The Other tobermory

Thursday August 06 2015

                Today we have a break in the weather! If we leave early enough we can make Tobermory before it starts to blow again on the nose again!

                We get up at our regular 0600 cast off in the fog and head S/E at 6 knots on a reasonably flat sea. We have breakfast under way do some motor sailing until the wind shifts more ahead! Will we make it is the big question? We have a mug of soup. I can see a large number of sailboats off in the distance. It’s a race. It’s sailing week. A week of races around the marks and distance races to 3 Harbours, Tobermory, Oban and?  

                The good thing for us is that Tobermory does not reserve moorings so if the boats are out racing and the mooring is free then no problem to pick it up. We sail by two of the fleets about 60 boats. We approach Tobermory and low and behold there are a whole big bunch of empty moorings! So we grab the first suitable one. We’re secure. A lot of the others have dinghy’s attached.  As it turned out we were on a private mooring so there was no charge for it! Others were paying 10# a day.

                I built the dinghy and we went ashore with our trash and had a walk about to stretch our legs and reconnoiter. (reconnoiter, a French word for look around and spy). We had a Pint in a local pub 1 of many and listened to accordion music. We returned to the boat checked things out had a drink and watched the fleet come in! then the wind generator began to make electricity in ernest. W e settled in for the evening.

Fri. Aug.,07 2015.

                We got up at a reasonable hour. I bailed out the dink loaded up with our laundry and ashore we went. Started the washing and then off to the tourist Office for what’s happening? And then off for a coffee and sticky bun. Got the laundry into a dryer  and saw Sea Pilgrim sailing in so we helped them tie up. Then off for a bus ride to the other side of the Island and a walk midway back for a pub lunch. We returned to the boat had a bite and then dinghyed over to Quiver for drinks with John and Frida who we had met in Mallaig.

Sat. Aug., 08 2015.

                Blowing stink again! Rain so hard it came in through the solid ports and dripped on the Nav Table! I’ve had a @#@$%^&*^%$$$%#@ enough. So we went ashore and had coffee with Anne and Tony. Sally went and bought a Battenburg cake. I bought some gas for the outboard and we had Scallops and mussels for dinner.

Sun. Aug., 09 2015.

                Sally off to church with Tony and Anne. I did boat stuff and got ready to leave as another window opened up. We got underway at about 1400 and started sailing but as our house bank was empty we decided to turn on the engine! And motored most of the way. Blowing hard when we arrived so grabbed the first pontoon we saw and made fast. Problem was, Stern to the wind and rain! And there was lots of both. We had sundowners and then Pizza for dinner.