HOME WATERS
38 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com NOVEMBER 2015
They faced turbulent weather
and personal drama in the
Caledonian Canal. ‘In Loch Ness
we hit the worst seas we’ve had,’
Jeff says. ‘Continuous rain, rough
seas and high winds battered
Isabella. Watching the depth
gauge, I saw it was going from
190 to 195 metres and then it
gave up. I suppose that’s where
Nessie lives.’
As the fi erce gale swept through
Loch Ness, Rose had a pregnancy
scare. She was already suffering
from severe morning sickness,
but suddenly started to bleed
badly. In high seas and into the
wind, Jeff tried desperately to sail
to Fort William for the nearest
hospital. ‘We just couldn’t do it,’
he says. ‘We had to sit it out.’
When they eventually got to hospital,
doctors told Rose she had lost the baby.
The couple wanted a second opinion, but
it was the weekend and they had to wait
two days for an appointment at Inverness
Hospital. They hired a car and, with Lunar
in the back, drove 60 miles for the scan
that would confi rm what had happened.
‘We were devastated, it’s not a fast road
and there were 50-knot winds fl ying down
the canyon,’ Rose says. It was our darkest
day, we thought we’d lost her. But we
didn’t have long to wait for the results.
There she was, a little heartbeat pounding
away. It was too scary to put in the log.’
Once through the canal, they anchored at
Oban and sailed briefl y around the islands,
where Jeff described life as like being
Robinson Crusoe, ‘fi shing for mackerel
and throwing crab pots over the side for
a decent lunch.’ They had planned a long
spell in the Western Isles, but instead
decided to head south for better weather.
At Troon they lay at anchor to wait for a
weather window before sailing on to Ailsa
Craig. The famous bird sanctuary ten milesfrom mainland Scotland, standing more
than a thousand feet high and 2½ miles in
circumference, was on their must-anchor
list. ‘It like something from Jurassic Park
in the middle of nowhere,’ Jeff says.
‘Then, without warning, a big squall
came over the top from behind us.
Suddenly we were heading for a crash on
the rocky beach. It was dangerous, so I
quickly started the engine and reversed off
as fast as I could. We left the place to the
birds and set sail for Stranraer.’
That wasn’t a snug berth, either. ‘The
large Irish ferries are coming and going all
night long. We were anchored broadside to
their wake and by morning the boat looked
as if she’d been hit by a tsunami, there was
stuff everywhere.’
From Stranraer, Rose and Jeff crossed
the North Chanel to Ballywater
in Northern Ireland and sailed
on to Strangford Lough, where
they were trapped for two weeks
waiting for the weather to change.
‘We were both missing Cornwall,
I was bored with Guinness and
Rose was getting more and more
pregnant,’ Jeff explains. ‘So we
decided to head for home. We
were at sea for three nights. It
was awesome, we had dolphins
following us all the way. We
stopped at Milford Haven for two
hours to buy milk, then crossed
the Bristol Channel to Padstow
and sailed on to Plymouth to
complete the loop.’
After exploring Britain in
search of the perfect anchorage,
262 days at sea and 1,750 nautical
miles, Jeff and Rose picked
Dartmout in Devon, just a stone’s throw
from where they had set off, as the place
to settle and raise their new daughter,
Nina. Now, from their new base, they
could explore the anchorages of the West
Country, Channel Islands and Scilly.
With a baby aboard they needed extra
space and upgraded from Isabella to
Towser, a 38ft Nauticat. Between 2012 and
2014, before they fi nally moved ashore,
Jeff and Rose lived 90 per cent at anchor
and dropped the hook about 480 times
while cruising more than 1,000 miles. WNina, the baby Rose thought she had lost, was
delighted with her lifejacket aboard TowserWith Rose’s bump growing, it was time to
head for home and more familiar watersHuge tides take Isabella past Strangford
Loch’s tide turbine at an amazing 11 knots
Beating up Loch Ness against a gale was not an enjoyable sailOut of the Caledonian
Canal in sight of Ben Nevis