Canna to the Black Isles

Early morning at Canna

We didn't want to go down the Sound of Mull again so we looked for a route around the west of Mull. Rubh Ardlanish has an anchorage liked by both Martin Lawrence and the Antares folks. It is about 50 miles from Canna and 30 from the Dores Mhor so we made it today's 'plan A'. We both woke around 4 but couldn't face getting up so we went back to sleep until the 5:30 alarm. I made the tea as usual and we bounced into action. Ok, bounced might be over-stating it.

Coming in so late in calm weather, we had done the bare minimum of putting her to bed. The peak halyard and jib were still in place so we just had to unfrap the halyards, fit the stay-sail halyard and free the tiller and we were ready to go.

But first breakfast. Stornoway black pudding, fried tomato, bacon and egg.

Then Alison started the engine and I hauled the chain up. The anchor came free really easily with only a little kelp. Anchor stowed, we raised the stay-sail and tensioned the bob-stay and we were off. Hardly any more work than coming off a buoy.

A ketch motored off ahead of us and a sloop raised sail on the mooring and followed us. We left just after 7 and for the second day in a row heard no weather forecast. A mystery we would solve later in the morning.

Once clear of Canna we went head to wind and got the main up. Back on course it was clear that there was enough wind to sail, but not to make 4 knots so we motor sailed.

The route took us around Coll and down the west side of Mull. I wanted to pass east of the Treshnish Isles and down past Staffa but a read of the pilot and the tide tables on the way to Coll told me we would be fighting strong tidal streams that way. So Alison laid in a course outside the Treshnish Isles and Iona.

The weather was stunning, showing off the very best of Rhum, Eigg, Muck and Coll with distant vistas of Ardmamurchan under puffy cumulus clouds with stratos and cirrus above.

I didn't hear the 10:10 weather either. Alison checked the radio and the volume was turned right down. Mystery solved. She had tried to turn it off yesterday by turning it down like we did with the old radio and not turned it up again. This morning I had turned it on and assumed the volume was still as I had left it.

We discussed the options for Thursday. Rubh Ardalanish would be a good place to get to the Corryvreckan or the Sound of Luing. It was near springs so the former was only attractive at HW slack. That was too early or too late. The latter was Ok at any favourable tide. The trouble was the favourable tide was 6:45 to noon. That meant a 2 or 3 am start. If the weather was fine we should go further on to Carsaig. Plan B.

Dutchman's Cap

We couldn't quite make the course to leave the Dutchman's Cap to port and the gap between it and Lunga looked wide enough that the tide should be weak so we deferred the decision and motor sailed best course to windward as I cooked scotch pies in the Omnia. After lunch it seemed we could nearly make the course and  would sail better past Iona if we pinched around the outside. That worked nicely.

Finally at 13:10 we got a weather forecast. It was fine to go on to Carsaig. We would get a night's sleep.

Then the machine screw I fitted last year in Peterhead when the weld failed on the tiller pilot attachment sheared off. Alison helmed while I found the packet of machine screws, sawed one to length and fitted it.

Iona looks almost uninhabited from the west at first. One house peeps out through the rocks, then more appeared as we sailed past.

As we turned the corner the wind dropped and the tide kicked in in our favour and we headed east at 51/2 knots. It got very hot out of the breeze and we peeled layers off including the legs of my Craghoppers. T shirt and shorts at last! 7pm and we had to put sun tan lotion on.

We passed the Rubh Ardalanish anchorage almost without noticing it. Carrying on was the right idea. We would be 10 miles closer in the morning.

But Carsaig was horrid. The wind funnelled down the valley and the anchorage was tiny and the wind would blow us towards the rocks. The Black Isles were 2 hours away, we would be there by midnight. Plan C.

The wind calmed down as soon as we were away from Carsaig. It was dark but we could still see as we entered the anchorage. The Garmin chart plotter was pretty useless but the Navionics charts on my tablet were ideal.

There were already three boats in there, a gaff ketch, a lug schooner and a bermudan sloop. Our gaff cutter added perfectly to the mix!

Anchoring was simple and the shelter and holding good. We settled down for a quiet night.