AROUND THE PORTS

My circular letter to all Port Officers, mentioned in the last issue, still seems to be bearing fruit. It also produced so many replies at the time that several had to be held over, to appear in this issue. So if you are a Port Officer and have written recently, THANK YOU. And if you haven't, there's always next time!

Chich Thornton, Port Officer Perth, Australia

I'm afraid I have nothing at all to report! Fremantle seems to be off the beaten track for OCC members, and since the Pat and Mike Pocock called several years back the only visitors seem to have been Americans who leave their yachts at the Fremantle Sailing Club as soon as they arrive and then fly back to America.

I think the inhospitable coast of the Great Australian Bight may be a deterrent, or the wreck-strewn coast of Western Australia. But the wrecks have been there quite a long time -- no GPS in the days of the Dutch East Indiamen. Its many virtues -- climate, weather, cleanliness, healthiness, bright light, no pirates, friendly natives -- certainly have quite a bit of competition from the little bits of paradise that members do visit, especially some of the islands.

Harry Anderson, Port Officer Bras d'Or Lakes, Canada

With the Bras d'Or Lakes under a couple of feet of ice (Harry was writing in March!) there is not much yachting activity on Cape Breton. We can report, nonetheless, that a triumvirate consisting of Henry Fuller who is owner and operator of the Cape Breton Boatyard at Baddeck, the Boatyard and myself have acquired the 46ft Sparkman & Stephens yawl White Mist. Originally the flagship of GW Blunt White when he was Commodore of the CCA, she had been in the Grosvenor family (editors of the National Geographic) for two generations on the Lakes and is counter planked mahogany over steam-bent white oak frames.

We are putting her into the charter trade primarily for CCA members and their friends -- which indubitably includes OCC members -- so that my main craft remains the 40ft north coast Nova Scotian lobster boat, Annie B. The latter's mooring in Maskell's Harbour, when not occupied by Annie B, is always available to CCA and OCC boats; there are showers and a telephone (902-725-2687 -- but no answering machine since the only power is propane) in the red barn on the peninsula visible from the anchorage.

Gulshan Rai, Port Officer Representative Bombay, India

The scare of a plague epidemic in the western part of India perhaps made all yachts, except one, skip Bombay or Goa and head directly to the Red Sea from Galle in Sri Lanka (Gulshan was writing in March this year).

American yachtsman David Tillson, a hydro-geologist, sailed in here from the Philippines in his 40ft cutter Lizzie, named after his daughter. The yacht was built at Manila by Tsi, is fully equipped with two GPS sets (Raytheon and hand-held Magellan), Yaesus HF and 44hp Yanmar engine. The 14 tonne yacht is being crewed by Philippino Ms Della Reyes and, from Phuket to India, by two Canadian sailors.

I met well known British yachtsman Chris Edwards at the Royal Bombay Yacht Club. Chris has circumnavigated twice, in 1973/4 in the Whitbread Round-the-World Race and in 1978/9 with Robin Knox-Johnston. In 1983 he took three years' off to sail solo around the world. Now settled at Singapore he owns the 29ft Xiphias (a mythical controller of marine life) and races regularly. In 1994 he won the inter-island Asian regatta in which eleven yachts from seven nations participated. At present working on an assignment with Fugro Surveys at Bombay, his association with sailing and India goes a back a long way -- his father General Anthony Edwards was Commodore of the Nainital Yacht Club during the Raj.

Brian White, Mallorca, Spain

Roger, Nikki and Lucy Horner have returned from the Caribbean to Puerto de Andraitx in Tobago Clipper, and will be wintering in Mallorca. They crossed last year from the Canaries to St Lucia with the ARC and had lots of write-ups in various magazines as Lucy was the youngest competitor, aged eighteen months at the time. After a season exploring the Caribbean, which included a little chartering and acting as a `mother ship' at Antigua Race Week, they started their return in July to be nearer home as Nikki is expecting another baby and therefore their plans are under review.

Walter Robertson of Avatara wisely put off a May/June Atlantic crossing and has sent us a postcard to say he will be leaving the Canaries at the traditional time in his 28ft Great Dane.

I have visited most of the large marinas on the island in the last two weeks (Brian faxed me on 3 October) and it appears that any OCC boats coming to Mallorca are still cruising. If you are on your way and have not yet chosen your port, do give me a call and I will give you those Winter price rates that appear comparatively good value.

Having taken over as Port Officer from Keith Robinson, please be assured that he is still here and taking an interest in the OCC. He can be contacted direct or through my office.

Harold and Kwailan La Borde, Port Officers Trinidad and Tobago

Thank you for bestowing on us such a prestigious award (The OCC Award -- see Flying Fish 1995/1) which we are happy to accept. We accept also the post of Port Officers for Trinidad and Tobago, and hope to be of service to any members passing through. Our small marina-cum-boatbuilding and sea school is coming along fine and is located just east of Power Boats (Stella Maris). We now have four alongside berths in the most protected creek on the Chaguaramas peninsula for letting. Our place is very near to the Customs at Chaguaramas, where you can now clear and enter without going all the way to Port of Spain.

We are presently working on an unfinished wooden hull for a customer who intends to sail her to Canada and around the world, so our hands are full with this project. Apart from Power Boats, Peakes and IMS, the three larger haulout facilities, a big alongside marina is being constructed across the bay from us (formerly a bauxite station) so things are really heating up here as far as foreign boating goes. If any OCC members wishes to contact us our address is given in the Port Officers section.

Ian Nicolson, Port Officer Clyde, UK

As a cruising ground this area is special, because it is `graded'. If you lay your yacht up on the Clyde, you can spend the first few days afloat just pottering in the local semi-sheltered waters, never far from a sailmaker, chandler, marina and all the other facilities one needs during a `tuning up' period.

Out of the Clyde, and heading north or west, one is off in the ocean but there are still plenty of semi-sheltered areas behind islands, and facilities are not far away. There are also local airfields in case you have to dash back to the office to grind out a few extra hundred-thousand of your home currency to finance the next few months afloat.

Further north and west the semi-sheltered waters are behind, but stilI within a day or two's sailing if the mast falls down or the engine seizes. For all these reasons, the Clyde is the ideal place to start or end a major cruise. It has a lot of special features which seem absent in the rest of Europe, like a sailmaker who often mends sails while you wait ... none of this `come back next week' nonsense. One can get wooden masts made or mended, old boats rebuilt and so on and on. Above all there are spare moorings galore.

In much of England one pays as much for a year's mooring or marina berth as the purchase price of a small cruiser in Scotland. In Scotland there are places where a mooring can cost one tenth a typical English price. A few people in the know pay even less!

The Highlands and Islands Board, which is a sort of government charity aimed at keeping the remoter parts of Scotland populated, has laid visitors' moorings in all sorts of bays and creeks from the Clyde northwards. They cost nothing to use, and are normally within shouting distance of a decent hotel or pub or restaurant, or all three.

Derrick Allen, Port Officer Harwich, UK

Harwich and the Rivers Stour and Orwell (to Ipswich) remain much the same save for one `improvement' -- both RoRo services to and from Ipswich have moved their operations to Felixstowe. This means that the three marinas, Fox's, Woolverstone and Levington (now Suffolk Yacht Harbour), no longer suffer the wash from freighters using the Orwell.

I am able to offer hospitality, given a bit of notice, to members visiting the Orwell and the Rivers Deben and Alde. Although I have been Port Officer for longer than I can remember, no member has yet contacted me -- I suppose we are, by nature, an independent lot!

For part of the summer I `fly my flag' on Loch Carron (the first loch on the right going north from Kyle of Lochalsh). I have a deep water mooring, a car and a bathroom -- all the basic requirements, you might say! Many overseas yachts visit the Western Isles and Coasts and I have many contacts there, electricians and similar clever people, so again, visiting members are welcome if they telephone 01520 663435 and I am there.

I have had my latest vessel, Fedoa, in northern waters for the past eight years (though she has now been sold and gone to Belgium) and with her have visited nearly all the lochs and harbours north of Crinan to the Summer Isles, and some of the Outer Hebrides. It is a wonderful cruising ground with many lovely harbours, inlets and anchorages and super local people. I have all the local charts and lots of `local' knowledge. Scotland does not move, so old charts are usually suitable -- unlike the East Coast where sand and shingle banks move very frequently! And lights only go out -- there never seem to be any new ones. The Caledonian Canal, I am told, is very expensive now and most yachts from Scandinavia go north-about.

Sam Crowley, Port Officer Mystic, Connecticut, USA

By referral to an atlas or chart, you will be refreshed that Mystic, Connecticut is at the eastern end of Long Island Sound (approximately ninety miles east of New York City) and at the gateway for cruising east to Cape Cod and Maine -- areas of excellent interest and cozy harbours (most of the way). We have about eight OCC members in the immediate area.

The `Port of Mystic' is on the Mystic River within Fishers Island Sound. I maintain a 2 ton granite mooring with an OCC yellow/blue buoy in Noank (just east of Nun buoy 12) during the sailing season which is available along with dockage at the Ram Island Yacht Club, slightly up the river channel on the west side. We have a number of first class boat yards in the River, which can haul and service members' vessels and mechanical equipment. We also have several sailmakers, some of which have supplied sails to the America's Cup defenders. Approximately two miles up the Mystic River (8ft plus channel) is the well known Mystic Seaport Marine Museum, which has dockage available (at a rather high rate). This museum should be visited along with the quaint village of Mystic. There are highway and railroad drawbridges (the former opens 15 minutes after the hour and the latter when a train is not scheduled). Groceries, lobsters and fresh fish are readily available as well as petrol, ice etc.

Twenty plus miles to the east of Mystic is the fabulous Block Island (BI) with a huge and well protected harbour. BI is not to be missed for excellent beaches, birding and hiking. When cruising New England, Eldridge's Tide Table is very helpful since currents can run up to 5-6 knots (particularly in the Race, which is the entrance to Long Island Sound).

I would like to see more activity in Noank/Mystic, and can be reached on 203-536-2450. I look forward to welcoming OCC members.

Marjorie Bancroft, Port Officer Maine, USA

Gavin and Georgie McLaren of Margaret Wroughton contacted a number of British boats that had qualified for the OCC to come to the July Maine Rally (reported in detail in the September Newsletter) as prospective members. These included John and Jean Armitage of Ostrika, David Beane of Morning Flight, Jack and Chris Boyle of Viva and John and Julie Davies of Enduro. Also attending were Nobi and Kuni Matzubaru of April 4th II, from Japan.

All returned to Smith's Cove during the month after the Rally, including the McLarens who had also spent three weeks before the event beaching and working on their boat, a Rival 41. Georgie helped me with Rally preparations, and they kept in touch with everyone coming to the event on their radio, forming an information network which became known as `Gavin's Half Hour'! During their month of cruising they also compiled for me an up-to-date list of the services offered at the various harbours of Penobscot Bay.

Next year's Rally will be run by Harvey and Pam Geiger from their home on Vinal Haven (Box 338, North Haven, Me 04853. Tel: 207 863 2222). It will be a four day cruise running from Thursday 18 July to Monday 22 July, also open to Cruising Club of America members. There will be at least two shore events, a raft-up and a race, the full itinerary to be announced. More information will be available from the Geigers in early spring and will be sent to all New England members.

Although this Rally was my swansong, I want to continue to be your Port Officer for Maine, offering our very protected anchorage, moorings and other facilities to all OCC members to use as a base for cruising the area.