Getting to Northern Ireland

We had a late night last night, so set no alarm, but the sun woke us up at the reasonable hour of 07:30. It had been a peaceful night for Robinetta, but less so for Worm, who had lain to the wind rather than the tide when it turned, so Julian had got up in the night to trail her off the bow, not the stern. She was along side when we woke!

We had heard the alternator belt squeaking yesterday when we re-started the engine after sailing, which prompted us to do full engine checks this morning. These revealed we did indeed need to tighten the alternator belt, and top up the oil. I also put the remaining diesel from our cans into the main fuel tanks; a much better place for it. Once the engine was back in good condition we turned it on, Julian hauled up the anchor, and we were away from our lovely anchorage at 08:30.

Motoring out from the shelter of Am Froach Eilean into the main Sound of Islay saw little increase in wave action, and the warned against overfalls where the Sound of Islay tide met the Sound of Jura one just caused a tiny amount of movement. We could tell where they might form, but that was all.

Our tidal calculations kept us out of any other overfalls but we over compensated a bit for the expected North Channel tides and instead fell foul of the north going stream up the west side of the Mull of Kintyre.

Julian hauled the main sail up, and we did get to motor sail for a while on our unnecessary course over toward the Mull, but the engine did not go off all day. Rathlin Island was indistinct in the haze, but the sky overhead was bright blue, and the sea sparkled. Julian’s knees got quite red before he put suntan lotion on. George could handle the helming for most of the day, so it was not a tiring trip, just a long one. I prepared a vegetable stew as we left the Sound of Islay, and we ate it as we closed the Antrim coast. Our provisions are getting quite low, so we need to shop tomorrow.

We reached Glenarm Marina at 21:30 and once we were securely moored headed for a drink at the pub.

Farewell to Mary

 We woke before the alarm and tidied the cabin and went up to use the facilities.

Mary was packed and ready by 7:30. Now we would find out if the 7:50 bus was running. It wasn't. After a few tries, she managed to book a taxi to the ferry. She had a chance of getting all the way home to Manchester.

We set off at 8:18. The tide was pushing us away from the pontoon, so we could ease the stern line to get further out and then let the tide push the bow out. A really easy departure. Mary waved us off and we set off for the Sound of Islay.

Our destination was an anchorage at the south end of the Sound of Islay. If we were late, and the tide turned on us in the Sound, we could anchor in Whitefarland Bay, in the Sound. If we were very late, and couldn't get into the Sound, we could anchor in Loch Tarbert on Jura.

There was no wind. We motored towards the Sound of Iona. Passing Inch Kenneth, I was reminded that it's mentioned in Johnson's and Boswell's accounts of their Scottish holiday. There was a young nobleman there, beloved of all the ladies. If my memory serves, he was drowned just before he was due to get married.

It's a tiny island with a big history.

The Sound of Iona has a shoal in the middle. It's best to keep to the Iona side until south of the cardinal.

Colonsay is directly in the way, on passage from Iona to the Sound of Islay. I decided to go north about it and go through the rock fields off Erraid. There is a nice clear gap between the Torran rocks and the group around Dearg Sgeir. I'm reading the charts in Gaelic now, so I just see “red rock”, and feel uncomfortable, because it should be Sgeir Dearg.

We got the main up in the Sound of Iona but there wasn't much wind.

Threading through the rocks was fun and safe. There was no hint of the overfalls the chart notes are possible.

Then the wind did kick in and we had a lovely sail with the engine off and George steering, with the solar panel on so George didn't run the battery down.

There were lots of seabirds by Balnahard Bay at the north end of Colonsay. I put the fishing line out and caught a mackerel immediately. Tried for more, but one was our allotment.

That was almost dinner time so I cleaned the fish and cooked it with tomato and garlic for a starter and when we had eaten that I cooked spaghetti carbonara with ham instead of bacon. Really nice.

We lost the wind and dropped the main. Of course, the wind came back. But we had the ebb now with us, the edge of the Great Race from Correyvreckan.

I can't look at a map, let alone be in the area, without thinking about Powell and Pressburger's lovely film “I Know Where I'm Going”. How anyone would get stuck in Correyvreckan on the way from Mull to Colonsay beats me. But it's an amazing piece of film making. The tale of the production is a story in its own right. But the film is wonderful as a finished piece too. There is Gaelic in it, and a glimpse of a culture on the edge, in both space and time. It's a bit like the more famous “Quiet Man” in that way. Both are also fine romantic comedies.

It was looking like we would be on time for the tide through the Sound of Islay. In fact, we think we made it by the skin of our teeth.

We headed into the Sound and the speed got up to 6 to 7 knots. We passed Bunnabhainn distillery and the new Ardnahoe one, and then Caol Isla. The big Calmac ferry was moored at Askaig, ready to head to West Loch Tarbert in the morning.

The CCC instructions for the anchorage by Am Fraoch Eilean say to turn out of the stream onto the Jura side after Glas Eilean and, when clear to do so, head for the Boathouse. There is a big rock called Sgeir nan Sian and you anchor 1 cable east of it in 4 m. It all went beautifully to plan. But as we got to the South end of Glas Eilean, we got tide against us. It was only 21:06 and we thought the north going stream would start at 22:00. We just made it!

We were safely anchored and snug in bed by midnight, after a rather poor attempt at planning what to do tomorrow. We were tired again.

A long and tiring day

After a long and sheltered stay in Lochboisdale Marina, while Julian learnt more Gaelic and danced “reels and quadrilles” it was time to set off south. We had a guest sailing with us, hoping to go all the way to Port Dinorwic with us. Mary, an experienced small yacht sailor, had just finished a trip on Eda Fransen, and had asked to join us for a change.

We left Lochboisdale at 07:20 with a forecast of N or NE 3-5. The wind felt quite strong as we left the marina, and we had bent on the no.2 jib. As soon as we had enough sea room I put Robinetta head to wind so Julian could raise the main sail, and he hoisted it with a couple of rolls of sail reefed round the boom. There were noticeable waves here, and they got bigger as we cleared the entrance to the loch.

Our course towards the south end of Mull put the wind just aft of the beam, a lovely point of sail for a gaffer. There was no gybe risk, but I asked Julian to set the preventer to stop the boom lifting too much in the swell. All 3 of us were in the cockpit, being rather rolled around, and when Julian went onto the cabin roof without putting on his lifejacket and stop Mary and I were a bit taken aback. Luckily there were no big waves while he was up there and he got back to the cockpit without incident, but Mary and I both had our hearts in our mouths, and told him off for being reckless.

The point of sail was good, but steering in the swell was very hard work and after an hour of it I handed the helm over to Julian. 20 minutes later he asked for a reef. We were sailing at about 6 knots, and he was worried about stressing the rig. Mary went below to give us room in the cockpit and we put the engine on to go head to wind. I tried pulling the reef in, but there was too much wind in the sail, so Julian had to swop with me. He was able to get the reef in, and we ended up reefed right down to the lower main sail baton, which is all the reef we can put in. We went back on course at a more reasonable speed.

Mary came back up into the cockpit as soon as she could; being below had made her feel a bit seasick. I did not blame her. I had felt queasy when in the cabin, and I am used to Robinetta’s motion in heavy seas. Neither of us felt like eating any breakfast, just a ginger biscuit, which settled my stomach, but made Mary feel worse.

A couple of hours later we went head to wind to shake out half the reef, and this time when Mary came back up she was in a bit of a rush, to be sick over the side. In another couple hours we went head to wind to shake out all the reef, and Mary was sick again. She was not having fun.

By the time we had got to within 5 miles to the west of Coll the engine had to go on to propel us on our way. We were still being rolled around by the waves, but they were slowly decreasing. Our sail was doing nothing and centered against the swell, but with the wind now dead astern it filled and backed every now and then, stressing the rig. We decided to bring it down. Mary went down again for the process, and when she came up she was sick again.

We rounded the top of Coll inside the outer most breaking rock, and headed due south. There were no breaking waves now, but still some swell that had Robinetta rolling a bit.

After about half an hour Mary confessed that the trip was a bit more stressful than she had expected. Today had shown her that she could no longer cope with small yacht sailing. She would need a day ashore to recover from the conditions today, but knew we needed to keep heading south if we were to make our meeting at Port Dinorwic. She decided to head home.

Before we invited Mary aboard I had promised not to kick her off Robinetta in a place with no public transport, so now the hunt was on for a good place to set her ashore. We would be able to reach the sound of Iona this evening and there would be busses tomorrow, but getting her ashore would be tricky.

Our original plan had been to anchor at Gometra Harbour, which we would reach at about 21:00. Instead we could head for the pontoons at Ulva Ferry, which were only 1 nm further if we took the tricky north entrance. This was a passage Julian was keen to try, and we had the Antares charts for it, but there is a patch with only 1 m above chart datum, and we would be there just an hour before low water. Julian checked the tides, and there should be 1.3 m of tide, giving Robinetta at least 1 m beneath the keel. We decided to go for it.

There is a community bus from Ulva Ferry that meets the bus from Tobermory to the ferry at Craignure.

Mary phoned the harbour master at Ulva Ferry, who confirmed there was space to go alongside, so we headed into Loch Tuath. The seas went flat as we did so, so we put the tiller pilot, George, to work and I went below to cook. Mary did not want much, but Julian and I had new potatoes, baked beans, and ham, for a much needed meal.

The passage through Ulva sound is quite short, but not for the faint hearted. We got the lines and fenders ready before we entered it, then Julian acted as pilot, giving careful instructions to me on the helm. Our least depth below the keel was 0.8 m, then we were through and approaching the pontoon.

A helpful person appeared from one of the already moored up yachts, and we were moored up with his help at 21:18.

Mary spotted what we hadn't. The bus has to be ordered by 16:00 the previous day. She left a message anyway.

It had been a long and tiring day.

Windy

 We had a really relaxing day yesterday, meeting the other visitors and moving Robinetta to a berth the Harbour Master was happy for us to stay in.

We met a nice chap who had come over on someone's yacht and was then off to Barra to fly out. He enjoyed seeing Robinetta and hearing about our adventures.

He told us he lives on an island near Bardsey.

We were having coffee in the Bakery at Lochboisdale when he left for the bus to the Eriskay to Barra ferry.

After he had left, we discovered that we were the only people who didn't know who he was. It was Bear Grylls.

The strong winds were due in from 16:00. They came early at 15:57.

It's been the most steady forecasts I think I've ever known.

I woke up about 2:30 am and realised Worm wasn't tied down. I put a coat on and went out. The wind was really strong but not cold and it was dry.

I tied her down fore and aft. 

The wind was coming in strongly on the starboard side of Robinetta, pushing her against the pontoon. I got another line from the starboard winch to a cleat on the pontoon but I couldn't get much tension on it.

I got Alison up to help and I pushed Robinetta out while Alison tried to shorten the line. It didn't really work. So we got another line out, the long shore line, and ran it from the stern to the same cleat. I could pull Robinetta out with that. It was better and took the worst of the force off the fenders. Alison added our last fender and we left it at that.

This morning, the wind started easing. Robinetta had come through fine.

Safe in South Uist

 We planned a reasonably early start today, as the weather dictated we get across to South Uist today is we wanted to be there for the weekend, and 52nm is a long haul at Robinetta speed. Julian had set the alarm for 06:30, but we were both awake by 06:00, so that is when the kettle went on. We did not want to leave without visiting the Tobermory Stores to buy a couple of their excellent pies, and they opened at 07:00, so we actually had a leisurely start to the day, backing off the pontoon at 07:25. Julian set up the no.1 jib as we motored out of the bay, then we went head to wind to raise the main in the flat water of the Sound of Mull.

The wind was directly behind us once we were on course, so we centred the main sail and staysail, and left the jib furled.

Once clear of the Sound of Mull the seas stayed slight, although Robinetta rolled gently. We let the main sail out a little to try and use it, but the wind was light, and not in a good direction for where we wanted to go. With a possible force 8 later tomorrow we just wanted to get across the Minch into good shelter as soon as possible, so the motor stayed on. It stayed on all day.

The swell increased, with some confused cross seas as we got further offshore, making it difficult to hold the course of 310°M that took us straight across the Little Minch to our destination of Loch Boisdale. Julian and I took turn and turn about hand steering for 2 hour each from 09:30 which was. hard work. By 12:30 the main was just slatting about in the swell, doing itself and Robinetta no favours, so we went head to wind and Julian got it down, managing an amazingly tidy stow in the conditions.

The day ground on, poor visibility, swell that threw us around, and no wind. By 15:35 the swell was regular enough that I wanted to put George on duty: our tiller pilot is a lot better at steering a straight course than any human. Luckily he managed the swell well, and the rest of the afternoon was easier on the person on watch.

motoring towards the hidden land

Despite occasional sightings of blue sky ahead South Uist stayed stubbornly hidden in clouds, and we could not pick out our destination until we were less than 2 miles off. The swell went down though, and our chart plotter took us to the right place. We were tied up on a pontoon in Loch Boisdale Marina at 20:00, and the engine went off after 12 and a half hours of sterling service.

The Harbour Master might ask us to move tomorrow and leave this berth available for a bigger boat, but for now we were staying put.

I tidied Robinetta up while Julian made dinner (those excellent pies with new potatoes and baked beans). We had beaten tomorrow's forecast force 8 gale. Getting here had been a struggle, but the weather for the next five days meant we had had to arrive very early or not at all.

A good day's sailing

A mooch in the chandlery at Croabh Marina yielded a good haul. We now have a new (floating) towing line for Worm, and an 8mm buff braid line for the head halyard hardener. Amazingly they also had a stock of different sizes of teak plugs to cover screw heads, and would sell them individually, so I stocked up.

We were away from our berth at 09:26, and motored out into the loch. After discussing our sail options (which included not raising the main since we might be on a run) we raised a slightly reefed main sail, staysail, and no 2 jib and headed on a very broad reach towards Torsa in flat seas. We expected to gybe as we turned for the north end of that island, but we never headed to change Robinetta’s heading as the tide took us north instead. The wind was strong, and took us along at over 5 knots, meaning we arrived at the top of Torsa early, at 10:30, and the tide was not due to be with us until 11:00. However once we had gone head to wind to reef down we were at slack water and our engine could easily take us through the sound.

As we left Cuan Sound we encountered a very different sea state. Big (for us) waves threw is around as we motor sailed across then towards Easdale Sound. However the wavelength was long enough that the rolling was not threatening, and they caused us no problems entering Easdale Sound. The water here was flat, and with the chart plotter and depth gauge easily visible in the cockpit Robinetta went through without problems.

Coming out of the shelter of Easdale into the Sound of Inch we felt the full majesty of the sea; big regular waves, with the wind behind them. Once clear of Inch we motor sailed up the Sound of Lorne, heading due north towards the Sound of Mull, rocking and rolling for 2 hours. Every so often the stay sail flopped over, giving notice of a possible gybe as the waves rolled Robinetta, but the main sail stayed solidly in place, only once threatening to come over. A quick request to Julian to set the preventer meant there were no other threats.

An atmospheric view of Mull

As we reached Duart castle the seas flattened out and we set the jib then turned the engine off to broad reach into the Sound of Mull. We shook the reef our just past the castle and had half an hour of sailing before the wind failed and the engine went back on.

Duart Castle from the South

The fifteen miles up the Sound to Tobermory saw the engine go on and off several times as the wind came and went, as did the drizzle. The final 3 miles of the trip saw us broad reaching at over 5 knots, in an exhilarating sail that only ended as we turned into Tobermory Bay and got the sails down.

I had called ahead, knowing that the marina office would be shut by the time we got there, so I had the code for the showers and shore heads, and after doing a bit of shopping we showered, before heading out for a curry. It had been a great day’s sailing

Running up the Sound of Jura

We went to bed about 8pm last night, with a 4:30 alarm set.

It took about an hour this morning to get ready to leave. Some of that was due to the No 2 jib being wound the other way round from the No 1. It unfurled when I raised it. Luckily, there was a turn left round the drum so they should now both be the same way round. Having the end of the bowsprit by the pontoon was nice too. I could sort the problem standing on the pontoon.

It was calm as we left, and the sun has come out. It was going to be a beautiful day. We deserve one! Out in the bay there was a gentle southerly, but we were expecting more so I raised the main with a deep reef.

We sailed out on a lovely beam reach, gradually bending around Texa and onto a broad reach. The wind wasn't strong enough to warrant the reef, so we shook it out.

We broad reached for a while but the route was really a run. Eventually, we gave up gybing and swapped the jib for the "blue" sail. A spinnaker we were gifted a few years ago that we fly on long downwind days.

In the past we have flown it with one corner tied to the bowsprit and raised on the topsail halyard. This time I just used the jib halyard and tied on the jib sheets and flew it symmetrically. It worked really well. I tied the corners down on extra lines to the chain plates.

That got us to within 10 miles of Craobh. For some of the time we were doing a solid 6.8 knots.

The last bit was done under engine and staysail. More to keep control through the islands than for any other reason.

It was a grand day.