UKC

I've recently started reading Simon Yates' The Wild Within, and his account of sailing up the Beagle Channel to climb a remote unexplored mountain really appealed to my inner sense of adventure. I started to think about the possibilities of 'approaching' some of the European sea cliff venues by sea, and (especially as I'm sofa-bound at the minute) my imagination has ran off with the idea.

Does anyone here sail? Has anyone successfully combined it with climbing?

(The last time I was sofa-bound I bought a narrowboat and lived aboard for a few years - must be something about injury and boats!)

Having spent time as a younger climber and walker standing on Scottish mountains and gazing at out the islands, wondering how it would be to explore them by boat, I accepted an invitation two summers ago to crew my pal's Bayraider yacht, about 6m I think, on a week-long tour of the Sound of Jura, starting at Crinan, heading over to Jura and back to Oban. I'm a complete non-sailor but quite enjoyed the week apart from the day we crossed over from Gigha to Port Ellen in filthy weather.  

I had already sailed on Ullswater, tacking all the way against a stiff breeeze and was ccompletely unprepared for the effect of the cold headwind on wet clothing so have never felt so cold in all my life. So in Scotland I wrapped up warm but in fact we had side or following winds all week so less windchill. The boat was not comfortable, I shared the tiny front compartment with my buddy who snored loudly and lots of waves splashed over the sides meaning you were permanently damp. As the skipper my buddy's biggest concern was the safety of his boat so we generally moored at marinas for the night or anchored in sheltered places such as Loch Sween. The need for a safe anchorage or mooring limits the places where you could leave the boat without concern although the bayraider is made for that kind of adventure with its shallow draft, 300 litres of water ballast and raising keel and inboard engine well, allowing it to venture up shallow rivers and lochs.

In a bigger boat with more spacious accomodation and a tender you might have a more comfortable trip so anchoring at, say, Coiruisk then going ashore would be a super adventure.

But I decided the sailor's life was not for me. My pal has now bought a bigger French aluminium yacht with a raising keel and keeps dropping hints but I'm only expressing polite interest!

Welcome to the sofa bound club . 

I'd been wondering about some sort of UK sea link up as well. Slightly less ambitious but I like the idea of doing a couple of days linking up West Penwith sea cliffs by kayak. Nice little project for the summer.

You might like this if you've got time on your hands...

youtube.com/watch?v=3Dgr36MfnWU&

My dad loves sailing and I'm reading Tilman at the moment (strictly from the sofa), which is great if you require further reading. Have wrestled with sailing most of my life because of the great opportunities I have, thanks to my father. Unfortunately, I've never been able to get to grips with it and as for linking it with climbing, on the rare occasions that the stars have aligned to make both possible we'd invariably have to rush the climbing in order to get back for high water or some other, not to be missed aquatic appointment.

Other items that might be of interest that spring to mind are Bald Eagle's ascent of Moonraker film:
youtube.com/watch?v=DMMRgLyh3fY&

Bob Shepton autobiography and Vertical Sailing film with the Wild Bunch.

Which can be found at  youtube.com/watch?v=3-SLsUr8f4o& (although I was surprised when re-watching it that there was no climbing in the video, was there another version ?)

There you go:
youtube.com/watch?v=UElu_422e4w&

I'd love to do more sailing, but my digestive system/inner ear are firmly against the idea. I managed a fortnight in the med, but only through constant self medication.

I really, really want to sea kayak, but everyone I've spoken to has said it's great so long as you aren't seasick....

Many thanks, that's more like the video I remembered but Google took me to the more nautical film

Attempted to make first ascent of Needle Rock near Fishguard by approaching in a cheap inflatable dinghy. Inevitably it was punctured  as we tried to get onto the stack and we struggled back to the shore.

As consolation we climbed the obvious corner on the headland in our underpants while our jeans were drying on the beach and because Pete Brailsford shopped at posher stores than me we called the route St Michael.

That's a good skill combination, since you can explore more remote mountains. If you want to get started with sailing then read up and start with the basics and according to this article sailing is not that difficult

https://www.dietspotlight.com/sailboating-safety-guide-beginning-boaters/

Playing devil's advocate a bit, forget the climbing and just go with the sailing. Sailing has equally good stories, of all sorts, as climbing. For example:

Sitting in the middle of nowhere doing less than four knots, rocking gently back and forwards, brain in neutral, taking in this thing we call life, and forgetting about the mania that was the previous week.

Portsmouth to Cowes in a force 9 souwesterly with a handkerchief instead of a jib; wind with tide.

Turning up to eat at a castle run by and for Americans somewhere in Loch Linnhe, four or five days into a trip, being sat in splendid isolation in the foyer, and getting a bill addressed to "the boat people".

There is no colder or more desolate place than a small boat during the hour before dawn.

The dawn really does have pink fingers, even in the Uk. Magical.

ff

PS Your project does sound fun though - somewhere in the Med?

Ain't that the truth!

Unless you're ridiculously susceptible, it's manageable.  I have a friend who is very prone to seasickness and works as a sea kayak coach/guide.  'Constant self medication' is definitely part of her coping strategy.

I get seasick pretty easily but find it's much less of a problem in a sea kayak than other boats.  I guess because it's so immediate - more like riding a bike than being on the bus if you see what I mean.  Sitting still and bobbing about, especially while poring over a map, can be hard but if you can fix your eyes on the horizon and up the pace and the work rate a bit often as not that sorts it right out.

If you want to try it, try it!  I only had my first dabble a couple of years ago and wish I'd done it sooner.
I started with a 5-day 'intromediate' course with these guys - couldn't recommend it highly enough.
http://www.seakayakinganglesey.co.uk/intro-mediate

Back on topic (ish), here's a short report of an expedition last year that might interest a few folk here:
http://www.arcticclub.org.uk/expeditions/2017/kayak-nw-greenland/
and again with a few more pics:
https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/about/funding/ginowatkins/grants/2017/greenland....

Thanks for all the links - there should be enough there to occupy at least half a day of lazing on the sofa

I don't have a real plan yet, but the ideal would be to explore predominantly the climbing in the Med; I visited the Calanques a few years ago without climbing (French A&E visit #1 before we reached our first route), and I'd love to go back. It struck me how much rock there is around there that probably hasn't been developed because you can only get to it feasibly by sea. From there, Corsica and Sardinia would be a logical follow-on, then the west coast of Italy, Sicily, and heading on to Croatia before heading south to Kalymnos.

The sailing would of course be half the adventure and half the point. I'm not sure I could stomach so long on a boat if the sailing wasn't a fundamental part of the deal and enjoyment!

As both a climber and sailor, and being drawn to the adventurous aspect of both, I have looked into the practicalities of this.

The problem is that sailing is a fairly rubbish mode of transport - it takes ages to get anywhere. I would be keen to explore the west coast of Sweden (around Gothenburg) or the West coast of Scotland, but it would take me over a week to get to either by sea from my base on the East coast. It would therefore seem more sensible to charter a yacht at the destination, but this is quite expensive, especially if you are not actually going to sail it half the time. In my position at least I have come to the conclusion that dedicated sailing or climbing holidays make more sense. If I were going on a sailing holiday somewhere rocky I might take a harness, rope, shoes and minimal rack and do some low-key cragging in the evenings or off days, or if with a large group get them to leave me (and a partner) at a crag for a day.

Where the format really comes into its own is for serious expeditions to otherwise inaccessible places (as undertaken by the legendary Bob Shepton, or in the Antarctic by Skip Novak).

There is definitely something quite romantic about tying up to a sheer cliff and belaying straight off the deck, but I suspect that the opportunities for this are limited.

Yes - it dawned on me quite early that it's not something you can feasibly do unless you dedicate some time to it. I'd like to be in a position where I own a boat outright and could afford to take a year out from work to explore without a hurried and inflexible schedule to keep.

Best get saving...

What've you done to earn a place in the sofa-bound club?

A combination of finger injury and flu. Good thing is the flu is preventing me making the finger worse! Hope you have a speedy recovery. 

I've done a bit of sailing on the SW coast. Did various bits of training, on shore and under sail. Apparently I'm classed as competent crew

Now working up a plan for the early summer with my pal to sail his 32ft Contessa from Oban up the Long Isle and down the west coast. Pencilled in four weeks for this and hoping to get a few coastal hills in along the way. With luck I'll quickly find my sea legs as I'm not a natural born sailor..........

http://www.boatafloat.com/listing/listing.php?controller=pjListings&act...

You could start by chartering this!  OK it might be slightly overkill.

I've only ever felt sea sick once in a kayak and that was in a massive following sea, so the waves were coming from behind me and I was moving without seeing it coming.  

Maybe give it a try somewhere not committing and see how you get on?  

'Thirty race crew...space for up to twenty guests' - alright, a bit more social than the 'me and my climbing partner and the ocean waves' that I'd envisaged. Suppose I could invite most of the club along...

I'll second the Bill Tillman books for a good read

Looks like its a bit late for this year but these do Scottish hill-walking

https://eda-frandsen.co.uk/2018-schedule-2/

and these 

http://www.trinitysailing.org/sailing-holidays/sailing-programme/

Another vote for Bill Tilman's Eight Sailing Mountain/Exploration  books. Beautifully written and full of real life adventure.

I will have to Sooner or later, but i bought an open canoe last year, so still have plenty of more sheltered water to go at 

So many lovely places.to go

That is tempting. I've managed to get away with a mixture of charter, friends and relatives, so have never owned a boat, and thus avoided the cost and commitment etc, but also probably done less as a result.

You could do some kind of charter in the Salcombe Dartmouth Brixham Torquay area. You'd need an inflatable to transfer to the rocks, sticking with your sail to the location idea, although you could also walk in from a nearby harbour obviously. It's a lovely place to sail, fits your requirement for short hops, and could be done in a week or two.

I'm sure there must be something on Skye, although I've not done any research... Hmm, a plan may be forming

I sail but find it increasingly boring and frustrating. I mainly spend the time looking forward to getting off the boat at the evenings destination and going for a walk.

In general sailing and climbing/walking are not really a great combination. Sailing can involve hours of sitting and not going very far. A bit like belaying a winter climb and looking over at the people walking along the ridge in sunshine. You just want to be there, not here.

My dad had a boat for years, sailing all round the west coast of Scotland. I used to join him for a week or so, a couple of times with my nephew. 

Nephew and I managed to climb  a little bit on the Shiant Isles and one year we also managed to anchor off Fairhead and get ashore and do some great climbing there. (We bailed on Hells Kitchen one year and then just about a year later were back for a return match, and that time it was bloody brilliant! Great route.)

One year a climbing mate was meant to come on the trip, but didn’t get back from his work on time. (He is in merchant navy.) I was gutted, because that trip Dad (doesn’t climb..) and I bobbed about on an absolutely perfect day looking closely at the Old Man of Stoer. It would have been ideal, but hey ho, next time...we’ll, maybe not, Dad has sold the boat...

My friends and I hired a yacht on Skye, some climbing was had at diebeg, then we turned up at our friends wedding on Raasay by yacht.

very memorable adventure and relatively modest expense for the memories.

I've been browsing boats online the past few days, and was surprised to find you can spend a lot less than I assumed and get a perfectly seaworthy and capable boat in reasonable condition. I think the idea has legs, maybe in a couple of years time. Even better if I can work it around working the busier periods in my industry and have enough money to make it a full-time proposition...

Interesting thought!

Don't forget mooring fees/winter storage/yard facilities/maintenance etc.

Indeed - I'm all too familiar with the ongoing cost of boat ownership unfortunately, although I suspect a yacht is even more of a drain than a narrowboat.

Don't believe it, BOAT = Break Out Another Thousand

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f2/boat-truths-197124.html

As an ex boat owner, the buying is the easy part - like conceiving a child is easy - it's all the costs afterwards that make you cry.... 

I'm a Yachmaster Offshore with commercial, and I've looked at making it a full time job (I do a lot of work in the marina indsutry so see it form both sides). Sod that. 

It's thin money unless you get into the superyacht market. Think of it like ML work, but with a big, expensive plastic bastard, that will take all your savings at the mere mention of "osmosis". 

For those who find sailing boring , being a bowman in a F8 lumpy sea doing a headsail change or up the mast sorting a kite wrap, 100 miles off the Skelligs is deep joy.

But seriously, if you find it boring, and it can be sat  in the pit, then get into the nav and pilotage. That's what I did and it's just fascinating. I love passage planning and constantly evolving the plan during a race, or the pilotage to get into narrow, tricky lochs on the west coast.