Sailing Fabule
We left Oban on a gloomy morning and made way toward Fort William, starting point of the Caledonian Canal. This canal connects the West coast (Fort William) and the East coast (Inverness) of Scotland along the Great Glen, a geological fault in the earth’s crust that creates a passage between the Scottish Highlands. When we […]
When arriving in Oban, we could feel that this was an international tourist hub. This town situated on the mainland is the gateway to the islands and close to the Caledonian canal. No where else during our journey had we heard so many different languages spoken. We decided to take advantage of a relaxing day […]
Welcoming our daughter Romaine aboard Fabule meant a lot to us. She was involved in the project since the beginning and visited second-hand boats and boatyards with us. Now she would discover the boat and live on it for a couple of weeks. She landed in Glasgow which is an easy train/bus travel away from […]
A loch is basically a corridor between more or less high mountains. Inside this corridor, the wind can be accelerated or diminished. In addition, its direction can be changed. It felt completely erratic at first. After learning how to manage longer passages, we now had to anticipate frequent changes and constantly make adjustments to sail […]
When we set sails from the marina of Troon, we were a little anxious about the new experience ahead of us: spending several days at anchor in an unknown destination with a rainy weather forecast. The journey started with windy conditions, providing good speed but also a bumpy ride. As we progressed north and entered […]
After crossing the North Channel, we entered Loch Ryan for our first night in Scotland. To our surprise, we saw that there was another Boreal already anchored there. During that windy night, we both monitored our anchors carefully to make sure they did not drag. The next day, we invited the crew of Askell Wenn […]
Belfast is the first city we visited since we started this journey. We arrived by train from the Bangor marina. Our first impression was the typical bustle of cities: the buildings, the cars, the noise, the shopping streets, the people walking minding their business. Did you know that the Titanic was built in Belfast’s shipyards? […]
During our stay in Milford Haven (Wales), we alternated anchorage and marina. There is a big contrast between the industrial part at the beginning of the river and the quiet anchorages after the bridge. The wind continued to be on the light side when we left Milford Haven to move up the Irish Sea. We […]
River Fal Before leaving Falmouth, we went up river Fal which offers a beautiful scenery. We anchored in a quiet place and spent time watching birds. When the tide was low, a gray heron was walking the shore in search of food. On the hill just behind us, deer were grazing. During our first night […]
During our latest passage, we rounded Land’s End and moved North to Milford Haven. It is a well situated stop on our way to Scotland. The additional reason for anchoring in this area was to meet Sara and Phil, owners of Vagrant. They ordered a new mattress for their sailboat from the Boreal boatyard. Not […]