Leg 20 Portpatrick to Troon

Leg 20 Portpatrick to Troon.

It is such a pleasure sailing in Scottish waters. I know it is probably only psychological but somehow it feels different. The colour of the water is different the size and shape of the waves are different, and the scenery as I glide past various islands and peninsulars are different.

Getting There!

Leg 19 Douglas to Portpatrick

Leg 19 Douglas to Portpatrick. Our first Scottish Harbour. Yippee!!!!!!!!

A very long journey with grey overcast skys to begin with and then some very strong winds to end with and a very concealed entrance to Portpatrick which at the time was quite nerve racking but turned out to be very easy.

PortPatrick is quintessentially the most British of small harbours. Absolutely fantastic place to spend a few days and explore. The people in the harbour were extremely friendly and the people in the local pub was also extremely friendly. They looked up on the internet using there iphones and computers and even made phone calls in order to find out and book trains for my daughter to get back from Straenrar to Kettering and booked taxi for 6:00am unbelievably helpful lot. Thanks.

The rise and fall of the tide in this harbour is huge. However knowing this I allowed plenty of slack line  when mooring up to the mooring rings. However not enough as it turned out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was awoken from my slumber the next morning when I could here shouting etc. I jumped up and headed straight to the cockpit and in my dreaery half asleep state I realized the boat was severely tilted over to the Port side and people where shouting at me from the quay side. The boat was hanging fom the mooring lines and the weight of the boat was being held by the fairleads and cleats. I ran back down in to the galley picked up a knife and immediately cut the ropes. Morgen fell back in to the water and a small tidal wave swept across the harbour making the other boats hit and bump against each other. Woops!!!!!!!!!

Anyway what a brilliant place to be. I was sorry to see my eldest daughter leave, but I knew I was on the home straight, so to speak I was afterall now officially in Scotland. Another few marinas and if all went well I would be in Kip marina having covered a thousand Nautical miles and be welcomed by Fran and Georgia..

leg 18 Holyhead to Douglas Isle of man

Holyhead to Douglas Isle of Man

On my return to the boat after a few days at home. I am raring to get going. Scotland is almost within eyesight!! Its doubly good because my daughter has a holiday which co-insided with my return to Holyhead so she is going to accompany me for the next two legs and we will arrive in our first port in Scotland together. Fantastic. It will be really good to have someone to talk to and share the experience and the workload with. She achieved her RYA Competent crew certificate in Spain in 2009 so should be a great companion for these two very long legs.

Great Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At least we made excellent progress, We left at 3:00am to catch the tides and new it would be a very long day….. for some………………

Good days sailing though we had some pretty nice weather followed by some pretty ugly weather, dreary and drab.

It eats and breaths!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Coming in to Douglas Isle of Man

Isle of Man was very interesting although we only stayed overnight on the floating pontoon in the harbour entrance. We did manage to have dinner ashore before returning to the boat as we had another 3:00am start and many miles to cover.

‘O’ yes ‘it’ did finally do something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leg 17 Pwllheli to Holyhead

Pwllheli to Holyhead

A great days sailing. Cruising chute out and flying along.

Beautiful



Coming in to Holhead Harbour, I met wind up to 30Knots on the Starboard quarter so had to quickly reduce sail and just use the Jib out front until I passed the Harbour wall where once again it was nice and peaceful. Holyhead was one of the most friendly marinas I had visited. As soon as they realized what I was doing they gave me free moorings and couldn’t do enough for me. They even looked up weather from the internet and looked up harbours for me to visit on the Isle of Man. A really very friendly place and probably only a third full.

After Finding out what the weather was going to be like for the foreseeable future I decided that for the next week I would probably be marina bound as the weather was looking pretty awful. So taking this in to consideration I decided that I would head home the next day and have a break for five or six days. A chance to see the Family again. The Marina staff looked up train timetables etc and gave me directions to the local train station. They even went as far as booking tickets on my behalf. They were brilliant. A definite place to visit again and even leave the boat here as I should think the sailing would be great.

Thanks Holyhead Marina. One of the top three marinas I have visited so far……………….

Leg 7 Plymouth to Fowey

 

Date:- 24.05.11 Name: Morgen Crew: RD (Richard Dempster), Freddie From: Plymouth To: Fowey Comments: Very long day

Wind Strength / direction: Westerly force 3 Sea State: slight Distance: 24.6 nautical miles Time Taken: 6.10

It took a very long time to get out of Plymouth harbour. Due to my own poor seamanship. I tried to raise the main without turning the boat perfectly in to wind. This always means that the battons in the main sail gets entangled with the lazy bag lines. So the only answer is to drop the main again and start all over again. The second time I was raising the main and realised that I was running out of room as I am still motoring forward. So had to drop the main again turn and head a bit further out and raise the Bl---y thing again. At last Ive got the sail up and can continue on my way.

For once quite an uneventful trip but very cold. Its surprising how cold it is out at sea. Even though it may be warm on land I have found that I still need to wrap up like its winter. With full waterproofs on, hat and gloves and quite a few layers on to trap the heat. I’m really looking forward to a lovely summers day. Even though it was uneventful it turned out to be a very long day as the wind had dropped a bit so the going was slow especially as it is still a westerly wind and I am constantly beating in to it.

I finally arrive in Fowey at about 6:30pm and the wind has dropped completely turning in to a very nice evening and I can at last take off all the waterproofs. About eight and a half hours and I had calculated on about four and half to five. Whoops got it wrong! Have to pay more attention to route planning in future.

 

Fowey is in many ways similar to Salcombe. A rather grand entrance and a lovely natural harbour inside with some very grand boats as can be seen in the photos. I moored up and walked Freddie and then talked to the harbour master who told me that there was a really nice walk through some fields at the top of the hill which Freddie would enjoy which leads to a very good pub where they serve good quality food. That’s settled then ‘dinner out’.

Whilst eating out I met a retired couple who ran a farm and they were on holiday in a caravan site at the top of the valley and they often ate in the pub of an evening. They were a lovely couple who it was really easy to talk to. And they thought Freddie was a great looking dog. I explained what I was doing and they immediately made a donation. I am continually impressed and touched by the people I meet who like myself knows someone who has been touched by cancer and they want to contribute in anyway they can. I thanked them and in turn they thanked me for doing what I was doing. And once again I as we left my overriding thoughts were what a lovely couple. I gave them the blog address and hope they are following the trip now from home. But if they are Thanks!

After the following day of exploring Fowey.( what a great place to visit)(just look at the pictures) I bought a few provisions from the small town. Freddie had decided to muck around in the dinghy, which is unusual as he is normally very good in it and just as I moored up and tried to get him off he missed his footing and went straight in between a couple of dinghys. It wasn’t just a leg or a paw he went right in so I grabbed the handle on his life jacket and pulled him up as fast as I could this only had one outcome as he is so big, the handle just came off in my hand and he went swimming again for the second time. Lucky enough a passing boater was walking past on the pontoon and between the two of us him on the pontoon and myself trying to balance on a wobbly dinghy managed to pull him out. To which his immediate reaction was to shake himself vigorously soaking the pair of us. Cheers Freddie, and I thanked the man and apologised at the same time.

Another lovely evening so I walked to the pub and had a pint and was able to see the same couple as the day before again we chatted very easily. They asked me if I was going to carry on with the venture tomorrow and I replied that I doubt it because the weather is to bad and added that they were both welcome to come down to the boat the following day and have afternoon tea with me and Freddie.

I also met an American lady with I presume her granddaughters who were initially attracted to us because of Freddie. They asked if he was friendly and could they pat him. Once again I was asked what I was doing and when I explained the woman was very touched and said ‘she had suffered with Cancer last year’ and thrust ten pounds in to my hand and asked me to put it in the collecting tin when I got back to the boat. So many people with so many stories of their own.

Fighting Cancer with fitness

Fighting cancer with fitness

When your body becomes extremely stressed, it goes into what is known as "the fight or flight" syndrome. In this syndrome, you will do anything to survive. For example, a person who is trapped underwater may feel an enormous amount of energy surge through their body, allowing them to fight anything that keeps them from reaching air. The adrenaline rush allows you to accomplish incredible things.

This type of syndrome occurs in cancer patients, though not in the same way as a near death experience, such as drowning. When cancer patients are diagnosed with their condition, they find every way possible to help their health. This is true for all different types of cancer including the common cancers such as breast cancer to the rare diseases like mesothelioma.

One way that cancer patients fight their condition is by exercising. We all know that exercise has multiple benefits, but not many people know that it can help cancer patients. Of course, cancer patients have different limitations, according to the type of cancer they have. For example, a patient who undergoes mesothelioma treatment will not be able to perform the same exercises as a breast cancer patient.

Medical experts understand the specific needs of cancer patients in terms of fitness. That is why they have developed programs that fit various cancer patients' needs, equipping trainers with the information they need to help the patients.

Fitness gives cancer patients back control over their lives. The countless surgeries and treatments can severely destroy the sense of control that a person has over his or her life. This can result in a devastating negative mindset. When patients feel like they are in control of their lives again, their quality of life and well-being greatly improves. Studies show that optimistic people are generally healthy and heal quickly from illnesses.

Moreover, aside from the psychological benefits, the physical benefits of exercise are great. Many exercises help prevent bone deterioration, thus causing osteoporosis. This type of prevention can also help patients feel stronger, more energized, thus relieving debilitating fatigue.

Additionally, fitness helps keep various functions of the body strong. Such functions include the nervous system, respiratory system and immune system. When these functions are performing efficiently, they can help fight the cancer cells and any other harmful substance within the body.

Though fitness does not cure cancer, it can greatly help improve the cancer patient's life. This article also explains the importance of fitness in relation to cancer.

By: David Haas