The west coast of Scotland is all you could imagine it to be, and more!  Wild, rugged, awesome, the superlatives abound and yet in most cases, here they are truly warranted.

In 2015 after many years working in the warmer, ‘milk run’ parts of the world my wife and I were excited to be heading back to my country of birth, where I hadn’t sailed since I was a child.  Over the last few years, I have had the blessing to be able to skipper various craft for charters around the West Coast and through the Caledonian Canal.

Initially, I was aboard Elizabeth G a converted Norwegian Rescue Ship, only 23 meters loa but a true little ship. Built to support the Norwegian fishing fleet during their winter excursions into the North Atlantic, they would be at sea for up to three months at a time, ready and able to rescue or tow any of the fishing fleet that had trouble back to Norway.  I even heard tales of one of them rolling 360 degrees and continuing without damage!  Although obviously taking charter guests around the islands we tend to avoid this kind of weather, it is still reassuring to know that the vessel will cope with whatever is thrown at her.

When cruising in Scotland it won’t be long before you are reminded in no uncertain terms that you are no longer pottering along the coast to St Tropez.  The weather can turn in a matter of minutes and you can be caught out in a blow, or storm bound even in the summer, however a great attraction of the area is that you are rarely far from a sheltered anchorage and it is very unusual to have any swell once tucked up inside.

Holding varies dramatically so anchor watches/alarms and a good searchlight are essential.   Light pollution as you would expect is non-existent and it is very easy to become disorientated in pitch black when the breeze has picked up and it is raining…  being able to pick out the shoreline combined with a very large scale on the radar and chart plotter is the best way of monitoring your position.

Elizabeth G used an Olex chart plotter linked to the fish finder which automatically creates new surveys of everywhere you travel, so after years of chartering this was very accurate. This combined with the previous tracks gave great assurance. I also found Antares charts to be useful, these are very large scale charts made by enthusiastic amateurs, and yet are incredibly detailed. I have yet to find an error in one, they are only available for various anchorages around the West Coast of Scotland at this stage, which is not surprising when you consider how much time and effort it must take to produce them!

Aboard Elizabeth G one of our four crew was an experienced wildlife guide, this was a huge benefit for the guests and really added to their experience, having someone who knew the different wildlife as well as where to find it and was able to guide guests on walks ashore was a great help. I highly recommend employing the services of someone like this during your visit unless you already have this knowledge aboard.

The next yacht I ran was “Spirit of Fortitude” a 33 meter Turkish built vessel, definitely more at home in the Med, but still quite capable when operated within her limitations.

I joined her in James Watt Dock Marina in Greenock, which is one of the few places you can moor alongside with decent shore power. Almost immediately we headed around the Mull of Kintyre and up to Oban to prepare for our first charter.

The first trip was 10 days, out to St Kilda and around Skye and despite various technical niggles, the guests had a memorable trip. Even with a 10 day trip the first priority has to be getting out to St Kilda as the weather can easily prevent this.  My relief skipper and crew managed to make it out there and were then able to relax as they continued clockwise around the top of Skye and back to Oban.

Next charter we headed north to the Caledonian Canal for a complete change of pace. Strong tidal streams and poor holding, coupled with shallows and rocks made for an anxious night of plotter watching, as we dragged and reset multiple times before being able to enter the canal the following morning.  As soon as you are in the locks it is all worth it though. Neptunes Staircase is a series of locks that in a couple of hours lift you 20 mtrs higher than sea level and by the time you emerge at the top your crew will be well practiced in line handling for all the subsequent locks.

Feeling like you have entered another country, Sweden perhaps, you pass through areas with forests right down to the waters edge, sheltered lochs with anchorages, and enough places that you can tie alongside each night.  Our passage from Oban up to Castle Urquhart on Loch Ness and back to Oban took 6 nights which is a minimum realistic timeframe for such a trip.

Approaching the end of the season, we returned to the Clyde as it offers an incredibly sheltered area with plenty to explore.  Inverary castle is a magnificent inhabited castle and there is a convenient ship mooring buoy which is generally available to moor to for a night, this is helpful as the anchorage shelves steeply.  Portavadie, opposite Tarbert has a 4 star spar with a small boat marina and the whisky distillery at Loch Ranza on Arran is always worth a visit, giving you a few options for when the weather is dricht.

The charter industry, which mainly operates out of Oban has really started to boom and we now have a good fleet of crewed charter yachts of various styles working here.  To help visitors to Scotland choose their cruise I have put together a website www.CruisesinScotland.com to act as a portal to view all the options available in one place. If your owner wants to test the waters before bringing their yacht up, most of these charter vessels are also available for whole boat charter.

Scotland is starting to wake up to the fact that visiting superyachts can be a great asset, but at the moment our facilities are still few and far between.

Here I have listed the  facilities that I am aware of and some of the things worth considering if you are heading this way, it’s not a definitive list but should help as a starting point.

I’m also very happy to offer assistance to visiting yachts in any way that I can and can be contacted through my website www.YourSkipper.co.uk