Canna to Eriskay

A beautifully peaceful night, with Worm hanging off the back as though she would never dream of knocking on the transom! A slight swell began just after we got up, encouraging us to leave. Last night's forecast had been “variable” and our planning after a day of head winds had stopped at “We will head where it is easy to sail”.

We raised sail in the bay and tried to sail out, but were headed, so put the engine on again. Things felt better when we were out past the rocks and able to turn onto a broad reach. We headed up along the north coast of Canna and found we could lay a course to almost any point in the Outer Hebrides! We decided to head for Castlebay, Barra, so we could head north towards the new marina at Lochboisdale to sit out the bad weather that was due on Saturday.

We had a lovely broad reach for the first couple of hours, but then had to pull the jib in a bit as the wind went round. Not a problem! Some days are perfect for sailing, and this was one of them. All the frustration of beating against head winds yesterday disappeared as Robinetta ate up the miles on one long reach. Every now and then a roller would push us off course, and we had to watch the steering, especially for the first five miles when we could not see anything ahead, but as soon as we had something to point at helming got simpler.

Then we picked up the new forecast, and had to change our minds about where we should go. Castlebay is exposed to the South west, and the new forecast had South force 6 later, which meant we could expect a bumpy night. We started to head towards Lochboisdale instead, but then Julian spotted that the harbour on Eriskay, which has two visitor moorings, was totally protected and we decided to head for there instead. This was only a course change of 20° N, and no further than Barra or Lochboisdale, so off we went.

The weather was cold, and we only saw scraps of blue sky but it was a bright dry day. And great sailing. We sailed right into Arcaseid Mor, the “big harbour” on Eriskay, through its slightly twisty entrance, and picked up a buoy under sail. It was not our most elegant try at this (two passes, and we ended up picking up a different buoy to expected) but we were tied up by 1620. We have reached the Outer Hebrides!

We were planning to head straight to Lochboisdale tomorrow, so decided we had to land on Eriskay this evening, After rowing to the fishing boat pontoon we walked up the hill, aiming for the A M Politician, the local pub named after the boat that sank and inspired the film Whisky Galore. We managed to get to the Co-Op before it closed and stocked up on bread, milk, and veg, then on to the pub for dinner.