A lovely afternoon

Davar island 

We left Campbeltown Marina at 15:00 in bright sunshine with a slight breeze. Raising sail in the flat calm of Campbeltown Loch seemed ideal. Unfortunately by the time we had rounded Davar Island and were heading for Sanda the wind had died to nothing, and we were motoring in an oily calm. We lowered the main sail to decrease its UV damage, and covered ourselves in suncream to reduce ours. It was so hot that we both stripped down to shorts. Its not often I sunbathe topless!

2 yachts came past us, heading for Campbeltown. The second had a pod of dolphins playing around it, and as we passed each other the dolphins decided to change their playground. At one point we had 6 adult bottlenosed dolphins under our bowsprit! Then the Kintyre Flyer express came past heading back to Campbeltown, and Robinetta was abandoned for the speedier boat (which slowed down when the dolphins were spotted).

Dolphins on the bow

Julian laid out 20m of chain as we approached Sanda. We would be there an hour before high water, with an expected tidal range of 2m, so we were looking to anchor with 3-4m beneath the keel and an easy haul up in the morning.

There were two yachts already at anchor, leaving plenty of room, and we soon found a spot in our desired depth.

By 19:15 we were securely anchored, and I put on a risotto pack to cook. This requested a glass of white wine in the cooking liquid, but the only white wine on board was a bottle of Cava… This went down beautifully to celebrate the resolution of our battery charging problem. We had a lovely relaxed evening in a warm, sunny, and beautiful spot.