Blog

Welcome home Williams II on Saturday June 1st 2019. The open day is from 11.00am until 2.00pm with the Williams II entering the port with a parade of sail (weather dependant!) at mid-day and alongside at the workshop at 1.00pm.

After a skills day alongside, (knots, rowing, navigation & safety) we left Peterhead at 1.00pm as the fog lifted.

The crew continued to pull together well with an excellent overnight and day sail tacking across a South Easterly wind to get it in to Peterhead late on in the evening.

After an excellent stopover in Scrabster to rest, refuel and visit a distillery we set off for Wick to catch the tide at 2.39pm and had a swift passage under engine power (no wind) arriving at 6.00pm.

A great start to our week leaving for the first time on the Saturday afternoon and sailing the North of Scotland none stop to Scrabster where we berthed alongside for a well earned rest and a re-fuel.

We had a wonderful sail around Skye and on to Ullapool late on Thursday night.

We had a great overnight sail with the crew on a watch system and now alongside in Mallaig for a well earned rest. The crew are coping really well.

Raised anchor early to catch the tide with a beautiful days sailing ahead as we nudge north to Skye.

After a find farewell to last weeks crew and taking their Gansey photograph together yesterday, we settled the new crew in and after safety briefings managed to catch the tide out to Tobermory today.

After a great stay in Tobermory (the harbour voted us ship of the week and we had fish and chips last night), we slipped in the early hours to catch the tide through to Oban in light winds and arriving at 10.00pm again.

A day passage in heavy rain to Tobermory tested the resilience of the crew. Alongside at 10.00pm, drying out and eating a hot meal were the priority before bed and a day of rest on 1st May.

Once the turbulence of Storm Hannah had subsided and safety briefings were complete, we set off after lunch for an overnight sail to Craobh.

It was crew change day today, but storm Hannah meant that we had to first move the ship to the inner dock at Ayr from our more exposed mooring. We are grateful for the care and support of the team at the Port of Ayr.

Tidying up day, and oiling the masts. We had a Visit from our friends at Corney & Barrow with a kind invitation to a wine tasting this afternoon, which was gratefully accepted. A great time was had by all.

We had a wonderful welcome from the Port team at Ayr, and moored on the same berth as in 2016, when we supported Corney & Barrow’s 250 years as a wine merchant (on the back of the smugglers out of the Isle of Man).

After a fairly bouncy berth alongside in Douglas, we slipped the sea wall at 07.00am

Fresh South Easterly and Easterly wind forecasts meant we were able to leave Holy Island on The Sunday.

Lots of cleaning up and now flying the flag and resting today. The Half way point.

We invited a visiting photographer and one of our very lovely Gansey knitters onto the ship during their morning visit as we were only out for the day doing drills.

We made excellent time with force 4 and 5 Easterlies filling our sails and got into Holyhead at 8.00pm.

We left the harbour at 2.00pm and headed out to sea. A bit slow getting the sails up the first time with a big swell from yesterday’s storm.

The weather forecast has extended the gale warnings to be his evening, gusting force 9.

After a seamless crew change and food shopping trip yesterday, we are going through safety briefing, competent crew tasks and ship familiarisation today, while a storm blows through.

We have been at sea for 3.5 days without stopping.

After successfully replacing and testing our gear box oil cooler, we were ready to sail at Lunchtime.

The joys of Heritage Sailing! We have been having successive worsening of water in our gear box oil since leaving Blyth.

A big week from Chatham to Weymouth with another new crew, two long legs and quite a lot of being out of phone signal.

The Williams II was eventually clean and ship shape with flags flying by 2.30pm.

A great sail from Blackwater through to Chatham today. Boat and crew performed really well.

Well, best made plans etc... Ipswich lock was completely broken and if we got in we might not have got out for 3 days!!

A good night at anchor last night. Max wind so far was 28 knots but the Kedge Anchor held well.

An early start at 7.00am after a successful crew change, to get through the Lowestoft bridge and headed towards Harwich

A long slow passage pretty much head to wind and against the tide two thirds of the way to Lowestoft.

A lazy day alongside in Grimsby. Thanks to the team at the Yacht club who ferried the crew for showers.

All the crew were up at 2.15am and away at 3.00am in the dark. We experienced light winds all day and therefore had to the use the motor to sail into Grimsby at 7.30pm.

The whole crew were up at 4.45am for a quick cuppa and rigging the lines to slip. We were away from the side at 5.45am with a whole gang of hardy well wishers to wave us off and take some remarkable dawn photos which were posted almost immediately!

With the swell dying down, our morning was spent ringing ahead to Whitby, Grimsby and Lowestoft and recalculating the weeks sailing times to fit the tides for port entries.

We were all ready for our big departure at 1pm on Sunday, until the Harbour Master and yacht club started recording (un-forecast) 60 mile an hour winds at the harbour entrance and very heavy swells.

Our crew of 12 arrived during the afternoon and were duly kitted our with life jackets, waterproof salopettes and jackets and we completed all the necassary safety & orientation briefings.