Fishing, weed, and more Worm

After visiting the harbour master, the showers, and the co-op we turned the engine on and launched Worm from her upside down position on the pontoon. We could feel the effect of the tide as we motored out of Loch Alsh and under the Skye bridge at 09:10: 1 knot against us, and a lot of swirls in the water that made keeping Robinetta straight a challenge.

Once clear of the bridge we set “George” to work. Visibility was so poor that we could not see Skye, or the Crowlins, and George could steer straighter than any human in the flat seas. We were afraid that we would be motoring all the way to the Gairloch. There was a lot of weed floating in the water, and crab pots to dodge, but with George working this was a one person job. Letting the other stay below in the dry.

The drizzle was persistent until the cloud lifted a little just off the Crowlins. There were seals about, and Julian started thinking about trailing the mackerel line later. I thought that this would be a good spot to try, so we cut the engine revs until we were going at 2 knots. Our first haul of the line had one mackerel on it, that escaped the hook before we could bring it on board, but we managed to get another on our second try. There were dolphins about, more interested in hunting than in us, so we were not sure if we should try the line again, but they seemed to loose interest so Julian let it out again. This time we caught 3, and decided that would be enough for us.

About half an hour after throttling up the engine missed a beat, and I immediately came back to neutral. It kept going so I throttled back up again, but the engine would not come up to full revs. Going into reverse worked as expected, but in forward gear the engine was struggling. We seemed to have something round the prop.

Reversing did not clear it, and we could see weed trailing from the depth sounder. We can not reach the prop with the boat hook from on board, so we turned the engine off, leaving George to keep us heading as straight as possible on staysail and mainsail. We pulled Worm alongside, and I got in, noticing that there was more water in her than the drizzle could explain.

I unhooked the weed from the depth sounder, and also knocked off a big chunk of barnacles. Poking around this the long boat hook freed up the weed from the prop, and when I was certain I could not feel anything else to pull free I decided the job was done. I had had to sit in the bottom of Worm to reach low enough to reach the prop, so my sailing trousers were sodden, as were the jeans they were supposed to protect.

The water in Worm worried me, and I decided to bail her, and suggested getting the towing pump set up. Julian agreed, and while he was getting that out I bailed. Quite soon I noticed that there was water flowing in, though a gash in the plywood. When Worm was dry this gash was above her unladen waterline, but as soon as anything made her sit lower she would let in water. The mystery of why she almost swamped on the way to the Sound of Sleat was explained.

There was nothing we could do about the problem until we reached port, so we rigged the towing compression pump, making sure it would work properly. I came back on board, and we realised that George had been doing a good job of keeping Robinetta safe. There was even enough wind to sail slowly, so once we checked that I had indeed cleared the prop we set the sails properly for a run, and once I had got dry I took the helm while Julian cleaned two of the mackerel and cooked them for lunch.

After a slow, but quiet hour the wind had died and we decided we should get going again under motor. We set George to work again, but he kept jumping off the tiller, and we realised that the sea state had increased. That is what happens when sea state comes up gradually. People do not notice, but machines do. It also started to rain hard, and persistently.

By 15:33 the wind had risen enough to sail, this time coming from the North West and we turned the engine off, then in another 45 minutes we needed to reef. An hour later the reef came out, and the engine went on. And it was still raining.

We did get another hour’s sailing, in the rain, as we came round the headland and into the Gairloch, but we were both cold and wet, and glad to get the sails down and head for the Flowerdale pontoon. There were two yachts already in, so we moored up on the larger one, and got Worm onto the pontoon. The compression pump had been working, but there was still about 4 inches of water in her.

We tried hooking up the electric, but the nearest outlet needed a card to access it, and our cable would not reach the one designated for visitors. No electric heater to dry out the cabin! We retreated into Robinetta, and got out our Dometic Spirit heater. We have to keep a through draft going for this to burn safely, but it did warm up the cabin and dry it and us off, so we were glad of it.

No pictures were taken today, not even of the dolpins off the Crowlins.