Homeward bound

 After a shore day visiting relatives by train from Ardrossan we were ready to head home. The forecast was for a good sailing wind and a mostly dry day, but first we had to get showers and shop for lunch. On the way back to Robinetta we had a quick look round the marina, and found two yachts to drop OGA leaflets on. One, Grey Seal, was already on the register but without a photo, so Julian took care of that.

Next was filling up with diesel, and we motored over to the fuel dock. There was an interesting yacht moored up there; the Fairy Atalanta was designed by Uffa Fox, and heavily influenced by the lifeboats he built in WW2. This one had been rescued after 20 years ashore in Ullapool, and just had a reconditioned 1GM10 fitted. This had overheated on leaving harbour, so the owner had sensibly returned back to Ardrossan where she had been launched the day before.  After an exchange of information about what could go wrong with a 1GM10 we were ready to head out of harbour ourselves, but were warned. "It's a bit rough out there."

They were not wrong. Robinetta pitched and rolled violently in the entrance channel, and we could not go head to wind to get the main up to steady her as there was a ferry coming towards us and a reef blocking the way we wanted to go. We passed port to port with the Isle of Arran with plenty of searoom, but it seemed to take a long time to get clear of the reef.

Julian had put the no1 jib on before we left harbour at 11:50. This now seemed too large, but there was no way either of us wanted to go to the foredeck to change it! We got the main sail up, reefed down to the second cringle, and that balanced well with the staysail. As soon as we turned on to our course to pass between Little Cumbrae and the Ayrshire coast everything seemed to calm down as the seas rolled under us, and we stopped the engine at 12:19 and began to enjoy the day.

We always have the radio tuned to channel 16, and heard ferry Isle of Arran calling up the coastguard. One of the passengers had seen an empty kayak and reported it to the crew. A tense few minutes followed as the ferry turned round to retrace its route, then found and recovered the kayak. So far as anyone could tell it had been lost from the shore, and there had been no one on board at any time. The lifeboat was stood down, and the ferry went back on its route, at least half an hour late, having done exactly the right thing. This is a sort of drama that does not get widely reported but was interesting to hear.

An hour later we were almost becalmed in the lee of the Cumbrae islands. The sea was flat, and the wind very light. Julian is still not very well, and spent all his off watch time asleep, sometimes dozing off in the cockpit. I let him sleep for 15 minutes as we drifted before waking him by putting the engine on. Half an hour of motoring brought Robinetta half way up the east coast of Great Cumbrae, where we found the wind again. We should really have shaken the reefs out at that point, but somehow she seemed balanced even with the no 1jib, and the helming was easy so they stayed in until 16:15 when Julian took the helm. We let half of the reef out then, then all of it half an hour later, to head up the Clyde in fine style on a very broad reach.

The wind stayed helpful all the way to the Rhu Narrows, then died. With the tide under us we were able to put off turning the engine on even as we prepared to get the main sail down. This did not want to come as the gaff saddle was caught around one of the topping lifts, but eventually we got it stowed, and picked up the mooring at 20:35.

It had felt like a long day on the water but we were only under way for just over 8 hours. Most of that was sailing, under a variety of conditions. A full on day with plenty of interest!

Tidying up Robinetta after a fortnight away took a little while, but we were back ashore by 22:00. We will he heading off again in two weeks, for a three week trip north to Ullapool. Here's hoping for some gentle winds!