Largs to Portpatrick

Woke up with a hangover at the six o'clock alarm. My own fault for not drinking water before bed after an evening in the yacht club bar. We are not planning to be in places with electric hook ups, so the first job was to take the electric heater and kettle to the car. This is going to stay in the marina car park, which made it easy.

Frost turned Robinetta's sail cover white and stiff, while an icy glaze made the decks slippery; a price worth paying for cloudless and bright blue skies. The still air made backing out of the berth simple and we set off south at seven, aiming for Portpatrick.

I helmed while Julian got Robinetta shipshape. The staysail went up, and Julian bent on the no 1 jib, but we did not fly it since there was no wind. After an hour the autohelm made its first appearance; course 200°T for the next 49 miles.
By 9 my hangover had disappeared and Julian made us a cooked breakfast after which I made tea and washed up. Half an hour later we suddenly began to pump. Julian went below and traced the leak to the new tap. I had accidentally left the water pump on and water had been trickling out at the joint. We lost over 5 gallons of fresh water into the bilges. Julian wondered if the pipe had split, so disconnected it from the tap, but it turns out that was just the end leaking. We left it sealed up, and the basin tap is out of commission again until we can do some plumbing.

By 2 pm we were closing on Ailsa Craig half way along our route. The wind was blowing at force 0 but we had expected that; otherwise it was a perfect day to be on the sea, warma nd sunny with calm seas. Julian was in a polo shirt and talking aout shorts, almost unheard of in our Scottish expedition!

Lines of gannets were out, skimming close to the sparkling sea and seals were hauled out sunbathing by the light house landing spot. We got a spectacular view of the columnar basalt cliffs with the old fog horn below; a strange sight like an old fashioned ear trumpet magnified a hundred times.

Gannets were not the only birds around. Small flocks of guillemots sat on the oily calm water, and a few gulls flew overhead, including at least one Black Back Gull. I saw porpoises in the distance too, and a couple of seals swam close to have a look at us.

As we approached Loch Ryan a ferry came out heading for Belfast, then two crossed our bows heading in to Stranraer. The first passed well ahead, but we had to think hard about the second, and slowed down slightly, but need not have worried in the event. The tide had been noticeably in our favour since we neared Ailsa Craig, but as we headed down the Mull of Galloway it really picked up. We had left the Clyde doing 4.5 knots, but were doing 6.8 here, without changing the engine revs.

We did have a concern about the engine. Even after the fresh water leak was sorted the float switch kept activating the pump. Just little trickles, but were hoping for none. We traced the source of this leak to the raw water cooling system. Not the water going in to the engine, but after it came out and headed for the exhaust. Not a dangerour problem, but one that needs to be fixed.

The lovely fast passage in the final 10 miles meant we reached Port Patrick Harbour at 1945. There are no pontoons, and the guide says to raft up against the harbour walls. They have a good system, with lines straight down the wall moored at the bottom, with big fenders on them to keep boats away from the rough wall. We were the only visitors in there, and quickly tied Robinetta on to the down lines, with the ladder nicely positioned by the cabin roof. After rafting Worm up along side we headed off to find dinner.