Sound of Mull

The Whitehouse restaurant at Lochaline is famous. We tried to book for last night but got an answerphone and then Alison rang them again when we got to Lochaline. They were fully booked but offered us lunch or dinner today and we jumped at the lunch option.

This gave us a leisurely morning to shower and put water and diesel into the tanks.

The new pontoons at Lochaline and the toilet block are excellent. You have to walk through the silica sand mine to get to the ‘village’. The mine is the only one in the UK which is pillar and stall rather than open cast. The Jurassic sand is in a 5m seam covered with basalt from a volcano on Mull. Once through the mine you are at the Calmac ferry terminal where there is a snack bar and just above sits the general store and petrol station and the Whitehouse.

Alison and I used the ferry route from Fishnish on Mull to here in 1982 on our honeymoon. Back then the ferry took at most 8 cars. Now it is a full size ro-ro.

The meal was outstanding. My starter was a gazpacho with a scoop of basil sorbet in the middle and a pair of langoustine. Alison had a salmon terrine. My main course was halibut with courgettes and roast new potato and an oyster on top. Alison had venison liver with beetroot and now can’t say she doesn’t like beetroot! We drank tap water. Nothing needed another flavour! The colours of the dishes were amazing, partly due to the generous use of flower petals from their garden.

Back on the boat I looked at the weather. At least I looked at xcweather.co.uk which as far as I know uses the NOAA grib files as the basis of its forecasts. I didn’t look at the Met Office forecast. Xc said F4 gusting F5 from the north.

We got ready and set out. The wind was right behind us so we turned back to get the main up and then motor sailed into the Sound of Mull. Once in the sound proper we turned the engine off. The wind was extremely variable in strength. The Lulls were so deep we would have stopped moving without the 1 knot of tide we had in our favour. The gusts were strong enough we were glad we had kept yesterday’s reef in the main and set the No 2 jib.

Just north of Lochaline the Sound of Mull runs mostly east-west and we had a nice reach.  After that it runs NNW and we had to beat, but it is wide enough that the tacks are long. The gusts got stronger and we reefed down twice. We picked up the inshore waters forecast from Stornoway Coastguard at 16:10 and wished we had got it earlier. F5 to F6, occasionally F7! By then we were only 7 miles from Tobermory.

Great shot by Allan Fraser of s/v Touch of Grey

It was a really nice day. We got ever changing views of the mountains in all directions and lovely cloud scapes. There was a decent amount of blue sky and occaisional sunshine. It was far too nice to want to be anywhere else.

Gradually the lulls stopped happening and the wind strengthened. Several other yachts were going the same way and we saw them shorten sail too. I got a nice shot of this Westerly Fulmar Sarah Maria crossing a south going yacht. We couldn’t reduce the main any more without untying the bottom mast hoop. Alison went forward to do it but a loop of the tie was over the bight and she couldn’t shift it. I took a screwdriver up there and prised it loose and we reefed all the way down. A bit after that we put the jib away and turned the engine on to keep the speed up.

We had run out of favorable tide and we wanted to get into port.

With the sails reduced Robinetta was pretty comfortable and riding the waves nicely. At the edges of the sound the sea state was slight but in the middle the waves were getting bigger. Now and then one would break over the cabin. One went right down my neck. We had really no idea what the wind speed was but we knew it was at least a good F6. As we got near Tobermory I noticed the wind was blowing the tops off the waves. I thought that only happened in an 8.

Just outside the harbour we were passed by a Dive Boat. I wonder what it was like diving today.

Alison was on the helm and not at all sure she could get safely round into the harbour. I dropped the peak and throat halyards a little to scandalize the main and let the sheets out a little and we made it round quite gently. Once in the lee of the headland the sea was much smoother and we could go head to wind and get the main down. I went forward and got the foresails down and reefed the bowsprit.

The sun was quite low now and in our eyes and it took a while to find a nice pontoon berth but we got in quite easily and someone from the next boat took our bow line. He was from Sarah Maria and we had parked right next to her. It is his grandfather’s boat and he was sailing her with two friends. They came over and offered us part of their huge (60+) mackerel catch and we sat on Robinetta drinking wine and beer and then they fetched chips. Alison and I had a fine meal of fresh mackerel fillets fried in butter and garlic with morning rolls and chip shop chips.

What a great day.