St Ninian's Bay to Colintraive

Got up in a very leisurely fashion again, 1000 before we finished breakfast! However we did have the sail covers off, the jib bent on, and the end of the stay-sail's self tacking track repaired before we ate...

The knob that stops the stay-sail sheet car sliding off the end of the track had been jury rigged ever since we bought Robinetta. Every time we try to put something permanent in place it comes off! We had ignored the current “temporary” set up of gaffer tape, washers and screw for too long, and it needed replacing.

After breakfast Julian went forward to haul the anchor up. It had held us securely all night, and saw no reason to shift now! We had to motor forward to take the weight off the chain before he could move it, but it came up clean. We tried sailing once we were out of the bay but progress was too slow even after we tried the reaching sail, and changed up to the no 1 jib, so the engine went back on and we headed up the West Kyle towards Tighnabruaich.

Once there we anchored and had lunch, then rowed ashore in search of ice cream. Tighnabruaich was bustling! The paddle steamer Waverley was moored up at the pier, the life boat station had an open day and a raft race had just finished. The weather was glorious too; bright warm sunshine!
 
Once back on Robinetta Julian decided that his trousers were too filthy to wear to the pub we were heading for. Due to a packing error he only had one pair with him, so he got back into Worm and washed them over the side, using Ecover washing up liquid, rather than laundry detergent. They are “solar dry” Craghoppers, so there was every chance they would be dry by the time we reached our destination!

Once back on Robinetta we raised the main and sailed off the anchor without turning the engine on, which is not something we do often! Julian reported twice the anchor's weight in kelp hanging off it when he hauled it up! The old fashioned fisherman's anchor has really worked well for us this trip.

We sailed in fluky winds to and through the Burnt Isles to Colintraive, on the edge of gybing several times, but never actually doing it. The Clyde Cruising Club directions says how variable the winds can be here, and they went from a fine reach to a dead run with hardly a moment's notice. As the wind speed varied between force 1-3 it was interesting and fun, rather than hard work. We got the sails down at Colintraive, ready to pick up a mooring, but left the staysail up as we often do. This was a mistake here, as it kept blowing Robinetta's head round making us look like amateurs, but once we dropped the sail steering became simple and we picked up the buoy without any other problems.

We looked at the weather in the pub that evening, and decided on an early start. Tomorrow afternoon promised F6 gusting 7-8, with rain. It would be good to be safely in Holy Loch Marina before then.