Back on the Whale Road again

It took over 40 hours to get from Loch Lochy to Loch Linnhe. I was pretty stir crazy by last night. This morning the lock keepers were very cooperative. We locked throughout to the basin shortly after 8 am but found the fuel dock occupied by a boat waiting to go up Neptune's Staircase. We tied up on the quay. Mary Lou was in the sea lock so we went and bade farewell. We showered and walked the boat to the fuel and got both tanks and both cans filled. The sea lock was ready for us so we went straight in and paid for the fuel and returned our key for the toilets and were out by 9:50.

It felt great to be out. The Anglo-Saxons and the Norse called the sea the 'Whale Road', anyone who cruises comes to realise that the sea connects places, rather than separating them. Canals connect places too, but they feel more like byways than highways to me.

It was a shame that there wasn't any wind as we motored past Fort William, Ben Nevis hiding under clouds on the skyline.

After a while a breath came up and we put the sails up but it fell away again and we dropped the main. We didn't want it up and doing nothing through the Corran narrows.

As predicted it clouded over and started to drizzle. By the time we had the narrows in sight we could hardly make out the ferry going back and forth. The ferry here is one of the few remaining ones between two parts of the mainland.

The speed over the ground increased as we entered the narrows, bang on noon. 5 knots, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9.1, 9.2!

It momentarily touched 9.3.

On the other side the sea was surprisingly confused. We got twisted and turned by rip and there were lots of small whirlpools. It made me realise how wise we were to have crossed the Pentland Firth at slack water neaps.

Two yachts passed us running north under sail. We couldn't believe they thought they could get through against 5-6 knots of tide. We saw one later, having turned back. Maybe the other one did make it.

The wind has got up but it was on the nose. The forecast was F5-F7 but xcweather showed F4 with gusts to F6 for our area and the strongest gusts were from the west so we should have been in the lee of Ardnamurchan and Morvern. That was my rationale for leaving port with a 7 in the forecast...

It stayed obstinately southerly.

We motored on and the rain got heavier and heavier. There was more than enough wind to sail but not much room for long tacks and we would have made slow or no progress. We did one hour shifts on the tiller and stayed below when off-shift. There was almost nothing to look at. We had planned smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches for lunch but plumped for soup to warm up.

The next navigation hazard was the rocks at Port Appin. Visibility had improved and the port looked lovely. We could feel the tide pulling us back towards the rocks and we needed to point about 40 degrees off course. At one point we hit 0.8 knots. Gradually, we climbed back up to 2.5 knots and established the course along the eastern side of Lismore.

The rain had stopped but the wind seemed to be strengthening and really slowing us down. I decided we needed to use the sails as the engine was struggling head on to the wind. I tacked to keep the staysail filled and tried using the jib as well. The lee helm was bad.

At 17:45 we put the mainsail up deeply reefed. The ensign got caught. We have been flying it from the gaff tied to the top batten. Before we spotted the problem it pulled the Velcro out of the batten pocket and the batten slid into the loch.

Now we made better progress. The wind was backing and veering all the time and we shifted to whichever tack we could make progress on. As we got past Eileen Dubh (there seem to be a lot of black islands) we could see blue sky ahead! My spirits lifted. We now has the full width of Loch Linnhe available and could come off the wind a little. Before long we could turn the engine off. We kept it on gently. Then a patch of sun hit us.

The transformation was amazing. From slogging under motor through the pouring rain into a strong headwind we were now reaching through the sunshine. We could finally see, and enjoy the scenery.

We turned the corner towards Oban and Alison reminded me how narrow the channel is between Kerrera and Maiden Island. I couldn't see any gap but then a Calmac ferry came out through it. Nice ferry, good ferry.

Although the wind was still strong the sailing was now so nice that I didn't want it to stop. As we got near Oban I cut the engine and just sailed. All too soon it was time to drop the sails and find a berth.

It is West Highland Yachting Week and the fleet had just raced up from Craobh, leaving little space in either Dunstaffnige or Oban. There were only two free finger berths in the whole marina and they had reserved signs on them. There did seem to be a couple of available visitors moorings. We were about to take one when one of the racing yachts offered to help us raft to them between two fingers. We just fitted, fenders interleaved.

We headed to the bar/restaurant and had a really fine meal and then went back to the boat to plan tomorrow.

The weather didn't do what I'd hoped and give us a westerly we could use. It was stronger than was pleasant. It was a also perfectly safe. If we had stayed in Corpach it would have been a wet and wasted day. Now we are 30 nm forwards and we even had a nice sail and a nicer meal than we could find in Corpach. And better beer too!