End of the season

We have had a very short season on Robinetta this year. We have other sailing commitments, and our personal logs are more than double Robinetta's! She came out of the water on Sunday 22nd , and is being laid up at Craig's yard again. Not in the shed this time though! 

With such a short season there will be no book this year. We have bigger plans for next year, with visiting Shetland on the wish list, but we will have to see what the winter work reveals.

Our totals for the year are 350 nautical miles covered, in 112 hours, with the engine on for 74 hours.

Through the storm

We watched anxiously as Storm Babette made its way towards us. Luckily the winds on the West coast were much lower than on the East, and while we had gusts of 40 knots the wind direction meant there was not much fetch to raise the waves and Robinetta came through unscathed. We had put her cockpit cover on after our trip to Holy Loch, and one of the ties did get chaffed through, but the rest of them held the cover safely in place.

A weekend away

 We belong to a facebook sailing group called Sailing Cruising Scotland. This weekend they had a Rally planned at Holy Loch Marina. As this is only 10nm from Robinetta's mooring we decided to go. The forecast was for very light winds, so potentially we would be motoring the whole way, which was not a problem with this length of trip.

Unusually our son Alex decided he would like to come too, so there were three aboard Worm when I rowed us out to Robinetta mid-morning on Saturday. The sea was totally flat (a bit of a difference from my last row out)which was just as well as we did not have much freeboard!

We were at mid flood tide, springs, as we came off the mooring, with not a hope of getting through the Rhu Narrows under sail with the wind we had. Once we were through the Narrows we did try sailing for 15 minutes, but at about 0.7knots we would miss the barbeque, so the engine went back on until we were passing Kilcreggan, with a little more wind. An hour later we had still not reached Cove, so the engine went on for 15 minutes, at which point we finally found a good wind and began sailing properly.

By 14.45 we were just off Holy Loch Marina, and put the engine on to take down the sails.

Most of the Rally boats moored up on the breakwater pontoon. We chose to go on the outside of the breakwater where we would be blown off. There was plenty of room since most of the boats had gone inside to be away from any waves. It was so calm that this was not problem for us. Once settled in we headed for the "cocktail bar" manned by the Cutters and Sloops group before moving on to the Holy Loch Sailing Club for the barbeque. 

The weather was perfect for the event, with bright warm sunshine. Even the midges were kind to us and stayed away! Alex got a little sunburnt as he is not used to being outside as much.

Sunday's sail home was pretty much a repeat of Saturday, although the wind came in earlier. We had a slow sail out of Holy Loch, but the wind came picked up as we passed the Ardmore Cardinal at the entrance, and we had a lovely fast sail home, touching 5 knots at times.

No submarine movements impeded our progress and we headed up the Loch a little to see Hanako on her mooring. We had met them on the rally and it was good to see where they kept the boat.

We got the sails down and Julian helmed us, very slowly, onto our mooring after a lovely weekend away.

Checking on Robinetta after strong winds

 As I was driving back from taking a guest to the train station this morning I noticed that Robinetta's mainsail cover was hanging under the sail it was meant to be over. There had been some strong winds in the last couple of days, and there were more expected, so it had to be secured. I rowed Julian over to Robinetta at lunch time, to check on things. The cover was only being held on by the lazy jacks, and could easily have gone over the side if they had not been tight.

I was reminded of heading to Robinetta years ago when she was kept on the moorings at West Mersea. On that occasion I had not being able to see the cover at all. To my relief I found it lying in the cockpit. Later I was told by a friend who had a mooring close by that he had seen the cover was about to go over the side and had rowed over to rescue it. At least now we lived close enough to notice the problem ourselves.

When I opened the cabin the wooden spoons which are kept in a plastic cup were on the floor, so Robinetta's motion had obviously been quite violent at some point, although there was no other sign of distress. The cabin was quite grubby, and our absence of time on board this month was clear.

I put the engine on as it had not been turned over in a month, then Julian and I replaced the cover, tying it down tightly. We really should come out to visit Robinetta more often. Even coming over in the evening for a cup of tea would be a pleasant trip out of the house...

Julian had to get back to work, so we turned off the engine and locked up the cabin, then I rowed us back ashore. 

Local sailing

It felt like a long time since we had gone sailing, given that Robinetta was sitting really close to home. However we had been busy with sailing matters, attending the Portsoy Traditional Boat Festival with our smack boat, and running an OGA60 event in Dundee, so this was our first free weekend since we got back from Oban. I felt quite desperate to get out on the water.

I rowed us out to the mooring in more wind than I was expecting from the forecast, and we hoisted the no2 jib, and reefed down a little as we raised sail, then began the beat out of the Gairloch. Julian has suggested we go over to Loch Goil, but that felt like a long way to me! He was helming and wanted a deeper reef after we got past the Rhu Narrows. 

Once we were out into the Clyde the sea state made Robinetta's motion uncomfortable and we decided to make it a short trip rahter than go anywhere. After a cup of soup lunch we tacked round to head into the Gareloch. As we reached the moorings outside Rhu Marina one of the Navy Patrol vessels approached us and asked if we had heard the radio announcement that the Narrows were closed for a submarine movement. We could honestly say that we had not. There was no sign of anything moving either, but we obeyed instructions and turned off course to beat about through the moorings, well outside the channel. 

Julian had been on the helm the whole trip, and after about five minutes he handed it to me. Tacking through moorings is bad enough, but soon after I had to turn away from the Rhu Spit, and run back through the moorings... We put the engine on just in case the close quarters maneuvering under sail got too difficult. Luckily nothing went wrong and first the accompanying tugs and then the submarine superstructure appeared over the top of the Spit. After about twenty minutes we were free to head up the loch again.

We turned the engine off and had a short sail up the Gareloch before deciding to head home. We were determined not to put the engine back on again, so practiced picking up our mooring under sail. It took three goes, but we did it!

Last day of the trip

We spent Friday visiting Brodick Castle, walking there and back along the Fisherman's Path. We were due a change in the weather, and it was cold, with a fair bit of drizzle off and on. We got back to Robinetta late afternoon, and decided to have a quite evening on the mooring rather than trying to go anywhere.

We wanted to make the most of the tide heading up the Clyde, so warmed up the engine and released the mooring at 06:45. There was a bit of a miscommunication between foredeck and helm on departure. I thought Julian said "Helm to port", while he actually said "Buoy to port". This resulted in Robinetta running over the pick up line, and we did catch on it for a short while. (When I checked astern the mooring buoy was trying to follow us.) Luckily a quick burst of astern before putting the engine in neutral saw the mooring drift towards the bow again, and the pick up buoy reappeared.

The weather was overcast, and the wind very light, but we knew it was due to get up to a force 5 later, so Julian bent on the no 2 jib for the first time this trip. We went head to wind and raised the full main straight after breakfast. The wind was from dead astern, so I set the preventor but the breeze was so light the engine stayed on for another hour. 

At the start of the day Julian had agreed to set a course so we would have an ETA to give our son who was expecting us for dinner. He did not think we really needed it for anything else since we could just head between Bute and the Cumbraes as we left Arran. However I was very glad of it when both our aiming points disappeared into the murk! Visibility was only really bad for about 15 minutes, and as the fog cleared the wind came up and the engine went off at 08:36.

We sailed along happily at just over 4 knots until we were between Bute and Little Cumbrae. Julian was helming, and beginning to find it hard work, and when I glanced behind I could see more white horses than I was expecting. I nipped across the cabin top and took off the preventor while Julian put the engine on, then we went head to wind to reef.

Reefing is normally easy. This was not. The throat halyard got stuck on something, and Julian had to go forward to free it. The problem line turned out to be one of the topping lifts, so he let it off, but the throat halyard was still reluctant to shift. Jiggling the peak halyard can help in this situation, but on this occasion all that happened was that it got free, letting gaff descend more than it should have. Without the topping lift, and in the swell, the end of the gaff fell past the boom and landed in the cockpit.

We gave up on reefing, and lowered the mainsail until the squall passed over. It took nearly half an hour to sort the lines, and when we felt back in control we turned the engine off and sailed just on our headsails at 3-4 knots. After we cleared the Cumbraes and had caught our breath we got the main back up, with a reef, and used the width of the Clyde to very broad reach north, gybing to recross the Clyde as needed. It was a really lovely sail after all that bother!

Just before Cloch Point we noticed a small yacht under motor, heading straight for us. It was bouncing around in the swell and we wondered what it was doing, until we recognised one of the crew who was waving and calling us by name. It turned out to be John Blackie, eager to tell us that his boat, Maid of Lorne, had been launched and was in Rhu Marina.

We carried on past the entrance to Loch Long and sailed into the Gareloch, eager to see our own mooring for the first time. It had been laid just that morning, and we had been sent its lat/long by text message, but we had no idea what it looked like.

The engine went on at 15:24, and as soon as we had the sails down we motored to where we expected the buoy to be. There it was, labelled "RB Marine 5 tons", with a tag on it with the license number. It was an easy pick up, and Robinetta was "back" at her new home with the engine off at 15:42

 

A place to return to

Being at Sanda, only a long day's sail from home with no tidal gates to worry about, made me feel very relaxed about the rest of the trip home. it was a gorgeous morning, so we had breakfast in the cockpit admiring the view.

 Julian did not start raising the anchor until 09:45, and we motored gently north with the flood tide under us all morning, although we did raise the main sail.

By 12:53 it felt as though there were enough wind to sail, so we stopped the engine 4 miles south of Pladda at the end of Arran, and sailed at 2-3 knots for a while. There was a small boat with two rod and reel fishermen aboard who shouted something at us as we inched past, giving them plenty of space. I did not hear what they said, but according to Julian it was "Get out and push!" Robinetta was doing less than 2 knots at the time... 

By 14:40 the wind was just too light to give us steerage way, and the tide was no longer with us, so the engine went back on for an hour, but then the wind came back, and we ran towards our chosen destination of Brodick. Julian remembered going there as a child, and wanted to visit again, and I had not been there since I was 18 on a university field trip.

As we crossed the entrance to Lamlash Bay we got a wind shift that required us to gybe, but rather than doing that we turned towards Lamlash and sailed inside Holy Island instead of along the eastern side as we had planned. It was a perfect solution as when we did gybe inside the bay we had a fast broad reach towards Hamilton Rock at the northern entrance to the bay.

Once clear of Hamilton Rock at 17:00 we came off the wind and ran towards Brodick. There are 15 free visitor moorings there, and we planned to take one. As we approached I could see that there were plenty of spare moorings, so rather than putting the engine on I sailed Robinetta into the right place to let Julian pick up the mooring line. The maneuver went well, given that I can not remember the last time I sailed onto a mooring!

That evening we were hailed by Jeremy Taylor who rowed over from his boat having seen us sail in. We invited him aboard, and had a lovely evening exchanging sailing experiences.

Back round the Mull of Kintyre

 We could have left Port Ellen in the small hours, and taken the early tide round the Mull, but this whole week we had wanted to relax, so we stayed in the marina all morning. Having a shower felt blissful! Julian mended Worm's rowlock mount that I had broken in Tinker'e Hole, and I filled the water tanks and sorted the rubbish. Julian also tried to connect a new mains outlet in the cabin, as there was electricity on the pontoon, but it only worked briefly. Probably a fault in the extension socket. We had managed without mains power so far, and would be on a mooring once we got back home, so it did not matter too much.

We motored away from the pontoon at 11:30, and raised sail in Port Ellen Bay. We would have had to pay for another day's mooring if we were in the marina after mid day, but we did not want to reach the Mull much before 20:00.  There was no need to push ourselves under motor when there was wind to move us, however slowly. We had a lovely couple of hours sailing before the wind died completely, then the motor went on to take us towards the Mull. 

By 17:00 we had to motor quite hard to keep our rendezvous with the Mull at slack water. The tide was against us as it flooded past the Mull and up the Sound of Jura. However the sea was flat calm, with very little swell and I cooked dinner underway. We have discovered "Cooks and Co" pre-prepared Risottos packs, and they are very boat cooking friendly. One pan, and we have all the ingredients suggested to add.

We  were "sailing" in company with another yacht that was also heading for the mull. It was obvious that we both had the same plan to avoid paying another day at Islay and to reach the Mull at slack water. Once there we took  Robinetta in close to the mull while the other yacht stood off a little and there were no overfalls on either course. Once round the Mull we headed for Sanda, while our companion in travel headed up the Clyde, possibly toward Campbelltown. We had gone far enough, and dropped anchor at 21:47 to spend a peaceful Midsummer eve.

6 distilleries sighted and a Winery visited

 We dropped the mooring at five to seven, and began the trip to the north end of the Sound of Islay. We raised the main, but it was not really doing anything, in fact it might have been slowing Robinetta down as there were head winds.

Julian ducked below to check out the breakfast options, and received an enthusiastic "Yes, please" at the suggestion of bacon and egg with fried bread. It is not easy eating that sort of meal while helming, but it made a lovely start to the day.

The head winds continued, but were slackening, and the sea state (never bad) got flatter, so we made good time and entered the Sound at 09:20. The tide helped us through at 5-6 knots on low engine revs and we passed three distilleries on the Islay shore without even thinking about stopping for a visit. I had been slightly worried that there might be overfalls at the south end, but roughest water with wind over tide was at the narrowest part of the Sound, by the lifeboat station. We steered closer to the Islay shore, and were soon away from the disturbance.

By 11:00 we were out of the Sound, but still being helped south by the tide. By the time we reached Ardmore point (our fourth distillery) the wind was no longer heading us, so we turned the engine off and sailed.

Julian wanted to go behind Texa, and approach Port Ellen that way, so we turned onto a run, and headed into the passage. I never like being on a run, the wind was light, and the swell was constantly lifting the boom, the passage was narrow, and I did not feel like I had much control on the helm. I was not a happy helmsman! We glimpsed Lagavulin behind the reefs, but stopping did not feel like a good option.

Once we were behind Texa and could come off the run the sailing improved, and we romped past Laphroig into Port Ellen, dropping the sails jut before the ferry pier. Twenty minutes later we were securely tied up on the pontoon.

Islay marina had everything we wanted, but I felt very tired and stressed by the sail in. I had bruised a rib while securing Worm to Robinetta at Kerrera, and now the adrenaline of organising the event had faded it hurt whenever I moved too fast. Julian suggested a visit to Islay Wines would help, so we walked there, and had a tasting, coming away with four bottles.

We had hoped to eat at the hotel or the Bistro, but both were full, so we got takeaway fish and chips (plus a battered haggis) from the Bistro and ate on board.

Starting the sail home

After all the socializing of the weekend it felt good to get some down time, but we needed to get back to the Clyde by the end of the week. The forecast was overcast, and the winds variable, and we decided to head for Colonsay. It meant we did not need to plan for the tides much, and could take our time in the morning. Julian paid the farm for the mooring using the internet as neither of us felt like going ashore.

We came off the mooring at 08:45, and motored down the Sound of Kerrera. In fact we motored most of the day, only managing to sail for an hour as we passed Inch. There are new moorings at Scalasaig Bay on Colonsay, and we picked one up at 18:18. They seemed very far out from the shore, and like this morning neither of us felt like going ashore. We could pay for the mooring on line again, so we did. It is very convenient being able to do this!

We might have avoided tidal planning this morning, but this evening we needed to make sure we could get through the Sound of Islay tomorrow. The tide would be favorable between 06:12 and 12:32, so we needed to be away early.

The mooring were subject to swell, and we moored Worm alongside Robinetta so she would not wake us in the night.

Oban - Parade of Sail

We had a lazy start to the morning then got the water taxi to Oban to host the Distillery Tour. We only had a few takers for the tour but the Distillery were great and managed to sell nearly all the tickets and refunded us for those. I really enjoyed the tour.

Then it was back to the Marina to get the boats over to near the Sailing Club to assemble for the parade of sail.

We tootled around in the bay letting our young helm, graciously lent by Young Larry, get the hang of the boat and then headed off bang on time at 3:10 and led the fleet in towards the Corryvreckan (not the whirlpool, the pub on the quay), turning parallel to the promenade and past the north quay and the transit Marina. It was great looking behind and seeing the fleet following. We did see people on the shore stop to look.

© Stephen Lawson Photography

 

Two boats had joined the parade that I wasn't expecting. A Drascombe Longboat we'd seen moored on the OSC moorings and a modern gaff cutter. The cutter turned out to be Lazy Wind, OGA North Wales boat. They didn't know they'd make it so hadn't registered. Both were most welcome!

We got back to Kerrera Marina and got fuel and snuck away. I needed downtime from being sociable. We picked up one of the farm buoys behind Heather Island and settled down for a quiet evening. I cooked pasta with chorizo, our standby.

Three down, none to go. A successful event.

Race Day

It felt breezy in the morning - we could hear the wind whistling. That boded well for the race but it was different by the afternoon.

We got the bunting down and tried to decide what to do with Worm. In the end we ended up towing her the whole day.

I also needed to greet our extra crew coming over on the water taxi. Kevin, NW area president and two locals were joining. The locals proved additions to the crews for our two Itchen Ferries - Onward of Ito and Ferryman.

Dismantling the rafts of gaffers was a complicated engineering process but we all got out. Going to the foredeck revealed our port bulwark had been pulled away from the stem post and the pin rail was also damaged.

I banged it back in with the hammer and lashed everything tight with rope. It will be fine until we get home. I just hope the stem post isn’t getting soft.

Out on the water we couldn’t find the race channel M2/P4 on either our fixed or handheld radios.

Then Derek, the OSC commodore got me on the WhatsApp.  We had wind but none outside the bay. Neither planned course was going to work.

We swiftly came up with a new one. Down Kerrera Sound to Little Horseshoe Bay and back.

We agreed to change the working channel to 8 as it seemed we weren’t the only ones without M2.

I put out an announcement on 16 ‘Old Gaffers Fleet go Channel 8 and report in’.

It worked. Only a couple of boats missed the call and we managed to get the message to them and started the race.

It was light airs but most boats had a good race with some close quarters polite jostling at the turning mark.

A fine evening with BBQ, highland piping and accordion playing by the OSC youth finished the evening off. Alison did the prizes for the race and I did a briefing for the parade of sail. A fine evening.

Back on Kerrera we got chatting on Letty and had a great chat with Keith our chef from Friday night and owner with his partner Annie of a gaffer of his own. A Colin Archer, currently in Bristol.

Then a last dram on board Sagan with Robert while Lorna and Alison had tea on Robinetta and the day was over.

Two down, one to go.

Dressing Up

Boats continued to arrive throughout the day. Alison made up the welcoming ‘goody bags’ and I got Robinetta ‘dressed overall’. We never ran the radar reflector/flag halyards this year so only the bunting went up.

Then we got a water taxi over to Oban for some much needed groceries and a milk shake. We also bought first and last prizes for tomorrow’s race. The bottle of Clyde rum we’d brought will do for a seamanship award.

I tried and failed to complete the little talk I wanted to do for the dinner. I could make it interesting but I wasn’t making it fun!

Then Lorna Hill came to the rescue and offered her shipping forecast party piece. Job done!

We also had a proper Scots dinner bell! Robert Hill called us all to eat on the pipes.

The evening meal by the Waypoint at the Marina was spectacular. Keith and Annie had pulled out all the stops and created a seafood delight with pulled pork and plenty of veg alternatives.

We collapsed back onto Robinetta happy and relaxed. One day down and two to go. Tomorrow - the race!

A Gathering of Gaffers in Oban

Julian and I were going to Oban as the organisers of a gathering of OGA boats to celebrate 60 years of the OGA. The event itself started on Friday evening, but we needed to be there early to finalise some of the arrangements. However we were only 7nm away from our destination, so we had a relatively lazy start to the day, only beginning to raise the anchor at 10:10.

There was enough wind to sail, so we raised the main and unfurled the jib as soon as we were clear of any obstructions, and by 10:35 we were sailing towards the Sound of Kerrera at 4 knots. We had a lovely sail up the Sound, although the wind went lighter as the morning went on and our speed dropped to about 2 knots through the water. 

By 12:30 we were getting the sails down, ready to head into Kerrera Marina. It took a while to maneuver into a berth rafted up on Recipe (another circumnavigating yacht) and stern to a pontoon so we could step ashore.

Worm had to be tied beneath our bowsprit to keep her out of the way, which was a complicated process, and then we were free to have much needed showers before heading to the bar to join the gaffers who had already arrived. More people arrived throughout the afternoon, and the gathering got off to a great start in brilliant sunshine.

Meeting friends at Puilladobhrain

Leaving Tinkers Hole required us to untie Robinetta from the ring before hauling up the anchor. The problem was that we were near low water, so there was a bit of a scramble up to reach the ring. Julian got into Worm and pulled himself along the mooring rope rather than rowing, then when he reached the shore had to work out which was the best way to reach the ring once he landed. He tied Worm on to his life jacket so he had his hands free, and did his first bit of real rock climbing since his teens. Luckily he remembered his training and made his climb without incident.

Julian had hoped to use the rope to pull himself back to Robinetta, but it was too heavy to carry while climbing down so he dropped it to let me pull it back on board. Then I went forward to pull up about twenty metres of chain that we had let out last night so our rope would reach to the rocks.

Once Julian was safely back on board and Worm was tied astern we put the engine on, and I went forward to pull up the rest of the chain. It came up clean, but with a lump of kelp on it that made hauling up the last few feet a bit heavy.

We motored out of the shelter of the passage into Tinker’s Hole and found a nice sailing breeze. Despite the fact we were not in clear water Julian wanted to raise the main, and after a little reluctance on my part he got his way. We sailed out of the Eriad Channel with a two reefed main and staysail only, but within half an hour we had shaken out the reef and unfurled the jib.

The tide seemed stronger against us than expected and the wind had dropped, so we were unable to make much progress. The engine went on at 10, and stayed on until 11:35 when the sight of a Bermudian yacht sailing made us try to do the same. We had half an hour of gentle sailing in the sunshine along the south coast of Mull, but our arrival time at Puilladobhrain was predicted to be in the small hours. We had a dinner reservation at 7pm at the pub by the Bridge over the Atlantic, so we put the engine on again, and motored for the next six hours until we dropped anchor in Puilladobhrain.

On the way in to the main pool we passed three of the OGA Round Britain fleet anchored in the entrance, Barbarrosa, Charlotte Elizabeth, and Oystercatcher of Glenarm. We were tidying up ready to go ashore when the single handed skippers of Charlotte Elizabeth and Oystercatcher appeared in a dinghy. They too had dinner reservations so we jumped into Worm and followed them to the pub for a very pleasant meal.

By the time we got back to our dinghies the tide had gone out a long way and it was a bit muddy carrying them back to the water. However it was a pleasant row back to Robinetta, and our fellow OGA members joined us for a nightcap before returning to their boats. We accidentally anchored in the perfect place to get a view of the sunset over Mull.

Heading north to Mull

 I had expected to be woken in the night as Robinetta swung on her anchor, but apart from a little swell when a coaster went past the anchorage was totally peaceful. There seemed to be a bit of a back eddy as I could not tell if she ever moved in the night.

Knowing the tide would not be in our favour until 07:30 there was no point thinking of an early start, but we were awake by seven, and ready to go by 7.45. There was some wind, and Julian wanted to raise the main at anchor, but she was lying at an angle to the wind, so I suggested having the engine on and seeing if we could sail off on the stay sail. In the event we had to motor towards the anchor to break it out, so we would not have been able to sail off anyway.

We did get the main up as soon as we were clear of the bay, and we tried sailing, but there was not enough wind to give us steerage way against the tide so the engine went on again almost immediately. It stayed on for most of the morning as we headed south of Oransay. Its fringing reefs come a long was off shore, but most of them are above the water so safe in daylight.

Once we changed course to head north the wind felt a little stronger, but it was another hour until there was enough to fill the sails. For a while we made way with engine on, engine off every ten minutes, but by13:50 we had a good sailing breeze, and we had a couple of hours sailing past the West Reef towards Bogha nan Ramfhear cardinal. By the time we rounded the cardinal the wind had gone, and we put the engine back on and headed for Tinker’s Hole.

Nearly everyone one we talked to about sailing near Mull mentions Tinkers Hole, and we had never been there, so decided it was time we visited. Finding it is easy with the chartplotter, but very difficult without. There are several inviting sandy bays between granite headlands in this South West coast of Mull and motoring past them to head into a narrow channel with high rock walls to drop anchor seems counter intuitive. However it is a popular thing to do, and there were already 4 yachts there when we arrived. All of them had dropped anchor then run a line back to the shore to stop them swinging. We intended to do the same, but the closest we had come to this before was in Padstow, where you moored the bow to a buoy before dropping back to moor stern too to a pontoon.

In Tinkers hole you drop anchor, then motor back towards the walls to tie your line. There are two rings set into the cliff at the northern end of the Hole and one of these was still free so we decided to use it. This was not as simple as it sounds. The water was so clear we could see the bottom at 5 metres. I could see some sand, but there was also a lot of weed, so I waited until I could see a patch of sand and dropped the anchor there. Paying out the chain did not take us back towards the ring, so I got in Worm with a rope, intending to row to the wall.

It has been a while since I rowed Worm by myself, and the glue joint holding one of the rowlock mounts failed as soon as I put pressure on it. Luckily the people in Aurora IV, the yacht next to us, had been keeping an eye on us and they came over in their electric outboard powered dinghy and took the rope ashore for us. Julian paid out more chain and Robinetta swung to lie the same way as Aurora. We had a little chat with them, and discovered they were anti clockwise circumnavigators out of Ipswich, which was fun.

After a pleasant drink and dinner (a dried risotto pack we had bought on Gigha) Julian and I headed out for a row in Worm, round to David Balfours Bay where we could go ashore on a beautiful sandy beach and have a walk. The scenery was lovely and the row easy, which made a great end to the day.

Gigha Towards Loch Tarbert (Jura)

 We thought we would probably go to Loch Tarbert on Jura today but we also were insisting on having a late start and not planning.

This meant that we missed the morning tide through the Sound of Islay. We weren’t sure how strong the tides are at neaps, although probably we are coming off neaps now. So we thought we would go anyway and anchor at the south end of the sound and go through on the evening tide.

We left the mooring in Gigha at 9:40 and amazingly by 10 am we were sailing. I nice little breeze was coming from the NE with enough east in it for us to manage 3-4 knots up the coast of Gigha.

It dropped off and backed as we rounded the top of Gigha but we still managed to sail, very slowly, half-way across to Jura. Then it died completely and we drifted, not being in any hurry to be anywhere else. The hazy weather we’ve been having continued but it was still beautiful with the Paps of Jura in the distance. We heard a blowhole being cleared a few times and think we saw a whale, perhaps a minke, but it was never above the water long enough to know for sure.

It got quite hot, and eventually we decided we’d be cooler moving and started the engine. There is an island on the Jura side of the sound  called Am Fraoch Eileen - the heather island. North of it is a recommended anchorage for waiting for the tide. We went into the bay to take a look but decided to see what the tide was like - perhaps it would be weak enough to get through.

For a while, it seemed like it would be a knot against us but as we got towards the north end of Glas Eileen (green isle), our progress was halted. We could do 1/2 knot across the sound but almost nothing north. We turned around and were doing 6 1/2 knots. So we think the tide was running at over 3 knots.

It was still more than 2 hours until the tide would turn in our favour so we headed back to the anchorage and dropped the hook. We thought we might stay there for the night. But around 6:30 pm it started feeling uncomfortable. We raised anchor around 7pm and headed north. By Glas Eilean we passed another yacht heading south, and we could see a line on the water where the tide actually changed. South of the moving line, there was wind over tide, whilst north of it was smooth water.

As expected, we now motored up the sound at 5-6 knots over the ground. But it was still 12 nm and getting late. And we were hungry. I looked at Whitefarland Bay. CCC says it’s poor holding but Antares says the weed is mostly outside their recommended spots. So we gave it a go.

Once anchored it felt really secure. We had out pot noodles for our fasting day dinner and settled down for a relaxing evening. It felt like a nice, relaxing day with wonderful scenery, some wildlife and some entertainment playing with the tides.

Round the Mull of Kintyre

 In order to make the best of the tide we needed to leave Sanda by 06:00. The kettle went on at half five when the alarm went, but after the night we had had it was a real effort to get moving. We managed to motor out of the anchorage at 06:15, but by the time Julian had done all the foredeck work he looked like death warmed over, so I sent him down for some more sleep. Having only had to take care of Worm and the helming I was not nearly as tired and I helmed Robinetta across the Sound of Sanda to take the inside passage round the Mull. There was no wind, so no obvious overfalls, but the same swell that had made the small hours uncomfortable in the anchorage was worse out in the Sound. It was better once I got close inshore and the tide took us along at 7-8 knots for half an hour before suddenly turning off at 07:30, reducing our speed to 2.5 knots.

There were 3 other yachts rounding the Mull with us, having come from the direction of Campbeltown, and the closest unfurled its jib, which filled. Julian was awake by this point, and as soon as we got the wind as well he got the main sail up. This made the wind vanish, but 20 minutes later it was back and we had a fast sail towards Machrahanich Bay, touching 7 knots at times.

The same wind took us half way along Machrahanish Bay at 3-4 knots even though there hardly seemed to be enough of it. The sea was flat, we could see a little blue above, and we had a perfect gentle sail until the wind died completely at 10:40. Then it was engine on for the slog up to Gigha. We have done this journey 3 times now, and the trip from Machrahanish to Gigha always feels longer than it should be.

We were on a mooring bouy at Gigha by ten to two, in time for a late lunch in the cockpit, then I had a doze in the cabin before we went ashore to shop and see if we could make a walk in booking for dinner at the Boat House. They promised to squeeze us in at 7, so that was dinner sorted.

A long first day

We set no alarm for Saturday morning, even though we knew we wanted to get away early. We were woken as expected by light in the cabin and around 5.30 I suggested Julian put the kettle on. We were soon up and moving, but there were covers to remove and rigging to check so the engine did not go on until 06:40. There was a good NE sailing breeze that we knew would not last the whole day, so we wasted no time getting the sails up and by 07:06 the engine was off and we were sailing on full main and no 1 jib on a very broad reach out of the Gairloch and across the Clyde towards Gourock. We had to gybe in order to clear the west end of the town, and headed towards Dunoon for a while while we could gybe back onto course for the south end of Bute.

By 09:15 we were approaching Skellmorlie at nearly 5 knots running before the wind with the preventer rigged. The sea state was definitely “slight” but the sea was beginning to roll under us which was fine when the wind was steady, but every now and then there would be a lull and the course became more difficult to hold. We were expecting to go west of Great Cumbrae, but it was impossible to hold that course, so we decided to go east of the island. The sea state eased as we did that, but the wind followed us round, and after 10 minutes we decided to gybe and return to our original plan.

We crossed the Clyde, heading towards Bute. We were now heading across the waves which had build up as the fetch increased, but a very broad reach took us into the entrance to Kilchattan Bay, so we gybed back onto our course towards the south end of Arran.

By 12 noon the wind was failing, but we were still making nearly 3 knots. Then Julian’s hat went into the sea. This might have been it getting caught by the lazy backstay, but we do not know for certain.

Julian is very fond of his sun hat, and was not prepared to loose it, so I put the engine on and headed back towards it. We must have circled it 4 times before I managed to get Robinetta close enough for Julian to grab the hat with the boat hook. At one point he decided he needed to get into Worm and row for it, but luckily I reached it before then.

When we turned back onto course we discovered that the wind had died and we needed to keep the engine on. The rest of the afternoon saw us alternating between sailing and motor sailing but by 17:00 the wind was too light to use, and we dropped the main.

Dinner was a tin of chilli beans on orzo pasta. Suprisingly tasty when we added a couple of rahcers of chopped and fried bacon and just what we wanted.

We reached the anchorage at Sanda just after 21;00, helped for the last couple of miles by a knot of tide. The approach was full of tidal rips, but no overfalls and once inside the anchorage the sea was calm and flat.

There were already 3 boats at anchor there, but plenty of space for us. We dropped the hook in just under 4m, and after checking it has set turned the engine off at 21:18.

We knew that the wind was expected to increase in the small hours, along with a chance of thundery showers, so Julian lowered the jib and tidied up the stay sail with its cover. When putting out the chain he had asked if 14m was fine, and I had agreed, even though I had already decided we should have 20m. When the wind kicked up at 1 a.m I remembered this and could not get to sleep until I let out more chain…. This was after I had already spent time after getting ready for bed in order to tie up to tie Worm so she would not bump Robinetta. Then the wind woke me at 1, the rain woke me at 2, and swell began to roll us at 4. Not a peaceful night’s sleep!

60nm in 15½ hours.

Ready for the off

 Today saw the last of the painting as the cockpit got a coat of fast drying masonry paint to smarten her up a bit. We will spend the night aboard, then set off early tomorrow, heading for Oban. Our current plan is to head down the Clyde and round the Mull of Kintyre as there is a lovely sailing breeze in the forecast.

There is still plenty of work I could do to get the cabin watertight, as the splines in the cabin sides have come loose and filling the gaps with linseed putty can only do so much, but I want to go sailing!

Afloat for fitting out

The mast went in on Wednesday evening, and we discovered once again that we are hopeless at dressing it. I will have to go up the mast again to sort things out, as even a bit we got right (the throat halyard) disappeared up the mast when we tried to shackle it to the gaff...

We launched at 10:30 on Thursday. Julian took the helm for the short motor across the Gairloch to Rhu Marina before heading back home on the bus while I stayed behind to start the process of filling the water tanks, Julian phoned that afternoon to let me know that the new rope and blocks we needed for our spare halyard had finally arrived. Not the suppliers fault, but the post office's. Hopefully I can fit those while I am up the mast retreaving the throat halyard and making sure the lazy jacks run properly.

Out of the shed at last

 Robinetta left the shed looking all shiny at 16:30 yesterday. The mast should go in today, and she will then be launched on Thursday morning but we are keeping our fingers crossed!

New plank

 

The new plank to replace the rotten wood is finally in place. Modern pitch pine sourced ultra-locally.

More rot than we realised

 Robinetta will be going sailing this year, but not as early in the season as we hoped. It is going to take us a little while to replace this plank!

Luckily it is above the water line, but over 7' of planking was found to be so rotten that it crumbled away once the paint holding it together was removed.

We are going to stay in the shed for an extra month, which will take us to the end of April. Hopefully by that time it will be warm enough for us to do the varnishing needed on the mast.

Preparing for the new season

Having Robinetta in the shed so close to home should have meant we were working on her steadily, but in reality that did not happen. I wanted to give the hull a chance to dry out thoroughly, and in the winter temperatures that took a long time. Then there was no point starting until it was warm enough to paint. Now that it is beginning to look like spring is on the way it is time to get to work.

Julian, Alex, and I all went along this morning. Alex worked on the hull above the water line, removing loose paint, and unfortunately discovered a little soft damp wood  just below the rubbing strake. Hopefully with the paint off that will dry out and a little hardener will be enough to restore it.

Meanwhile Julian got on with removing the decayed wood we discovered in the bulwalk last summer. Not a huge job, and he has already replaced this length once. This time we will use better quality timber!

Alex helped me get the anchor chain out of the locker, something I had been meaning to do for a while but needed help with. I also brought the kedge anchor into the light of day. It is not rusted solid, but could do with some TLC, and the short length of chain before the rope rode should probably be replaced. The same is probably true of all the galvanised shackles. We have not been greasing them the way we should to stop them rusting, and many of the pins are worn.

I decided that all the varnish needs stripping off and replacing. I might go all Deks for the bright work, but that will partly depend how much of the old varnish refuses to come off. The heat gun might be seeing some use!