Ceilidh of Lorne - Ceilidh Photos

Here are a few photos as promised. The sailing shots from the ARC finish were by Tim Wright. We are all enjoying the hospitality and glorious weather at St Lucia, still trying to fix various faults on the boat as usual! Hope the weather in Scotland is not too Baltic! Dave Sturrock. read more...

Ceilidh of Lorne - The Hokey Cokey!

ARC Day 16 Ceilidh has completed a solid days run with 195NM in 24hrs. We were pushed to the North of our 270T rhumb line course overnight thus adding extra mileage before gybing South at  06:30 this morning. At the time of writing we have 49NM to go before crossing the finish line in Rodney Bay, St Lucia which should happen around 15:30 local time. Once again had very mixed conditions with a beautiful and very warm day yesterday with a steady F5 breeze. In the early hours of this morning we suffered some severe squalls with torrential rain and 35knots of wind. As soon as we were clear of one set and shook out the reefs then another squall pounced, hence our title today with shake it in out and all about! So a very challenging night to keep everyone on their. read more...

Ceilidh of Lorne - 1 Day to go!

ARC Day 15 Ceilidh kept up her great run with 201NM logged in the last 24 hrs. This maintains our 8knot boat speed average since leaving Las Palmas which is all the more creditable as we have steered by hand virtually the whole trip in difficult conditions. Last night was no exception as we had at times 30knot squalls and some total blackout conditions making steering very tough. We did however reach a new surfing speed record of 16.9knots yesterday afternoon with Richard on the helm. Ceilidh was in tune with the crew like a well rehearsed gay Gordon’s during this exhilirating period! We have gybed back to our Westerly course of 270T having dropped down to latitude 14:21N which is very close to our final destination. Today we have 230NM to go and our focus. read more...

Ceilidh of Lorne - Vang on a minute!

ARC Day 14 We still had a good run yesterday in mixed circumstances making 197NM, we now have less than 400NM to reach St Lucia this morning. Generally the wind was around F5 NE but with squalls up to 30knots, this necessitated that we go from 1 reef to 2 and then 3 overnight in the mainsail. Also another difficult quartering swell which gave a rollicking run at times causing items to fly around the saloon! In dance terms Ceilidh was giving a rendition of the Orcadian  Reel of the 51st (Highland version). Around 22:00 we gybed to the South as we were being pushed well to the North of our 260T rhumb line course and we made around 240T on our new heading. Shortly after the change of direction we had what had previously been described as an Andy Williams moment. read more...

Ceilidh of Lorne - Lucky 13th!

ARC Day 13 Ceilidh has put in another sparkling quick step performance today  giving the best yet daily run of 204NM. Everyone has been very focussed on the log and the concentration paid off proving a lucky 13th day at sea. The breeze has continued from the NE with F5 blowing, this is giving us a course of 270T against our rhumb line of 260T so we will put in a gybe at some stage soon. Everyone is well adjusted to the routines of sea with watches, cleaning and cooking all going mainly like clockwork. However last night for the second time in 5 days we had to replace the cooker gas cylinder during meal preparation. Most new yachts have the gas locker right up in the bow in the anchor locker for safety reasons. However this is not at all a practical. read more...