Nearly Home

I was really happy that we had gotten as far as Tarbert yesterday.

I thought that if we got an early start we could get all the way home today. It's about 40 nm, which is close to 12 hours at our normal planning speed.

In the event, we didn't wake up early. And then I heard Brian chatting on the pontoon and put some trousers on to say hello. Brian was having to change his plans because of things happening at home. He's going to leave Sender 2 in Scotland for the winter.

So we ended up having breakfast with him and suggest places in the Clyde to leave the boat.

It was 10:20 before we got away. The forecast was for light winds with gusts, all southerly. We put the big jib on and once out of the harbour, shook the reefs out and raised full sail.

Just outside the bay there was a spectacular sight of gannets diving.

The track from Tarbert into the Kyles of Bute is mostly east and a bit south so I had hopes we could reach that bit.

Not only could we reach, but the wind was perfect for our big sails. We were doing 5 1/2 knots over the ground at times. I think we might have touched 6. Even with our late start we might be at the Rhu narrows at 16:30!

The sea state was lovely too, with just enough bounce to make it fun and nothing to slow us down. The waves were coming from the south west, so the fetch was only from Kintyre.

Photo by Steve Cochrane 

Other yachts were enjoying it too. One came out of Portavadie and another from the Kyles and passed us, and each other just of Ardlamont.

Having a boat just in front when rounding into the West Kyle made it really easy to see when the gybe would be.

There was a second shoal of fish just off Bute and the gannets were there in force again.

Coming up the West Kyle we were very close to a run and set the preventer. The sea was completely flat here and we were still making great time.

We got to the Burnt Isles and sailed straight through the north channel. The channel markers are named after the islands, west buidhe and east buidhe on the north by Eilean Buidhe (the yellow isle), Fraoich and Mor on the south, by Eilean Fraoich (heather isle) and Eilean Mòr (big island).

Then the wind went flaky.

All the way down the East Kyle it came and went. We used the engine in the deepest lulls, although we made it past the Rhubodach-Colintraive ferry under sail. Rhubodach-Colintraive is the headland of the old man. Colintraive comes from Caol an t-Snàimh, the Kyle you can swim across.

We had the engine on all the time from half way down the East Kyle to Toward Point.

Then the wind came in strongly again and it was time to sail. Getting round the point was a bit stressful and we got some ferry wash from the Wemyss Bay to Rothesay ferry.

But running or very broad reaching again. The wind was strong for a while and we reefed but had to shake it out again. We were using Cloch Lighthouse as an aiming point, but a big cargo vessel came out of the inner Clyde and we were right in the channel so we came over to the Renfrewshire side. In the event, the ship seemed to go outside the channel to the west and we need not have worried.

Looking at the chart, I think we must have mistook the Cowal Safe-water mark for the Gantocks beacon. From a distance, the SWM looked red, not red and white. It splits the ship channel in two, so the ship was in the perfect place and we would have been out of its way anyway.

The wind went too light to sail soon after and we motored for a bit, but were able to turn the engine off again before we got to the path of the Western Ferries. Unusually, all the ferries were docked as we passed.

We saw both the Gourock Dunoon and Gourock Kilcreggan ferries as we turned the corner.

There was a huge Cruise ship just leaving Greenock. Alison read off that it was the Nieuw Statendam. It can carry 2,692 passengers.

A small warship came out of the Gare Loch and did some manoeuvres south of Helensburgh before heading out of the river. We heard someone on a loudspeaker giving orders but couldn't hear what was said.

We had made the decision to go into Rhu Marina. Then we could get a bus home to fetch the car. There is a lot on the boat we won't need again this year and it's much easier to unload from a pontoon than bring things ashore in the dinghy from the mooring.

We got the mainsail down near the number 4 red. A bit too near! I thought we had just agreed to wait until we were passed the Caravan Park.

But it was really calm and it wasn't hard to avoid the buoy and turn away from the point before it got too shallow.

Alison had called the marina and we'd been told to go anywhere on J pontoon. We set ropes and fenders for port side to. Luckily, the first slot was available and we came in and moored easily.

It was about 8 pm. Earlier than I had feared, given our late start, and the most hours of sailing we have had in a day all year!

I cooked our standby dish of pasta and chorizo and got some prep in for my Gaelic class tomorrow and we turned in.