Blue Moon's trip around the UK

It’s been three years (sailing years, two and a half chronologically). I’ve sailed 6,683 miles. I’ve sailed past every piece of coast on the UK mainland, and most of the islands. I’ve seen all but six of the 267 Scottish lighthouses. I’ve eaten a lot of fish, many chips and buckets of ice cream in…

Last alliteration of the blog, you’ll be pleased to hear, and also getting towards the last post. But not yet – and it may feel like the Final Furlong but it’s not over yet. No champagne, no tears, a couple of days to go. And I am adamant that there are to be no congratulations…

…neither of them final As soon as I began planning this trip, or even thinking about it, I began to think about how it might end. A sports psychologist would have complimented me for my ability to visualise success, but it felt wrong to be dreaming about finishing the journey when I was supposed to…

(and an unexpected homecoming of sorts) I know, I have waxed long and lyrical about Scotland, and bemoaned the increasing lack of adventure as I headed further South. Indeed, one of the reasons I chose to go round clockwise was so that I would finish up with what we Southern sailors call the East Coast,…

Fosdyke is not, and never will be, one of Great Britain’s major ports. It is about 10 miles up an incredibly narrow and improbably straight river which leads, eventually, to nowhere bigger than Stamford. It has three houses, a boatyard, a low bridge that doesn’t open and a pub. At low water it is, and…

A delayed post this one, I’ve been racking my brain for days trying to come up with a hilarious title based on washing cycles and totally failed. There must be something in Quick Wash, surely? Answers below please, or multiple award-winning opportunities will be lost! I’d been looking forward to The Wash with a familiar…

No, I didn’t think it sounded like a good idea either. The plan, you may remember, was originally to meet my next guest, Peter who, since last week, is now the second of five Peters to grace the multi award-winning blog, in Bridlington. That plan had been scuppered by Bridlington Regatta, so he kindly exchanged…

In the Wars of the Yachting Roses, there will only ever be one winner. Readers will remember a pre-awards era blog post on the subject of how you can motor from one end of Lancashire to the other in a day without passing a significant, or even on most tides a viable, cruising destination (It’s…

I had expected such great things from a short week in Northumberland, and should hastily point out, just in case there are any brothers-in-law reading this post, that it was not the county that let me down but that pesky old weather. I have had a very pleasant week visiting the coastal sites of the…

I’ve known this moment was coming, of course. I have no intention of emigrating to Scotland, so I was always going to cross the border back to England at some point. And, of course, I’ve done it for the last two years but that was different: for a start, I went via Ireland, Wales and…

Quite a turn-up for this blog, you might think, with its focus on fish and chips and ice cream. I had not expected to be writing such a title, and especially not in relation to a week sailing down the Aberdeenshire, Angus and Fife coasts. I had names such as Arbroath, St Andrews and Anstruther…

Before we start on the epic corner-turning week that I’ve just experienced, we have a paragraph of appreciation for Camilla Herrmann. Camilla is the Editor of the Cruising Association’s esteemed magazine called – appropriately enough – Cruising. It is not, for the reader with a more schoolboy sense of humour, available in the newsagents of…

Enough alliteration I think, it is becoming a burden. Dear, devoted readers (and students of blog-writing who have been sent here by their professors of bloggery to see how to win awards at this game) might peel back the months of subsequent entertainment to remember that last year I spent a whole week in the…

Have I managed it? Have I published the next post before the previous one is filled with comments complaining about the lack of wrecks? And surely some pedant pointing out that I mentioned anchorages plural but described only one? To both categories of comment I reply: you don’t win more than one award by not…

Don’t worry, Tim and I did not get married, nor did we wreck ourselves. But we did anchor in some truly weird anchorages. So much excitement means so little time to write a blog post and in any case, for those impatient readers impertinent enough to demand weekly copy, I absolutely refuse to write a…

I don’t know why I say ‘surprised’, I knew very little about Shetland before coming here, and don’t know a lot more now. I knew there were no trees; that it barely gets dark in summer; that it is closer to Norway than Edinburgh let alone London; and I’m sure I read somewhere that Dougie…

This, dear readers of the multi-award-winning blog, is Muckle Flugga. It’s just an island with a lighthouse on it, but it’s a very special island and it’s been occupying my waking and dreaming thoughts for quite a few years now, because it is the northernmost point of the UK. I have been telling people for…

If you are as old as me you might have been a member of the Puffin Club. It was probably a shameless marketing ploy dreamt up by the folk at Penguin to get kids to buy more books. but it was very well concealed as an earnest attempt to encourage reading. I don’t remember which…

I need to make one thing absolutely clear before we go any further: Stromness is an extremely attractive place. I would call it a village but it prefers to be known as a town, and since it is Orkney’s second largest place I won’t argue. It is what a film-maker would want from a fishing…

I really shouldn’t do that tenterhooks thing, not only is it a bit unfair on the reader but it sets expectations that the next post will be truly thrilling and even more likely to impress multiple awards juries than the last, and in this case (as in every other case) it really isn’t. I hope…

Believe it or not, there is more to this blog business than meets the reader’s eye, especially if I am to maintain its multi-award-winning status. Finding the time is the key thing, although the further north I go the more chance there is of being stuck in a harbour whilst gales and rain roar overhead…

To the non-sailor the name Libby Purves, if it means anything at all, will mean the erstwhile presenter of such legendary Radio 4 programmes as Midweek; they may even remember her on the Today programme with Brian Redhead. Cruising sailors will probably know much more interesting things: that she is married to Paul Heiney (yes,…

As several readers keep reminding me, the blog’s multi-award-winning status is unlikely to last another year if nothing happens, by which they generally mean misfortune of some sort, or at least some amusing misunderstandings, navigational blunders or plans turning out even worse than feared. Unfortunately this post is going to do even less than the…

I know, multi-award-winning blogs shouldn’t leave their readers on tenterhooks, so let’s start by reassuring you that I have made it back from Eigg with my good impression of the place not just intact but enhanced. In fact, I am still feeling a little guilty about not having visited it before, so I shall make…

Some posts are sadder than others, even in blogs that win multiple awards, and this is one of those posts. Don’t worry, it will be brief, but I have to work the sadness out of my system. This, as eagle-eyed lighthouse-spotting readers will recognise, is Ardnamurchan Light, on Ardnamurchan Point, the westernmost part of the…

Committed readers will recall that my first guest of the year is not a yachtsman. Nor, indeed, a sailor of any kind at all. David is, or I will from now on correctly say was, uniquely unqualified to accompany me on a boat anywhere. He is, however, a very old friend and not known for…

I know I am old and grumpy, and I know that the AI-powered future is already leaving me behind, but I do find my occasional brushes with the technology rather disappointing. Take for instance this excerpt from Google: Is Stranraer worth visiting? AI Overview Yes, Stranraer is worth visiting for its picturesque coastal location, historical…

I’m walking backwards for ChristmasAcross the Irish SeaI’m walking backwards for ChristmasIt’s the only thing for me I’ve tried walking sideways, and walking to the frontBut people just look at me and say it’s a publicity stuntI’m walking backwards for ChristmasTo prove that I love you I’ve had this incredibly annoying tune on my brain…

Some days turn out better than expected, and through careful expectation management (aka total pessimism) this occasionally happens to me when I’m sailing. Yesterday was such a day. The plan was largely based around taking the chance to visit Charlie, who now lives on Anglesey, since it seemed rude simply to sail past and wave,…

Today was not as sad a day as I had anticipated. Yes, it dawned grey, cold and miserable. And I mean dawned, because High Water was 0800 and I had to be out of the marina at 0700. Yes, I took my last ever photos of the Three Graces from the boat: Yes, I was…

Tomorrow is a sad day. After two winters of commuting by car and train to Liverpool, I am leaving for the last time – by boat of course. I am trying to think of reasons to come back and visit because I really like the place, but I am sure staying in a hotel won’t…

Coming from somewhere that competes to be one of the driest spots in the UK, I admit to finding the entire West Coast – English, Welsh, Irish or Scottish – to be a bit of a novelty in many ways. It’s not just the prevalence of rocks over mud, or the tendency of the water…

As I’m sure you’ll remember (Ferry(gliding) Cross The Mersey) sailing into Liverpool is at the same time rather wonderful but also something of a dark art. You can only get there around High Water when the tide is slack enough not to get swept past the lock gates, and the nearest places to leave from are…

You’ll have to forgive me if this post is similar to the one I wrote about the same week a year ago: if you’re heading from Oban to Liverpool there are only so many options, so I had long known that I would be retracing some familiar steps. However, to make things interesting I had…

..in fact, nothing to laugh at at all. It was always one of my main concerns in writing a blog that there would be, to paraphrase Vladimir Ilyich writing about a very different experience, whole weeks where nothing happens in contrast with the days (sometimes hours in my case) where weeks happen. I’m pleased to…

You’ll be pleased to hear that I am now out of the Land that Thomas Telford Built and back on the West Coast where nature did his job for him by creating sheltering islands and safe natural harbours wherever you look. However, to get there we had one final piece of Telfordery to negotiate and…

One of my purposes in writing this blog was to persuade people that I was undertaking a major adventure, not just taking three very long and self-indulgent holidays. I bristle when anyone I meet says things like ‘enjoy your holiday!’, no matter how well intentioned. They didn’t say that when Amundsen came past, did they?…

Caithness is one of those place names that I have been aware of for years and years without having the foggiest idea where it is. A bit like Ashby-de-la-Zouch for instance: a leading contender to be the most central town in England but it could be more or less anywhere, England being such an odd…

You’ll have gathered from the previous post that I was a tiny bit apprehensive about the Pentland Firth, and my attempt to reassure myself by visiting it by car had rather backfired. I was particularly haunted by this image from the John O’ Groats display: it is lifted straight out of the tidal atlas which…

Scrabster is a great name don’t you think? I did, a few years back when I started dreaming of making this trip. I was idly looking along the very top of mainland Britain, i.e. the north Scottish coast, and wondering about how very straight and empty and bleak it looked, and how there were no…

I’ve tried to keep this blog fairly light-hearted, so this will be a short post for two reasons: one, the episode it describes wasn’t that funny, especially not at the time; and two, there wasn’t much sailing involved. But nothing bad happened, except in due course I expect to my wallet. Intrigued? It won’t take…

I’d never heard of Suilven, nor even seen the word until one day last year, when I was chatting to a nice couple in some marina or other and enquired about the odd name they had given their boat. “Sioolvaiiinnnn” she breathed, dramatically, in her best Gaelic as if momentarily posessed by the spirit of…

Apologies for what is probably the longest gap between posts (except the winter of course). This is as a result of two factors: one, being home for over a week (combining a birthday – not mine – and a general election, what a treat) and the other, simply pottering around for a week in deserted…

The Summer Isles is another name to conjure with, and I’d been captivated since I first saw them on a chart. I pictured some kind of sailory nirvana where the sun always shone, the wind always blew 10 knots and the blessed few drifted from one isle to another enjoying barbecues and sundowners. Then Game…

I’ve always loved the idea of Wester Ross, it sounds like an enchanted place and I was slightly surprised to discover that it is actually real, and I bet the locals are really annoyed about Game of Thrones nicking their name. They, along with their neighbours in Sutherland must be as pissed off as the…

Sorry, would it be better if I titled each post with where I’ve been, or just the date? Skye. 19th-21st June. I know, that’s why I’m not going to do dates, it will just show up my laziness in keeping the blog up to date, but in my defence I have been doing lots of…

Ouch. You’ll remember my mission to explore a few new places. and I am pleased to report some success on that front, some more successful than others. I’m also on a mission to write shorter posts, I’ve had a few comments… so in the interets of brevity here come two snapshots of boxes ticked and…

A long gap between posts for two good reasons: first, I went home for a few days and that’s not what the blog is about, and second, I had my third guest of the year in the form of Peter (Watts, not me, although it always seems to tickle strangers to meet two people called…

“Hang on a minute” I hear the whisky geeks cry, “you claim to have walked, cycled, or sailed past every distillery on Islay, but you have only mentioned Port Ellen, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Kilchoman, Bruichladdich, Port Charlotte, Bowmore, Ardbeg and the one that’s still being built, which the internet tells me is to be called Portintruan.…

I have in previous posts alluded to what looks on paper to be the best business trip ever: a day and a half on Islay being shown around the Laphroaig distillery and lectured on its processes, a tour of the island, a night in the capital Bowmore and – best of all – dinner with…

One of the challenges of having an extra, unplanned summer (OK, I’ll admit it straight away, this is really not much of a challenge compared with the benefits) is the possibility of going back to places that I went to last year, and not enjoying them as much either because they’re not as new and…

It had never occurred to me that Scotland had a most southerly point since all of it is so very far north, but it does and this is it. The Mull of Galloway, of which I am sure you’ve heard, has a fearsome reputation amongst sailors who are generally advised not to go anywhere near…

I’ve long fancied visiting Kirkcudbright, not that I knew anything about it at all, just that it has the most amazingly Scottish name, and I did (luckily) know that you pronounce it ‘Kiercoobree’. I was surprised – for instance – to read in all the pilot books that it is referred to (by the tourist…

Doesn’t work does it? Cumbria doesn’t remotely sound like Georgia, although I have to say the one time I went to Georgia (a very long time ago) it rained almost as hard as it does in Cumbria. It just wasn’t quite so cold, or dull. And I bet the people of what is referred to…

Sounds good doesn’t it? Linguistically speaking. A fine piece of alliteration. The reality is less delightful. Keen/sad readers will remember that I went to bed moored off Piel Island looking forward to a nice sail up to Whitehaven, where I was planning to have a day off as I had been assured by a friend…

I can’t be the only yachtsman manqué to have spent his life poring over thumbed copies of Yachting Monthly dreaming of making adventurous passages in far-off waters at the other end of the country. And now I get to fulfil those dreams, it does sometimes feel rather different from the rosy pictures of rugged, rocky…

Yes, the blog is back and with a tyically desperate title for the first post of the year. It’s my last night in Liverpool so I’ve been trying to think of a suitable Beatles song and this is the best I can do. Mind you, one of the finest in my view, but I never…

I make no apologies for starting my last post of the trip with some pedantry; why alter the tone of the blog now? It has always bothered me slightly that the song should really be ‘Ferry Across The Mersey’: nobody, especially not The Pacemakers, would have criticised Gerry for not singing the A in ‘across’…

I mentioned in the last post that we were now in Big Tide Country, and that’s why we found ourselves forced to leave Peel before the lock opened next morning: we had decided that rather than our original plan of sailing the mere 45 miles to Holyhead we would do the full 70 to Caernarfon,…

September is actually the cruellest month, and TS Eliot should have known this as I gather he was quite a keen sailor, another fun fact I only came across because of this blog. You can thank me later. Perhaps it’s not so cruel in New England, but in Olde Englande it’s a rotten month. You’ve…

Apologies to anyone still reading but it’s been a hectic couple of weeks and the blog is well behind. Full disclosure: I am now sitting at home, mug of tea in hand, watching it bucket down outside and feeling rather pleased with myself in that the boat is now tucked up in a marina in…

…or ShagLays eggs inside a paper bagThe reason, you will see, no doubtIs to keep the lightning out But what these unobservant birdsHave not realised is that herdsOf wandering bears may come with bunsAnd steal the bags to catch the crumbs This excellent piece of poetry is my personal favourite, ranking far above The Eddystone…

Most of them rather pleasant, you’ll be pleased to hear, and Tim will be relieved to read, since I spent most of the week in his company. No surprises there, let alone unpleasant ones, which was handy since it occurred to me that it is very many years indeed since we were last in a…

If any readers are left, they will remember that I was heading back to Oban to meet the Brothers Penman off the train, and that after four days of sunny calm I was motoring into a Force 5, with a forecast for more. The weekend – indeed the whole week – was a perfect illustration…