Careful weather watching told us not to leave the Kyle of Tongue until Friday lunchtime, but by 11:00 we were already to go, so I began hauling up the anchor. This was my first go since breaking my arm, which still has muscle aches when in use. I need to start using it so I do not loose two much muscle mass, so I hauled in about half of the 25m of chain we had out, then handed over to Julian to finish the job.
Once we were clear of the harbour, in flat seas, Julian went forward to rearrange the blocks on the forward horse to stop the roller reefing line catching on the shackles of other lines on the horse. By the time he got everything arranged to both our satisfactions we were out of the shelter of the Rabbit Islands, and rolling slightly in the swell. We were also sailing, for a lovely half hour before the wind died.
After that we were motor sailing in ever increasing swell as we headed straight for Cape Wrath. The swell was not a problem, steady with a long wavelength, although this got shorter as we closed with the Cape.
Once round the Cape, at 17:03 we at first thought the swell was no worse than the other side, but within half an hour we had to drop main sail and lash it down. Our direction of travel was now across the swell and we were rolling horribly.
We decided to head inside Am Balg to get its protection from the swell, and as we approached we could see hundreds of seabirds diving. This is normally our signal to drop our speed, and get out the fishing line. After a little hesitation we did the same this time, and drifted slowly into the shelter of Am Balg.
When Julian hauled in the line we had a fine mackerel on the hook; big enough for the two of us for breakfast.
With the engine back on high revs we carried on towards Kinlochbervie, and were soon rolling uncomfortably in the swell again. It was only after we turned towards Loch Inchard and the swell came behind us that we becan to enjoy ourselves again.
There were only two yachts on the visitor pontoon when we got into the harbour, and there was plenty of room behind them for Robinetta. We moored up, tying Worm to the end of the pontoon behind us, and turned the engine off at 21:11. Julian cleaned the mackerel while I took our accumulated rubbish to the bins. It was good to get ashore again, so we had a walk to check out the shop opening time for the morning, before heading back to Robinetta to sleep.
A ten hour passage, of 39nm is good going for us. We had the tide with us the whole way along the north coast, and less about half a knot against once we passed Cape Wrath I think our tidal planning went well this time
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