Tag Archives | Nordhavn 52

It’s 8:21pm on the 27th and what is going to be an exciting finish is near. Wild Oats XI is only 1,200 feet back of the leading and favored boat Comanche. They are just entering the Derwent River for the run to the finish line. As night approaches, the wind in the River Derwent is…

The famous Neptune’s Staircase is the longest staircase lock in Britain—a series of eight locks carry boats up or down 64 feet over a distance of 180 feet. The typical time to pass through Neptune’s Staircase is about 90 minutes, but the Scottish Canal staff rushed us through in barely 70 minutes so we could…

Six months ago I bolted awake at 1:15am to a shrieking high bilge water alarm while we were 50 miles south of the Grand Banks, in large seas, on passage from Newport, RI to Kinsale, Ireland. The quick summary is we got the problem resolved, but it took 11 hours, and we learned about a…

On our fifth day along the Caledonian Canal, we travelled 15 miles from Laggan through Loch Lochy, passing through two bridges and only one lock. We stopped for two nights at Banavie Top Basin above the famous Neptune’s Staircase and within two miles of the southern terminus of the canal. Banavie Basin is only four…

One of the most beautiful sections of the Caledonian Canal is near Laggan, where the trees grow right up to the water’s edge and extend over the water. The fall colours made the scene even more impressive. We liked this section of the canal so much that we later walked from Laggan all the way…

Loch Ness is one of the top three tourist destinations in Scotland, along with Edinburgh and the Isle of Skye. Second to Nessie, a major draw of Loch Ness is 13th-century Urquhart Castle. One of the largest castles in Scotland, Urquhart attracted some 400,000 visitors in 2016. On our third day in the Caledonian Canal,…

We passed through the four-lock Muirtown flight at the start of our second day in the Caledonian Canal, then cruised the scenic waterway alongside, but above, the River Ness en route to Dochgarroch. Our total travel distance was five miles in three hours for an average speed of just over 1.5kts. The locks take up…

The Caledonian Canal extends 50 nautical miles southwest from Beauly Firth near Inverness to Loch Linnhe by Fort William. Only 19 miles of the canal are man-made and the rest extends through four natural freshwater lochs, including the famous Loch Ness. Along the way are 10 swing bridges and 29 locks, achieving a maximum elevation…

Inverness was a great stop before our trip down the Caledonian Canal. In our last few days there we toured the beautiful Ness Islands and more of the canal by bike, stocked up on provisions, and got some local knowledge on cruising the canal from Paisley residents Pamela and Neil White. Below are trip highlights…

Picturesque Eilean Donan Castle, linked to the mainland with an elegant stone bridge, is one of Scotland’s most photographed castles. The castle was built in the 13th century and restored in the 19th after it was destroyed during the 18th-century Jacobite rebellions. We took the scenic train ride from Inverness to the Kyle of Lochalsh,…