ADVENTURE AROUND BRITAIN - CAPE WRATIL AND BEYOND

Nick Leather sails his Westerly Storm, Musketeer, from The Inner Hebrides to the South Coast – the final stages of a tremendous circumnavigation of the British Isles

- WORDS & PICTURES: Nick Leather

Sea spray rose over the pushpit and the bow plunged into the restless black sea topped by frothing white streaks. The gusts came thick and fast while the wind moaned forlornly in the rigging. We were aboard Musketeer, valiantly battling rough seas off the northeast coast of Norfolk on the final stages of our circumnavigation.

Our adventure had started a couple of months earlier when we had set off from Kerrera marina, on the Scottish west coast, for the final stretch of our clockwise circumnavigation of Britain. Our destination, with many crew changes, was our home base Portland on the South Coast. We had started our circumnavigation from Portland a year earlier and had wintered in Conwy, north Wales, before arriving in Kerrera.

The final leg began in the morning drizzle, with Keith, my 84-year-old father-in-law, my son Ben and I heading out from Kerrera, opposite Oban, sailing north towards the Sound of Mull. As the wind lightened, we shook out the reef as we passed the island of Lismore, sailing up the Sound of Mull past the majestic Duart Castle. The green hillsides were dotted with sheep and we noted many waterfalls through the mist. We made good progress, clocking up to seven knots over ground.

Hours later, we tacked past the grey lighthouse at the remote and wild Ardnamurchan Point, the most westerly point on the British mainland, and up the Sound of Sleet. We could see the hazy outline of the small islands of Muck and Eigg, with the Atlantic Ocean beyond. With a Force 8 storm forecast, we decided to anchor in the scenic bay of Ornsay on the southeast coast of the island of Skye. It was an unscheduled 24-hour stay but with such a dramatic landscape it was not too much of a hardship.

IN THE SHADOW OF GIANTS