Ardfern to Loch Aline

We decided that heading north towards Mull would be a good idea. Tobermory is over 40 miles from Ardfern, so too far for a relaxed sail, but Lochaline  is only 33, which feels much closer, so we decided to go there.

The tides control a lot of when we should leave. Ardfern to Lochaline means going through the Dorus Mor, which even at neeps can run at 4 knots.... We needed that with us, and since it started to run around 0530 that meant an early start. Julian set the alarm for six, and by 0635 the engine was on and Julian had let us off the mooring. I wasn't quite ready, so he did it single handed.

The depth gauge decided it did not want to work, which is not a huge problem since we have the GPS chartplotter. The rocks of the West coast of Scotland stay put unlike the English east coast mud and sand banks. I got it out of the cupboard and fitted it, then turned it on. Nothing happened.

I told Julian I could not make it work, and he gave me the tiller and had a go. We were just clear of the marina entrance, and I remembered there were shallows there, so I slowed down and Julian turned on the chart plotter on his Samsung tablet. Luckily that worked fine, and after ten or so minutes of cleaning the terminals on the plug the proper chart plotter was back in business.

Julian then went forward to get the bowsprit out, and discovered another problem. The Wickham-Martin furling gear had lost its shackle pin. We had lived in dread of dropping it overboard when fitting or changing jibs, but it had just worked loose while on the mooring, and vanished. This was a major loss, and after a few minutes grumbling and worrying Julian went below to try and find some threaded rod to use as a substitute. He came back up with the old gaff saddle bolt instead, tried it for size, and even the thread was on the correct pitch!

We can't use it as a replacement long term, steel bolts in bronze fittings are not good, but it will allow us to furl the jibs on demand until we can get hold of a bronze one.

We motored through the Dorus Mor without trouble, going from 4.3 knots to 7 for a while, then up the Sound of Luing. Both are known for fast tides and overfalls. but the wind was light, and it was neeps, so we had no problems.

We got the sails up as we passed Beinahua, then turned onto our course up the Firth of Lorn. We tried sailing, but the wind was very light, only giving us half a knot in addition to the one knot from the tide, so the engine soon went back on, even though I changed jibs from the no 2 I had net on originally to the no 1.

Half an hour later the wind freshened, and we had a good sail along the south coast of Mull up to Duart point and then into the Sound of Mull where we had to start tacking. The sea state changed too, with the wash from the ferries that passed us making it unpleasant at times, and after a while we furled away the jib and put the engine back on. The wind continued to freshen though, and we had to reef the main as we neared Lochaline

We turned into the approach channel for Lochaline at 1530, just when the Reeds almanac predicted the tide would begin to turn against us. The wind dropped dramatically as we entered the Loch, and I dropped the main hurriedly in the calm, rather than waiting to go head to wind later.

The pontoons are too new to be on our chart plotter, so we weren't sure exactly where they were, but they were easy to see from the entrance. There was plenty of space too, with only two yachts already there, so I rigged the ropes and fenders for starboard. I had just finished, and we were nearly in the berth when I realised we still had the stay sail up, and the bowsprit was still out. Julian quickly dropped the stay sail, and there was enough room for the bowsprit.

A sailor from one of the other yachts came along and took our bow line, and we were soon moored up securely.

We paid our mooring fees at the office then walked along to the village shop for food and diesel. It's only about ten minutes away, and stocks a decent amount; the only problem was that it started to rain on the way back, and did not stop. It turned into a very damp evening!
 

We had bought haggis and swede to cook for dinner, which was not a good idea. The swede was woody, which was not surprising for this time of year, and I had no foil to wrap round the haggis as we baked it in our electric oven. The mashed potato was good, but not enough to make up for crunchy haggis and unmashable swede...

The one good thing was using the oven warmed the cabin up nicely to drive off the damp!