Tzu enjoying
the tranquillity
of Eyemouth
harbourCRUISING
34 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com APRIL 2016Mike Cooke reports on how the Forth & Clyde Canal saved time
and money on a delivery trip from the River Tees to Wales
The Northumberland coast can be pretty
exposed, particularly in easterly winds,
so we thought it prudent to wait out a
patch of bad weather before we made our
push for Scotland and the Firth of Forth.
Wednesday brought much better sailing
conditions and we soon reached Eyemouth
where we threaded our way between the
rocks and sea walls of the narrow entrance,
past the seals basking lazily on ledges, and
alongside the brand new pontoons.
We were up early the next day, armed
with fresh bread and ‘Empire biscuits’,
ready for the long slog north. Leaving St
Abb’s Head, Bass Rock and Edinburgh to
port, we ducked under the Forth railway
and road bridges, where Port Edgar was a
most welcome sight. Despite dire warnings
of heavy traffic we’d seen only two ships all
day, one of which was a Dutch Navy vessel
according to our AIS set.
The Forth and Clyde canal is a mast-
down route, with as little as three metres
of clearance under some of the bridges.
Timing here was crucial. We had arranged
to have our mast lowered at Grangemouth
Yacht Club on Friday and needed to take
the flood tide up the shallow River Carron,
but if we arrived at the bridge at Kerse
Road too close to high water, we wouldn’t
fit underneath. Get it wrong and we’d miss
our lock in to the canal. We arrived at
Grangemouth with bottlescrews loosened
and the crane operator at the ready.C
ape Wrath in March was not an
appealing prospect. Sailing from
Hartlepool in County Durham to
Porthmadog in Cardigan Bay via
the English Channel was hardly
a promising alternative so we started to
think more creatively.
The adventure began, inauspiciously for
a sailing voyage, in landlocked Solihull,
where I first met Steve, seven years ago,
on a Day Skipper night school course.
Before long he’d bought a 31ft Westerly
Longbow, Tzu, on eBay. She’d languished
in Hartlepool Marina for a number of
years and now, as I was out of work, he
asked if I would like to sign on as crew for
the delivery trip home.
Having ruled out the outside routes,
we thought our only option would be to
head up to Inverness and through the
Caledonian Canal. After a bit of rooting
around, however, Steve found out about
the Forth and Clyde Canal, which cuts
through from Edinburgh to Glasgow. It
sounded intriguing and shaved about
240 miles – and a week of time – off
the Caledonian Canal route. It offered
us a more unusual route, away from the
vagaries of weather, through waters we
were unlikely to sail again and at a more
relaxed pace, though we would have to
drop the mast for it.
Steve had been working hard on Tzu,
rectifying the results of neglect. Five years’A short cut from
Hartlepool to Wales
worth of marine growth removed, some
new skin fittings and a provisioning trip to
the supermarket later and she was ready.
Finally, on a Monday in mid-March, we
cast off from Tzu’s berth, fuelled, watered
and locked out into the wide world beyond
the gates. We were greeted by heavy mist
and had to rely on Steve’s new AIS iPad
app to spot anchored ships before their
dark hulks loomed up on our port side.
We made good progress up the coast and
by late afternoon were in Amble, where a
member of staff was waiting on the end of
the pontoon to guide us to our berth.Passing under the Forth road and rail bridges
was a major milestone on the voyage