Dorus Mor and the Sound of Luing

 It was not raining this morning, so Julian got the drill out and fitted the tiller pilot mount. He also rigged a line along the reefed boom as a trial, not because he expected us to be using it today!

The lock keeper came along and asked for our plans, and we said we intended to lock out today and head for Oban. We through we should leave about noon to have the tide with us through the Dorus Mor, but another yacht was also heading out in that direction, and they had asked for an 11:00 lock out. We were happy to join them; Morning Star is a big charter yacht with a professional skipper so we both trusted his timing through the lock. We were released together into the sea at 11:20. The sea state was noticeable but would normally be described as slight, but the wind was strong enough that we only wanted the staysail up until we were through the Dorus Mor. It was pretty much slack water between the islands and I did not even notice swirls on the water. A pussy cat of a passage!

Once clear of the Dorus Mor we got the mainsail up, reefed as small as it would go. However even with this little sail I could not hold Robinetta on course and after 20 minutes trying we dropped the main sail and went back to engine and staysail. While doing this the port topping lift failed. Luckily the starboard one held and we were able to safely stow the main sail. The just rigged "preventor" line came in handy for keeping the boom centered, and I was very glad Julian had thought of it.

Julian had plotted us a course through Cuan Sound, as it would offer us maximum protection from the swell. This meant heading up the East side of Luing then doing a lot of heading changes past Torsa. With the wind as it was and the strengthening tide I suggested changing to the simpler passage up the Sound of Luing. We would get similar protection from the waves and have much more sea room if anything went wrong with the engine. Julian agreed and we had a pleasant trip up the sound with the tide.

Coming out past Fladda was an experience. Suddenly we had the full Atlantic swell with a force 5 westerly wind driving it. Robinetta did not enjoy having this on her beam (neither did her crew) as we headed east to clear the Bogha Ghair shoal, but we coped and Robinetta was a whole lot more stable once we could head more into the waves. We only needed to do this for long enough to be able to put the waves on Robinetta's stern and head straight between Inch and Siel, aiming for Kerrera Sound.

Once past Inch the sea state was less extreme, with a longer pitch, and the wind was right behind us. This was not a good place to try raising the mainsail, but we unfurled the jib and goose winged it with the stay sail. The set up proved stable, so we turned the engine off and ran towards Kerrera Sound doing 4.5 to 5 knots over the ground.

Once we entered the Sound the jib became unstable, so we furled it, but were still making over 3 knots on the tide and staysail all the way to Oban's transit marina on the North Pier pontoons. We had thought about taking one of the community moorings, but they did not look especially calm as we went through them.

We took the first berth we came to, right next to Morning Star, whose skipper came and helped us moor up. They had passed us in Kerrera Sound, having stopped for lunch at Easdale. Morning Star is twice Robinetta's length, but her skipper still described the swell conditions leaving Easdale sound as "interesting".

The six hour trip from Crinan had shown us very varied in sea state, but the wind was a pretty constant top end 5-6. This is right at the top end of what is safe for Robinetta, especially since we are heading north for overdue repairs.

We finished the day with fish and chips, then a tourist ceilidh at The View on Oban high street, which was fun.