Just round the corner from Dunvegan

The weather had brightened up a bit, and the forecast winds on XCweather and Windy were not too strong, so we decided to sail round to Loch Bracadale. 30 nm on the water, but only 5 miles from Dunvegan by car. Conditions were perfect for raising sail on the mooring, which we did, but we also wanted to charge my laptop and Julian’s phone, so we put the engine on anyway.

As we came off the mooring at 10:25 there was a bit of a miscommunication. I saw the pickup buoy running down Robinetta’s port side, with no sign of the mooring buoy itself. Knowing that meant we were about to run over the mooring line I turned the engine revs to neutral. We sailed handily over the line, and Worm did not hit the mooring buoy either (although it was a close thing).

Julian set the jib, and we sailed past Dunvegan pier, and all the way out past the castle and round the dogleg into the main Loch.

Dunvegan Head

We had a lovely sail towards Dunvegan Head, although the wind was getting stronger, and we had to reef down twice. By 11:40 we were reefed all the way down, but the sea was still flat and the sun was shining. We expected that the wind would strengthen once we were out ot the shelter of the headland, but instead it went lighter, and we ended up shaking out most of the reef. The waves did get bigger though, and with the lighter winds we could not power through them, so the engine went back on at 13:30.

The wind did come back up, but the sea state got steadily higher. Poor Robinetta was battering into the waves by the time we were approaching Niest Point, and we reefed down again as she was burying her bowsprit on a regular basis.

Neist Point

The next couple of hours were no fun. We were making good progress, at 5 knots on reefed main, staysail, and engine, but the seas were horrible. We had no choice but to press on; our nearest shelter was our destination, but helming was very tiring. Julian went below and brought up the life jackets. Wearing them was common sense at this point. Our ensign vanished from its housing on the rudder, but we don’t know when. Meanwhile Worm followed along faithfully. I had bailed her dry from the rain before leaving Dunvegan, and she skipped and bounced across the waves without taking any water.

By 15:45 we were able to see An Dubh Sgeir at the entrance to Loch Bracadale, but turning towards it too soon would have put the waves directly on our beam and rolled Robinetta even more. We held our course for another 15 minutes, until the waves would have been more on our stern. That would also have put us at risk of a gybe, so we decided to get the main down before heading into the Loch.

MacCloud's Daughters

We had not picked an anchorage in Loch Bracadale, preferring to check the wind direction once we were actually there. Even with the waves theoretically from astern there were still some coming in at a different angle; A wave suddenly dumped itself into the cockpit without warning, and I immediately went below to manually start the bilge pump. Water might be swirling in the cockpit, but it would soon find its way down into the bilges. Luckily this happened only once.

Oronsay

We turned towards Loch Bracadale once we had passed Idrigill Point, and headed for the north end of Wlay. We wanted to check out the north anchorage of Oronsay, and this felt like the best route to it. We also hoped Wlay would give us shelter from the waves. It did, which was lovely for a few minutes, but the Oronsay anchorage did not feel very sheltered, so we decided to head up Loch Harport instead. This is the only place that offered shelter in all wind directions.

Going back out into the waves to round Oronsay was a reminder of how horrible most of the afternoon had been.

As we made for Ardreck Point a large American flagged yacht appeared behind us, sailing with reefed main and genoa. They soon overtook us, and headed round the point. We followed them for a little, but Julian could see gannets diving, and decided that five minutes spent fishing would be a welcome change. I did not argue. The waves were finally slight enough to be ignored, and with the engine in neutral we were sailing along on the staysail at a perfect fishing speed.

Ardreck Point

I had put the kettle to boil as we approached Ardreck Point, but it had not boiled by the time Julian hauled in the line again with 6 lovely mackerel on it. That was dinner sorted..The kettle whistled as Julian manoeuvred the last fish into the bucket, and I went below to wet the tea. Our first hot drink since 11;30 this morning.

The motor up Loch Harport with no waves and the wind almost on the nose gave us both a chance to unwind, and we picked up a mooring buoy off the Talisker distillery at 19:35. It had been a long and tiring day, and we were glad we did not need to anchor. The bright sun as we came into Loch Bracadale had not lasted, and it was beginning to drizzle, so once Robinetta and Worm were safely put to bed we headed below for a feast of mackerel.

At the start of the day I stated what XCweather and Windy forecast, but did not mention the Inshore Water's forecast. Today's included a force 4-6 in the Minch. We ignored it, in the belief that the strong winds would not reach our intended stretch of water. Despite having to reef all the way down at a couple of points I do not think we ever had anything above force5. What we did get was the wave heights raised by a force6. We will not go out again in this stretch of water with that forecast.