferry (South of Golspie) and we could see straight away we didn't have a cat in hells chance of getting to tie up there. After a little debate and much heavy sighing and moaning Don decided the sensible thing to do would be to sail back North to Helmsdale. We looked at each other thinking, Oh God, not back up there! Anyway, it turned out to be a brilliant idea. We set sail at half past four and sailed all the way to Helmsdale. It was absolutely fantastic! We got up to 6.2 knots which was whizzing by and felt great. I loved it! We tied up before 8pm and had dinner and a glass of white wine. We are all shattered! We had been on the sea for eleven and a half hours today. We all have rosy red cheeks, and it isn't from the wine - it is from the wind.

Have to go and organise the sleeping arrangements. All four of us have to get a good night's kip. We are heading for Lossiemouth tomorrow and it will be another long day with some good sailing. The rest of the week won't be so good. We will be in Nairn for a day and a half if the weather does what it says it is going to - oh well, ho hum!

Signing off (again)
Talk soon
Lakota crew

LAKOTA UPDATE 3RD May 2009

11:10am Motoring

Now motoring at a steady 4.5 knots. The wind is still ‘in our neb’ but the sun is shining and the breeze is brisk. If we were travelling by car we would be going over the Ord. We can see the Ord of Caithness directly opposite.

“Oh come all ye people from over the Ord, there’s a welcome awaiting that you can afford. Be you a pauper or be you a Lord, you will always be welcome in Caithness”

If this trip had been planned from West to East to North to West to South the weather would have been ideal. As it is we have to catch the wind where we can. It may get better the further South we go but so far the wind direction has been against us.

Lakota cruises under sail. She isn’t a sleek, swift wee boat but she is great for us novices! I am the only one onboard with no sailing experience but I am good at making the tea! I have been told by Don that by the end of the week, I will know how to sail. It all depends on the wind and waves, but I am picking up the jargon as I go. Don has even written the names of the halyards on the cabin. There you go, jargon already!

Now, Don (Donnie, DONALD, Little Don, Pain in the ass) wants me to mention the price of diesel in Wick. He was not a happy sailor when asked to pay a total of £34.25 for 30 litres! Surely the price must be wrong? He had to pay 108.73 pence per litre. This is an outrage! He checked the price in Kyle, a measly 78 pence per litre, which is the average Highland Region price. 30 litres there only cost a paltry £21.24. If we had gone in to Helmsdale the deal would have been an acceptable £25.08 for 30 litres. According to Don, if we had bought white diesel in Tesco and paid the same price as at Wick Harbour he would at least have gained club card points!

The difference between RED and White diesel is the duty paid. RED diesel has no duty. The deal is, boats use RED diesel. None commercial users of RED diesel have to pay a percentage of duty.
(This is obviously the opinion of Donald and is open for discussion)

11:35 – Weather update – Bl**dy Hailstones!! It is getting more like an arctic expedition by the minute!

11:45/12 Noon – Sun out, main sail up! As predictable as the weather!

We are heading for Golspie for the night. We should tie up late this afternoon. Don is going to cook lunch as we motor. It will be a gourmet meal, no doubt!

Signing off.
Lakota Crew
Sailing by

Good Morning Sailors

We had a very eventful day yesterday. Simon and I left Dunbeath at 8am heading for Gills Bay (Near John O'Groats) to pick up my oldest brother, Alec and my nephew-in-law, Lindsay. They arrived at 9:15am on a bonny sunny morning - ten minutes down the road towards Wick and the heavens opened. The rain just wasn't taking time to fall! It was horrible!

We arrived in Wick where it was dreigh and miserable. Great Sailing weather. We unloaded all of our gear (Don was pretty horrified at how much stuff we had!) and we were keen to go. David, my other nephew had arrived in Dunbeath to catch a bus to Wick but as Simon (on his way to Aberdeen) arrived at Mum and Dads at the same time as David he turned around and came back to Wick.. Life as we know it............

When we were hanging around for the weather to clear a bit Don's daughter who is only six weeks away from giving birth climbed down the ladder and came onboard. Her mother would have been having kittens! We chatted for a while and by half past twelve we were ready to sail. We let go the ropes and the voyage began. We had to motor for the first couple of hours because it was pretty rough! We did manage to get the main sail up by about three o'clock and the head sail up a few minutes later. We had some good wind and headed out toward the Beatrice field so that we could get a good line to tack back towards Dunbeath. The wind was gusting and falling off a lot so we didn't get the tack we wanted and ended up just about level with Lybster. We then started the engines and motored in to Dunbeath. The sea was pretty lumpy but we all enjoyed it.

Tied up in Dunbeath about half past five and after making (heating) dinner we headed up to a nice warm bed at Mum and Dads. Don and Lindsay stayed onboard. Alec an me had nice warm beds!! Oldest son, daughter, fair deal, I say!

Lindsay came up with Dad's car and we headed back to the Lakota about quarter past eight. We let go the ropes at twenty five to nine and we are now sailing (with the engines running because the laptop needs an internet connection for me to be doing this. I have to go now because Don wants to stop the engines as the wind is North West 15knots and it is ideal for sailing.

Sailing by.
Speak soon
From Lakota