Making progress, Lochinver to Kinlochbervie

 Our aim today was to reach Kinlochbervie, 25 nm away. We had thought about being very leisurely as we had been last time we were in the area, but the weather made us feel we should get a bit further. We put the engine on at 08:35, and by 09:05 we were clear of the harbour area, and sailing on full main and no1 jib. We were close hauled, but only needed a single tack to clear the islands and headland before letting off the main a little and reaching along the coast in a straight line for the Point of Stoer at 4 -4.5 knots. It was a lovely sail, with the swell not too big, and the sun bright enough for me to need my sunglasses.

We knew it would not last. The current S or SW2-4 wind was due to go NE3-5 in the evening, so sometime around lunch time we would loose the lovely wind. And so it proved; we had to come onto a near run to clear the point of Stoer and once we gybed to get closer to the land again we were not making very good progress, so after a couple of gybes we centred the main and put the engine on at 13:10.

Meanwhile we had other problems. Almost as soon as we gybed round Robinetta began to pump. Lovely clear water, which means it was new into the bilges. 45 minutes later she did it again. Julian went below to see if he could find the source of the ingress, and traced it to a number of seeps around the mast foot. This is good news in a way. She is probably just taking up, and with full sail she often pumped every hour in previous seasons. We had hoped the new floor bolts would have fixed the problem, but apparently not.

The bad news was that to find this out Julian had taken up some of the lead. There are 5 big ingots closly packed and obviously cast to fit. Once up he could not get them back in again. I had a go, and could not do it either. We decided to leave the floor up for a while.

With the engine on we put George on the helm and he coped well with the swell, and we were now making good speed towards Kinlochbervie. The sun was still shining, but the wind that began to come in was northerly, although still light. None the less we needed a change, and Julian began to look at Handa. We had thought about anchoring there when we were first planning the day, and the tide would help us through the Sound, so we changed course to do this.

As we passed the empty Portean Eilean anchorage Julian decided we should definitely stop, so we got the main sail down, and motored in to drop the hook in 5m. As we were on a falling tide, and only intending to stay a couple of hours, Julian laid out 15m of chain.

I rowed us ashore in Worm onto a lovely fine golden sand beach, where we were greeted by 2 young wardens who agreed that we were allowed to land. They led us up to the information hut for a briefing. Right next to this was a composting toilet (the only toilet on the island). Julian had put his walking trainers on, but I had come ashore in my sea boots which are not great for walking. I walked about a kilometre with him, then turned back, while he went on to do the whole circuit.

It was absolutely wonderful weather for visiting Handa; bright sunshine and a warm breeze. Julian and I both stripped down to tee-shirts, and I regretted having a warm layer beneath my jeans. The seabird nests were all on the cliff side of the island which I did not reach, but I saw many small land birds, and a crow being mobbed by a Great Skua ( or Bonxie as they are known locally) I startled a common lizard that was sunning itself on a rock, but the multitude of rabbits were much less worried by human visitors.

 I did a bit of beach cleaning while waiting for Julian to finish his walk. Mostly small bits of twine, with a couple of longer bits of rope all mixed in with the sea weed at the top of the beach.

Once Julian got back from his walk we got the anchor up and motored to Kinlochbervie, going through the reefs to the south of the entrance to Loch Inchard rather than giving them an offing. Coming into Kinlochbervie Harbour felt like coming home. We had left Robinetta there for 3 weeks a couple of years ago so it felt very familiar.

This time the visitor pontoon as totally empty, so we pulled Worm up onto it, and connected our electric hook up without any problems. Then it was time to get the lead put back into place (which we did not quite manage) before refitting the floor boards. We now have a shaped lead ingot lying on its side in a slightly different part of the forepeak; still doing its job, but not as tidily as before.

Motoring in fine weather

 

Robinetta was rock solid on her anchor all night, and the only disturbance came when Worm started gently rocking in the slight swell, that made her mooring rope creak. The swell soon died away, and I went back to sleep until 06:30 when Julian put the kettle on. Occasional fluffy white clouds dotted the blue sky, but there was no wind, and the air was cold.

We got the engine at 07:20, then Julian went forward to pull up the anchor. I had been afraid that we might have problems getting the anchor free, as we were in an area with rocks on the foreshore, but it came up easily, with only a little kelp on the flukes. I had plotted a course to Lochinver last night, so this morning it was just a case of following it under engine. Once we were through the sound between Isle Ristol and Eilean Mullagrach I put some porridge on to cook, while Julian rigged our tiller pilot “George”. The sea was glassy smooth, but with a noticeable swell.

We did get a little wind by 10:00, but when we reduced engine revs we soon discovered that most of it was of our own forward motion, and the swell discouraged us from trying to sail with the little that was left.

As we approached Lochinver we were totally sheltered from any wind, and the sun began to feel hot. Julian took off a couple of layers, saying he felt warmer as soon as he took his coat and jumper off.

We were tied up on the pontoons in Lochinver by 11:00, after an uneventful, but rather beautiful, motor.

First Sail of the Season

 We are off! We keep thinking that we have done all the little jobs, and then we find another. But they aren't critical. I did make one gromit for a mast hoop this morning.

 We got away about 11am. Too late to easily make Lochinver, but early enough for a good day on the water.

Alison headed up the Loch to keep out of the way if the ferry left. A good plan as it came out right behind us.

 The sails all went up smoothly and we had the engine off at 11:30 and broad-reached towards the Summer Isles. Both the experimental plastic mast hoop and the rope gromit work.

The wind was light so we changed up to the no. 1 jib. Alison realised the bowsprit lines weren't right and re-ran them all inside the traveller. I had to re-do the turns on the furling drum too, but the new bearings are working nicely.

 We have anchored by Ristol Island, right at the corner of Loch Broom. It's busy with fishing boats but there is room for us, and a pub in walking distance, but we probably won't bother.

We had a bit of fun tricing the bobstay. The bobstay tensioning purchase wasn't tied on. Alison went to the end of the bowsprit in Worm and retrieved it.

Nearly ready to go

Julian and I got back to Robinetta on Friday afternoon after a slightly fraught bus journey. The Glasgow-Inverness bus got in 25 minutes late, which was a minute after our connection to Ullapool was supposed to leave. We rushed across the bus station and found our next bus still standing. “You’re lucky we were late,” was the bus driver’s response as she let us on, but as she was also happy to wait for everyone else to change busses as well.

We had tickets for a concert in the Ceilidh Place, so after eating pizza on board we went out again and had a very enjoyable evening listening to The Ape House, a 3 piece traditional music group.

We had visited Gael Force Marine on the way home, and bought a few bits and pieces we needed. Julian’s first job of the morning was joining two pieces of piping in the bilge pump run. They had been joined by a garden hose connector last year, but this had got broken over the winter, and we did not want this to happen again, so splashed out on a stainless steel one. Not cheap, but hopefully a permanent solution.

His next task was fettled the Wykeham Martin gear (see his own post) while I tidied up the wiring for the new cabin lights he fitted on our last trip.

 

After that we turned Robinetta round in the berth so our hose would reach the tap, and refilled the water tanks. We have not disinfected them this year, so our drinking water will come from a bottle rather than the tanks, but we are happy to use tank water for washing up and cups of tea, so we should not run out.

 

In the afternoon we tied on the mast hoops on the main sail, and tightened up the boom and gaff outhauls, as well as checking all the halyards, and the Wykeham Martin gear were working properly.

We might be heading off sailing tomorrow, which would be lovely,

Servicing Wykeham Martin Gear again

 One of my most popular posts is from 2014 when the roller furling failed on the way to Brightlingsea.

It wasn't in top form last season and I bought new bearings but never got around to fitting them over the winter.

I got the lower drum apart without too much trouble this time and the ball bearings don't look too bad after 11 years. But the washers were in a poor state.

One fell to pieces and the other one is very thin.

Luckily, the local hardware shop in Ullapool had washers for 12mm bolts that are OK for the 1/2" drum.

But they are too thick. I've used one new and one old one and the new ball bearings. It should be OK for a season. I must look for some thin ones.

The New Wiring

 I've significantly simplified the wiring for this season. Hopefully, it will be more reliable. So far, the indications are good.

I bought a proper crimp tool for the SuperSeal connectors. It's wonderful. I also got a box of connectors with 1, 2, 4 and 6 way versions. This gave me some ideas but if I do it again I'll simplify even further.

We should finally have a reliable anchor light. I just tested it and it's working and all the transitions have really good crimps on the SuperSeal connectors. I used a 6 way SuperSeal to unify the running light and anchor light wiring. But it needed a pair of 3 way gel crimps to split the port and starboard feeds and the whole thing would have been simpler using just gel crimps in the cabin and SuperSeals on deck.

I've replaced the trio of motorcycle accessories with a single unit. It has two USB A, 2 USB C and a voltmeter. I've re-used one of the existing cables for most of the run but re-purposed some thick single core for the rest. It's too thick to crimp so I've used chock blocks. It didn't work at first. I used the provided cable with spades and an inline fuse and the fuse holder wasn't making contact with the fuse. A bit of bending bits inside sorted it 

The new cabin lights are really bright. Good for reading. We have one over each bench, something we should have done years ago.

I rewired the cockpit wiring to the stern light and tiller pilot. The stern light is minimalist, bell wire replaced cat5. The tiller pilot uses thick mains wire directly to the chock blocks by the battery switch with a new 2 way bulkhead socket and inline plug on the tiller pilot flex. We lose all the NMEA stuff but we have no intention to use it. This way it should never crash due to lack of voltage.

The bilge pump was working but the float switch was not. The wire had broken at the chock blocks. I replaced that with a 2 way gel crimp to join the float switch to 12V and a 3 way gel crimp to connect the pump to both the float switch and the manual switch. I had to file down the insulation on the float switch wires to fit the crimps but it should be more reliable, both mechanically and electrically.

Afloat in Ullapool harbour

There is always more to do once a boat is afloat, and once again Julian was head down with the electrics. By the end of the day we had practically all the electrics rerun, new working cabin lights, and the float switch working properly again.

I did a bit of plumbing, empting the water tanks, then removing a mysterious small tank which has been on Robinetta since we bought her. Once I brought the foot long and 6" in diameter rusty metal ovoid into the light we were finally able to read that it was a hot water expansion cylinder. Why it was there, on a boat where hot water only came from the kettle, is a total mystery. Loch Broom Hardware provided a short length of water pipe to connect the pipe work back together, and the old tank was donated to a mystified harbour master to add to the metal recycling.

The throttle and gear lever had seemed very stiff yesterday, and the clutch button would not move. A squirt of WD40, followed by a careful clean and regrease made them work smoothly again. I should clean this more often!

Bending on the main sail was the next task, and after that we needed a break, so visited Ullapool Museum which is now open for the season, before going to collect the car. The glorious spring weather meant that the two mile walk along the main road from the harbour to the yard was surprisingly pleasant. Although it seemed quite busy most times when I drove along it, when walking the cars are spaced far enough apart that birdsong dominated the sound scape.

A trip to Tesco to provision Robinetta for our trip north was followed by a Fish and Chip supper eaten in the cockpit. We needed our coats on as the evening was chilly, but the view meant we did not want to go below.

We are heading south tomorrow to take the car and trailer home, but hope to be back aboard on Friday.