Flowerdale

 We had two options:

• fix Worm and head to Ullapool
• fix Worm and have a day ashore
  

The day was set to be grey and perhaps wet but with favourable winds. A late departure would not be bad for the tides. So my head was for the first option. But neither of us were especially keen.

But first I needed to do something about Worm. She was taking on water through a gash in the garboard strake. This had almost certainly happened in the Crinan Canal. I put a new blade on the junior hacksaw and cut a pied of 8 mm ply to fit and glued it on the inside using Gorilla Glue. The instructions said to apply pressure for two hours. The only way to apply pressure was with weights but we needed to get the plank level. Propping it up against the electrical pillar with a bucket under the quarter just about worked. I put the anvil and the 5 l diesel can on top of the patch and hoped no-one would knock it off.

It all seemed to work. Once the initial 2 hour cure was over, I turned Worm over and filled the outside of the gash with putty. I didn't know if that would stay in place in the water but it wouldn't do any harm.

Then I filleted the remaining mackerel and we had those for lunch. A young herring gull could obviously smell the remains in the cockpit where I'd done the fillteting.

 

After lunch we went for a walk. The weather was better than expected and stayed dry.