Taking it easy

The anchorage at Wreck Bay gave us a lovely peaceful night, but by the time we woke up the clear skies of yesterday had been replaced by thick cloud. Porridge made the appropriate breakfast, but we did not linger. The forecast was for rain and strong winds, first force 5-6 South or South East, then cyclonic but going North West 4-5 later. That would mean beating down the West Kyle against the wind, then turning north into Loch Fyne and hoping to reach Tarbert before the wind changed. The sooner we left, the dryer we would stay!

We got the engine on at 08:00, and I went forward to start hauling up the anchor. Julian then took over, and between us we got up the 30m of chain in 10 minutes. Hauling up chain is good exercise! 

There was no obvious wind on the water as we motored out of the bay, but we could see it in the burgee, and as soon as we had space to turn head to wind Julian got the main sail up. Given the forecast we left yesterday's reef in place. The wind was flaky as it made its way over and through the hills of Bute, at times so strong the reef was essential, but mostly light we were only making 3 knots. Passing Port Driseach at the north end of Tighnabruaich in flat water there was enough wind to turn the engine off, but we could see white horses on the waves when looking ahead past the south end of Black Farland Bay. 

Once we passed Rubha Dubh those waves began to cause us problems. The fetch of the waves kept them small, but they were closely spaced, and each one slammed into Robinetta's bow. These were the type of waves we have labelled "Robinetta Stoppers" and we were barely making 2 knots. The gusts meant we could not shake out the reef, and the thought of 2 hours of this to cover the 4 miles to Ardlamont Point made Julian and I look at each other. We knew it was due to rain heavily, within the hour. 

looking towards Loch Riddon

We agreed instantly to give up on Tarbert, and turned round to sail back up the West Kyle. 

By 10:00 we were back where we had started that morning. Our new destination was Rothesay, and as we turned into the narrow channel between the Burnt Islands the wind came onto the node and we had to put the engine on. It also began to rain. However the flat sea state in the East Kyle gave us no problems.

We could see a mass of sails in the distance as the racing fleet of the Clyde Cruising Club made its way towards us. We had hoped to meet them in Tarbert, but instead we closed with the Colintraive shore to keep out of their way. It did give us a chance to admire them, but having to constantly wipe rain off the camera lens did not make for great photography although I took a lot of pictures.

CCC racing fleet in the East Kyle

Going to Rothesay rather than battling to reach Tarbert was a great decision. We were moored up in the Outer Harbour by noon and went ashore for lunch, then had a good look at the excellent little Rothesay museum before returning to Robinetta to sit out the heaviest rain of the day. By the time it stopped the floorboards in Worm were afloat.

Dinner, then live music in a pub rounded off a different day to the one we had planned, but we had a good time.