Muck. Eigg, and Worm

 After rigging an LED lantern just above the boom as a riding light I set an anchor watch alarm on out chart plotter before heading to bed. That way I would be woken if we moved more than 30m. Given we had laid out 25m of chain we would have to be dragging! Having the chart plotter on overnight also meant I could see exactly where we were if I woke in the night.

The wind came up as expected, and Robinetta rolled a little, but we had chosen out anchorage carefully and she did not shift except to face into the wind. It was not an especially restful night; I wake frequently when at anchor, just like when I had babies to check on, even though I can normally sleep through anything! I woke fully at 06:30, our normal getting up time at home, and put the kettle on for tea.

Rhum from Gallanach

By 08:10 we were ready to warm up the engine. The wind was still blowing quite hard and I had to motor up to the anchor to help Julian break it out. The sun was shining and the decks were dry, which was nice.

South West pointof Eig

Julian had gone onto the foredeck at first to bend on the no 2 jib, but started hauling up the anchor as soon as the sail was hauled out on the bowsprit. That meant he still had a lot of foredeck work to do as I motored carefully out of the anchorage, following our inbound track.

We had decided to head up the west side of Eigg and the conditions as we headed for its shelter reinforced that. Holding Robinetta's head into the wind to raise sail was not easy and as soon as I tried to sail off with two rolls of reef in the main I wanted all the reef I could get.

We reached across the sound of Muck towards the shelter of the Sound of Rhum making 4 knots with the waves just abaft the beam. There are worse places to have them and only occasional splashes came over the bulwarks. I had to keep letting the main out to counter the weather helm. In other words I had the sails set wrong for the heading.

A trip boat out of Oban motoring towards Rhum

As we came closer to Eigg the swell decreased and I had an absolutely lovely 10 minutes on the helm. Julian went below to put the kettle on just as the hills and valleys of Eigg began to affect the wind. Gusts and calms abounded, but we managed to sail almost all the way up the west side if the island.

At this point the wind died. I thought it would come back as we cleared the north end of Eigg. but it was really gone, and we were under motor all the way to the Sound of Sleat. Julian suggested we try out the new tiller pilot mount, and we set "George" to work. He was on the helm most of the rest of the day.

When we left the anchorage I had noticed more water in Worm than I expected, but did not think much about it. By the time we were closing on the Skye coast she was floating much lower in the water than normal, with the bow pulled up much higher than normal. I remembered the water I had seen, and thought it might be a good idea to rig our dinghy pump, so I got Julian to pull her forward.

We realised she was practically awash, and taking on more water with every wave from astern. Julian put the engine in neutral, so we were only moving on reefed mainsail and staysail. We got Worm up alongside Robinetta and Julian held her bow down while I did some frantic bailing with a bucket. "George" ignored all the fuss, and kept Robinetta on course.

Ten minutes later Worm was dry enough to return to her normal buoyant self. It was a salutatory lesson that even Worm will not always stay dry. Once she takes any water more is likely to follow. It would be another day before we discovered what had caused the problem in the first place.