Meeting friends at Puilladobhrain

Leaving Tinkers Hole required us to untie Robinetta from the ring before hauling up the anchor. The problem was that we were near low water, so there was a bit of a scramble up to reach the ring. Julian got into Worm and pulled himself along the mooring rope rather than rowing, then when he reached the shore had to work out which was the best way to reach the ring once he landed. He tied Worm on to his life jacket so he had his hands free, and did his first bit of real rock climbing since his teens. Luckily he remembered his training and made his climb without incident.

Julian had hoped to use the rope to pull himself back to Robinetta, but it was too heavy to carry while climbing down so he dropped it to let me pull it back on board. Then I went forward to pull up about twenty metres of chain that we had let out last night so our rope would reach to the rocks.

Once Julian was safely back on board and Worm was tied astern we put the engine on, and I went forward to pull up the rest of the chain. It came up clean, but with a lump of kelp on it that made hauling up the last few feet a bit heavy.

We motored out of the shelter of the passage into Tinker’s Hole and found a nice sailing breeze. Despite the fact we were not in clear water Julian wanted to raise the main, and after a little reluctance on my part he got his way. We sailed out of the Eriad Channel with a two reefed main and staysail only, but within half an hour we had shaken out the reef and unfurled the jib.

The tide seemed stronger against us than expected and the wind had dropped, so we were unable to make much progress. The engine went on at 10, and stayed on until 11:35 when the sight of a Bermudian yacht sailing made us try to do the same. We had half an hour of gentle sailing in the sunshine along the south coast of Mull, but our arrival time at Puilladobhrain was predicted to be in the small hours. We had a dinner reservation at 7pm at the pub by the Bridge over the Atlantic, so we put the engine on again, and motored for the next six hours until we dropped anchor in Puilladobhrain.

On the way in to the main pool we passed three of the OGA Round Britain fleet anchored in the entrance, Barbarrosa, Charlotte Elizabeth, and Oystercatcher of Glenarm. We were tidying up ready to go ashore when the single handed skippers of Charlotte Elizabeth and Oystercatcher appeared in a dinghy. They too had dinner reservations so we jumped into Worm and followed them to the pub for a very pleasant meal.

By the time we got back to our dinghies the tide had gone out a long way and it was a bit muddy carrying them back to the water. However it was a pleasant row back to Robinetta, and our fellow OGA members joined us for a nightcap before returning to their boats. We accidentally anchored in the perfect place to get a view of the sunset over Mull.

Heading north to Mull

 I had expected to be woken in the night as Robinetta swung on her anchor, but apart from a little swell when a coaster went past the anchorage was totally peaceful. There seemed to be a bit of a back eddy as I could not tell if she ever moved in the night.

Knowing the tide would not be in our favour until 07:30 there was no point thinking of an early start, but we were awake by seven, and ready to go by 7.45. There was some wind, and Julian wanted to raise the main at anchor, but she was lying at an angle to the wind, so I suggested having the engine on and seeing if we could sail off on the stay sail. In the event we had to motor towards the anchor to break it out, so we would not have been able to sail off anyway.

We did get the main up as soon as we were clear of the bay, and we tried sailing, but there was not enough wind to give us steerage way against the tide so the engine went on again almost immediately. It stayed on for most of the morning as we headed south of Oransay. Its fringing reefs come a long was off shore, but most of them are above the water so safe in daylight.

Once we changed course to head north the wind felt a little stronger, but it was another hour until there was enough to fill the sails. For a while we made way with engine on, engine off every ten minutes, but by13:50 we had a good sailing breeze, and we had a couple of hours sailing past the West Reef towards Bogha nan Ramfhear cardinal. By the time we rounded the cardinal the wind had gone, and we put the engine back on and headed for Tinker’s Hole.

Nearly everyone one we talked to about sailing near Mull mentions Tinkers Hole, and we had never been there, so decided it was time we visited. Finding it is easy with the chartplotter, but very difficult without. There are several inviting sandy bays between granite headlands in this South West coast of Mull and motoring past them to head into a narrow channel with high rock walls to drop anchor seems counter intuitive. However it is a popular thing to do, and there were already 4 yachts there when we arrived. All of them had dropped anchor then run a line back to the shore to stop them swinging. We intended to do the same, but the closest we had come to this before was in Padstow, where you moored the bow to a buoy before dropping back to moor stern too to a pontoon.

In Tinkers hole you drop anchor, then motor back towards the walls to tie your line. There are two rings set into the cliff at the northern end of the Hole and one of these was still free so we decided to use it. This was not as simple as it sounds. The water was so clear we could see the bottom at 5 metres. I could see some sand, but there was also a lot of weed, so I waited until I could see a patch of sand and dropped the anchor there. Paying out the chain did not take us back towards the ring, so I got in Worm with a rope, intending to row to the wall.

It has been a while since I rowed Worm by myself, and the glue joint holding one of the rowlock mounts failed as soon as I put pressure on it. Luckily the people in Aurora IV, the yacht next to us, had been keeping an eye on us and they came over in their electric outboard powered dinghy and took the rope ashore for us. Julian paid out more chain and Robinetta swung to lie the same way as Aurora. We had a little chat with them, and discovered they were anti clockwise circumnavigators out of Ipswich, which was fun.

After a pleasant drink and dinner (a dried risotto pack we had bought on Gigha) Julian and I headed out for a row in Worm, round to David Balfours Bay where we could go ashore on a beautiful sandy beach and have a walk. The scenery was lovely and the row easy, which made a great end to the day.

Gigha Towards Loch Tarbert (Jura)

 We thought we would probably go to Loch Tarbert on Jura today but we also were insisting on having a late start and not planning.

This meant that we missed the morning tide through the Sound of Islay. We weren’t sure how strong the tides are at neaps, although probably we are coming off neaps now. So we thought we would go anyway and anchor at the south end of the sound and go through on the evening tide.

We left the mooring in Gigha at 9:40 and amazingly by 10 am we were sailing. I nice little breeze was coming from the NE with enough east in it for us to manage 3-4 knots up the coast of Gigha.

It dropped off and backed as we rounded the top of Gigha but we still managed to sail, very slowly, half-way across to Jura. Then it died completely and we drifted, not being in any hurry to be anywhere else. The hazy weather we’ve been having continued but it was still beautiful with the Paps of Jura in the distance. We heard a blowhole being cleared a few times and think we saw a whale, perhaps a minke, but it was never above the water long enough to know for sure.

It got quite hot, and eventually we decided we’d be cooler moving and started the engine. There is an island on the Jura side of the sound  called Am Fraoch Eileen - the heather island. North of it is a recommended anchorage for waiting for the tide. We went into the bay to take a look but decided to see what the tide was like - perhaps it would be weak enough to get through.

For a while, it seemed like it would be a knot against us but as we got towards the north end of Glas Eileen (green isle), our progress was halted. We could do 1/2 knot across the sound but almost nothing north. We turned around and were doing 6 1/2 knots. So we think the tide was running at over 3 knots.

It was still more than 2 hours until the tide would turn in our favour so we headed back to the anchorage and dropped the hook. We thought we might stay there for the night. But around 6:30 pm it started feeling uncomfortable. We raised anchor around 7pm and headed north. By Glas Eilean we passed another yacht heading south, and we could see a line on the water where the tide actually changed. South of the moving line, there was wind over tide, whilst north of it was smooth water.

As expected, we now motored up the sound at 5-6 knots over the ground. But it was still 12 nm and getting late. And we were hungry. I looked at Whitefarland Bay. CCC says it’s poor holding but Antares says the weed is mostly outside their recommended spots. So we gave it a go.

Once anchored it felt really secure. We had out pot noodles for our fasting day dinner and settled down for a relaxing evening. It had been a very pleasant day with wonderful scenery, some wildlife and some entertainment playing with the tides.

Round the Mull of Kintyre

 In order to make the best of the tide we needed to leave Sanda by 06:00. The kettle went on at half five when the alarm went, but after the night we had had it was a real effort to get moving. We managed to motor out of the anchorage at 06:15, but by the time Julian had done all the foredeck work he looked like death warmed over, so I sent him down for some more sleep. Having only had to take care of Worm and the helming I was not nearly as tired and I helmed Robinetta across the Sound of Sanda to take the inside passage round the Mull. There was no wind, so no obvious overfalls, but the same swell that had made the small hours uncomfortable in the anchorage was worse out in the Sound. It was better once I got close inshore and the tide took us along at 7-8 knots for half an hour before suddenly turning off at 07:30, reducing our speed to 2.5 knots.

There were 3 other yachts rounding the Mull with us, having come from the direction of Campbeltown, and the closest unfurled its jib, which filled. Julian was awake by this point, and as soon as we got the wind as well he got the main sail up. This made the wind vanish, but 20 minutes later it was back and we had a fast sail towards Machrahanich Bay, touching 7 knots at times.

The same wind took us half way along Machrahanish Bay at 3-4 knots even though there hardly seemed to be enough of it. The sea was flat, we could see a little blue above, and we had a perfect gentle sail until the wind died completely at 10:40. Then it was engine on for the slog up to Gigha. We have done this journey 3 times now, and the trip from Machrahanish to Gigha always feels longer than it should be.

We were on a mooring bouy at Gigha by ten to two, in time for a late lunch in the cockpit, then I had a doze in the cabin before we went ashore to shop and see if we could make a walk in booking for dinner at the Boat House. They promised to squeeze us in at 7, so that was dinner sorted.

A long first day

We set no alarm for Saturday morning, even though we knew we wanted to get away early. We were woken as expected by light in the cabin and around 5.30 I suggested Julian put the kettle on. We were soon up and moving, but there were covers to remove and rigging to check so the engine did not go on until 06:40. There was a good NE sailing breeze that we knew would not last the whole day, so we wasted no time getting the sails up and by 07:06 the engine was off and we were sailing on full main and no 1 jib on a very broad reach out of the Gairloch and across the Clyde towards Gourock. We had to gybe in order to clear the west end of the town, and headed towards Dunoon for a while while we could gybe back onto course for the south end of Bute.

By 09:15 we were approaching Skellmorlie at nearly 5 knots running before the wind with the preventer rigged. The sea state was definitely “slight” but the sea was beginning to roll under us which was fine when the wind was steady, but every now and then there would be a lull and the course became more difficult to hold. We were expecting to go west of Great Cumbrae, but it was impossible to hold that course, so we decided to go east of the island. The sea state eased as we did that, but the wind followed us round, and after 10 minutes we decided to gybe and return to our original plan.

We crossed the Clyde, heading towards Bute. We were now heading across the waves which had build up as the fetch increased, but a very broad reach took us into the entrance to Kilchattan Bay, so we gybed back onto our course towards the south end of Arran.

By 12 noon the wind was failing, but we were still making nearly 3 knots. Then Julian’s hat went into the sea. This might have been it getting caught by the lazy backstay, but we do not know for certain.

Julian is very fond of his sun hat, and was not prepared to loose it, so I put the engine on and headed back towards it. We must have circled it 4 times before I managed to get Robinetta close enough for Julian to grab the hat with the boat hook. At one point he decided he needed to get into Worm and row for it, but luckily I reached it before then.

When we turned back onto course we discovered that the wind had died and we needed to keep the engine on. The rest of the afternoon saw us alternating between sailing and motor sailing but by 17:00 the wind was too light to use, and we dropped the main.

Dinner was a tin of chilli beans on orzo pasta. Suprisingly tasty when we added a couple of rahcers of chopped and fried bacon and just what we wanted.

We reached the anchorage at Sanda just after 21;00, helped for the last couple of miles by a knot of tide. The approach was full of tidal rips, but no overfalls and once inside the anchorage the sea was calm and flat.

There were already 3 boats at anchor there, but plenty of space for us. We dropped the hook in just under 4m, and after checking it has set turned the engine off at 21:18.

We knew that the wind was expected to increase in the small hours, along with a chance of thundery showers, so Julian lowered the jib and tidied up the stay sail with its cover. When putting out the chain he had asked if 14m was fine, and I had agreed, even though I had already decided we should have 20m. When the wind kicked up at 1 a.m I remembered this and could not get to sleep until I let out more chain…. This was after I had already spent time after getting ready for bed in order to tie up to tie Worm so she would not bump Robinetta. Then the wind woke me at 1, the rain woke me at 2, and swell began to roll us at 4. Not a peaceful night’s sleep!

60nm in 15½ hours.

Ready for the off

 Today saw the last of the painting as the cockpit got a coat of fast drying masonry paint to smarten her up a bit. We will spend the night aboard, then set off early tomorrow, heading for Oban. Our current plan is to head down the Clyde and round the Mull of Kintyre as there is a lovely sailing breeze in the forecast.

There is still plenty of work I could do to get the cabin watertight, as the splines in the cabin sides have come loose and filling the gaps with linseed putty can only do so much, but I want to go sailing!

Afloat for fitting out

The mast went in on Wednesday evening, and we discovered once again that we are hopeless at dressing it. I will have to go up the mast again to sort things out, as even a bit we got right (the throat halyard) disappeared up the mast when we tried to shackle it to the gaff...

We launched at 10:30 on Thursday. Julian took the helm for the short motor across the Gairloch to Rhu Marina before heading back home on the bus while I stayed behind to start the process of filling the water tanks, Julian phoned that afternoon to let me know that the new rope and blocks we needed for our spare halyard had finally arrived. Not the suppliers fault, but the post office's. Hopefully I can fit those while I am up the mast retreaving the throat halyard and making sure the lazy jacks run properly.