Oban to Port Ellen

 

Sunday July 30 2017.

0800 Hmm. I’m beginning to sleep in. I get up, I make the tea, I check the weather I put my hand out the companionway hatch It gets wet and is colder on one side. (I do not go and wake Sally up by touching her!)

We get underway so as to catch a favourable tide in the Luing sound. We do and swoosh through at between 8 and 10 knots. A sleigh ride with some bumps passing Corryveggan sound. The weather is not getting any better  so we decide to stop early at Lowlandmans bay on the island of Jura. We drop anchor in the anchorage at the West end of the Bay. We have done 37 miles.

We launch the dinghy and motor over to Christolyn  for a chilli dinner and Canasta. I won J))

Monday July 31 2017.

0930 we dinghy over and pick up Dawn then head into the beach for a walk. The SUN is out!  Sally and Dawn go for a walk over the sand banks to the next bay. I walk along the beach and then up onto the dunes. There are a herd of wild man eating sheep in the grass and bushes. I practice my stalking skills and manage to get pretty close when I see the girls coming back. The shheeps run away  Sally tells me to come see something. So I do.

It’s a mound of rocks. Some evidence of digging at both ends. Hmm. It’s either a small Viking tomb or Neolithic I then look around some more and find 2 others that don’t show evidence of tampering One even had trees growing out of it. Sally had seen another one overlooking the other beach. Also found what looked like the foundation of a building of some sort.

No time for further explorations so we get back to our boats get the anchors up and head off to our next anchorage .

1400 Hoisted up the Anchor and left the anchorage at 1430 with one reef in. We motored across to the N/W anchorage on the Island of Gigha. Anchored by 1630 off a very nice white sand beach. 11 miles today.

Tuesday August 1 2017.

0800 Up nice Sunny morning made tea and watched the S/V Leader (A Big 22 metre Ketch) sail out her anchor and sail backwards out of the anchorage and head off to her next port of call. We went ashore with Dawn in her dinghy had a walk about met a couple of friendly dogs picked up some trash went back to our respective boats and got underway for our next Port of call. Port Ellen

1200 engine on. Raised the anchor. (Sally wouldn’t let me try to sail ours outL) and were on our way by 1230.

We tried sailing and managed a ½ hours worth before we accepted defeat and turned the engine back on and Motored the rest of the way to Port Ellen where we tied up at 1630. Another Wet cold crossing. (Do you sense a theme here?)

Port Ellen is the main Harbour on the Island Of Islay. Islay if your not aware is the Scotch Capitol of the World.

Wednesday August 2 2017 ( HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favourite sister Andrea)  to Monday August 7 2017.

.Weathered in.

We took a local bus up to the Aardbeg Distillery went into the shop didn’t get the warm and friendlies so walked to the Laphroig distillery where we did get the warm and friendlies and even some samples of their wares. I could develop a taste for this. We left and then walked to Lagulvin distillery for some more sampling. Dufinetly getting ug taste now. They were closing so we left and walked a further 3 kilometers back to town. It was raining.

We then rented a car. No not after the samplings but the next morning so we could do drive about instead of walk about. So we drove about and visited the rest of the distilleries on the Island and took a ferry to the island of Colonsay to visit a gin distillery and try to get to Oronsay but we missed the tide for Oronsay and could only admire it from a distance.

Heather and Allen arrived in their camper for a vist which we had. 

The interior of Islay was nothing like the coast. It was all rolling hills, peat bogs fields and woods along with farms towns and Distilleries. the island could secede from the union and the money made would support everyone. though the distilleries do not employ a lot of people as everything is automated. Only 1 or 2 of the distilleries actually only use local grains and bottles their product on the island and I think only two are actually still privately owned.

if we had not rented the car and only stayed in Port Ellen we would have had a very different experience and opinion of the place and not a good one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turn around.

 

July 25 2017

0600 up tea time. Check the weather. Forecast terrible in the next couple of days to go any further North. Decision made to begin the journey back to our winter home.

0700 weigh anchor and we’re on our way. Again we follow Christolyn. This navigation stuff is easy! We see a bunch of seals sunning themselves. When they’re out of the water they are either stretched out flat or they curl like a banana on it’s back.

We exit the loch, get some sails up, turn on the auto pilot because it beats hand steering hands down. Only! It doesn’t want to work!! OH MY what to do?

I go and dig out a spare. Hook it up,turn on the electricity. Nothing, el zippo, nadda. Change the connections. Still nothing. Fewy (insert bad words of your choice. As many as you think necessary). Give it a shake and a bang. Still nothing. Decide it is probably not going to wake up any time soon so unconnect it. I go and get another one.(You all thought we were out of luck didn’t you?) Ha triple redundancy in the auto pilot department. (Have I mentioned how much I don’t like steering a boat) Hook up number 3. #3 is different from #’s 1&2 I just figured out how to use symbols on the keyboard J The difference is that it still has the big plug still attached. So I root around in my electrical bits box a recycled fishing tackle box green and beishy in keeping with the boat colours. I find a couple of test leads with alligator clips on both ends. They just happen to be green and unwhite white. I clip one on each of the prongs on the plug and one onto the ends of the wires going to the motor on the steering wheel. Turn on the electricity OHOH!!! Instant memory recall I change the wires,,,,, beep, flashing red eye, push the buttons, wheel goes one way then the next Now will it hold a course? Tighten the belt (on the wheel as this is an old belt driven wheel auto pilot) Push the auto button, steady red light one beep and,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Viola, Bob is your uncle and we’re heading somewhat West South West. Which is the direction we want to go until we turn South but that’s later in the story. Happy days I celebrate with Sally. She is much pleased that she doesn’t have to listen to me bemoan our state of having to steer. Much easier to push buttons and enjoy the scenery.

Back to the story if your still with us? We head Westish until we come to Ardamurcharan Point(Say that fast three times)  Sail past the point (We don’t want to hit it) push the minus 10* button 7 times. The Auto Pilot beeps at each push of the button Good so far. The wheel begins to turn to port. Still looking and sounding good. It stops after we have gone through 70*s (* what I have to use for a degree mark as there isn’t one on this keyboard. We’re talking degrees of a circle not degrees earned or not in school). The wheel then moves back to starboard then back to port and soforth and then stops on our new course of South Eastish. After a couple of hours we repeat the above and turn on to a course more Southerly and then we turn Westish again and enter the Port of Tobermory. No mooring this year as a Blow expected so we head right to the pontoons and snare one at 1100. We are here for at least another day as Bad weather tomorrow. We go walk about and have Fish and Chips off a truck for lunch.

Wednesday July 26 2017.

Wake up at the usual time. Hammering down rain, Wind is howling. So I roll over wake Sally up She smacks me I go back to sleep.

It stays miserable all day so we go over to Christolyn where Dave and Dawn teach us how to play Canasta. I lose.

Thursday July 27 2017.

0800 up Not so bad out but not really good either. I fix the wiring on the auto pilot. I cut off the plug and put spade connectors on that matched the one on the control box. Sally checks the tides. We go and wake D&D up. 1000 We get under way in the rain. We have a window to get further South to Oban 20 miles further South. Gales are forecast for later in the day. It’s a Motorboat ride but we make it and are tied up at 1400 on a pontoon on Carrerra Island. Across the bay from the city of Oban.

Friday July 28 and Saturday 29 2017.

We stay put. The Gales forecasted actually happened! Both miserable wet windy days. D&D decided to take the tour to Iona that we took on the way up. They had even worse luck than us. At least we were able to see Iona and Staffa.  Their bus got rearended by another bus resulting in a lot of minor injuries and no tour but money back. Sunday we all took a bus tour to Edenvale on the slate Islands Pouring Rain but it got us off the boats. Also did walk about around Oban.

 

North, Going North the Rush is on!

 

Saturday July 22 2017.

0700 Up, Well rested Tea, Check the weather. 1030 we get underway with the Tide and at 1050 we shut the engine off as we’re able to sail up the Sound of Mull.  After numerous engine cycles we arrived at Loch Drambuie at 1530. We found 3 other boats filling up the preferred Anchorage so we anchored in a small cove that was just the right size for our two boats.

We launched our dinghy and motored over to Chrystolyn for Happy Hour. We manage to travel 29 miles in 5 hours.

Sunday July 23 2017.

0700 the usual. Then over to Chrystolyn for a visit and enjoyed the quiet peace full morning. We returned to Kalinka 1.Got the dinghy back on board the got underway at  1300 to catch the North going tide to take us up around  Ardamurcharan Point and into our destination of Loch Moidart.

As we were approaching Ardamurcharan Point I saw a Minki Whale! The first in UK waters. It was beautiful day Blue skies and warm with light winds. We were able to sail some of the way but turned the engine on if the speed dropped below 4 knots.

We arrived at the entrance to the Loch at 1800 and followed Christolyn in as Dave had been here before and it was a crooked passage in and around numerous rocks and shallows. Finally arrive in at the anchorage to find 3 other boats there. Found what we thought was a good spot and dropped the hook.

We Anchored where we had a good view of the castle and where we would float when the tide dropped 4.5 metres. Also tied a trip line on the anchor as there was a cable somewhere under the water where we were. We launched the dinghy had dinner and went to bed.

Monday July 24 2017.

We woke up to boat dancing around in a whirlpool! Not a good thing and the trip line float had disappeared! The tide was ripping past at about 4 knots so we decided we would move to a quieter spot in a pool over by the castle.

The float surfaced.” Hmm” it’s on the wrong side of the boat. I can see the anchor rode going underneath the boat also. This isn’t looking good. I start hauling in the rode everything works, the boat swings around and the anchor comes up quite easy! Not what I was expecting! We motor over to the pool and drop the anchor in 17 feet. So even if it drops another 10 feet we will still float. Always a good thing in a boat. I can see bottom at 6 feet about 10 feet behind the boat. It’s sand. We’re sitting here enjoying the view when Chrystolyn motors over and drops a hook also. Dave and Dawn come aboard and we have a lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches. The water kept getting shallower both boats were dancing around in the tide and the wind was being funneled right into us so we decided to move back to the other anchorage but more to one side out of the eddies.

Once settled Sally and I decided to go on a mussel hunt. We got into the dinghy and motored into the shore as it was low tide time. Ran the dinghy into what we thought was a sandy bottom. Sally jumped out over the bow and promptly got stuck in deep stinky sticky black mud! Oh joy I couldn’t help laugh. This was not a good thing to do! She was able to unstick herself and move to a little harder ground and the I got out. She got to laugh at me so it all balanced out.  Awaiting us was a gazillion big mussels we could pick off the drying rocks. So we did and in short order we had a bucket full. We sloshed and slurped and sucked our way back to the dinghy tried to wash our sandals and feet before getting into the dinghy without much success. Made our way back to Kalinka 1 washed the mussels and Sally added oatmeal to some fresh sea water for Dinner later.

We then got back in the dinghy and motored over to the beach by the castle. The tide was out so you could walk all over on hard sand. I managed to catch 8 nice clams to add to the mussels for dinner. We all then walked up to the castle to explore what we could. The gate looked like it was all barred up but when we got to it we found that sometime in the past the lock had been broken off and we could go in. We all did but the others stopped in what was the courtyard while I wandered about up into what were once rooms and passage ways. A very interesting place. After this we returned to our boat.
Sally cleaned the mussels Dave came over and we got the bbq out of the lazzaret where it has lived for the last 5 years. We tried to take the mount off the stern rail but the stainless bolts had corroded in the aluminium bracket so they broke off when I tried to undo them! Bummer.  After about 3 hours we managed to get the bolts out and find 3 more that would fit. We’re back in business.

Dinner is on Chrystolyn so we load everything into the dink and power over. Mount the bbq onto daves stern rail. By this time we have all ready steamed the mssels and clams and took them over hot. They were our starter and everyone had a feed. Nice and fat and tasty! A great wonderfull finish to the day. We returned to Kalinka 1 and dropped off to Sleep

 

All around Oban.

 

Thursday July 20 2017.

Ha we slept in! Bonus.  When we all finally got up, we had a cooked breakfast prepared by the master chef Sally. I then had my hair done by the master barber Sally and then had a great hot shower.

Once all that was done we walked to Dunstaffnige  Castle where we found a Geo Cache and did the Castle.

The Castle was built in the 13 century as a MacDougal fort on a volcanic plug that dictated its shape. It overlooked a  water cross roads at the mouth of Loch Etive. It was captured by Robert the Bruce in 1309 and turned over to the Campbells in 1407. Garrisoned by Government forces in the 1745 rebellion where Flora MacDonald was held prisoner and destroyed by fire in 1810. It was partially rebuilt and used by the Caampbells into the 20^th century.

We read the return bus schedule wrong and I walked the whole way back to the boat. While Sally and Dianne managed to catch the bus almost out to the highway and went into Oban to Tesco’s to do some shopping.  They met Dawn in Tesco’s and shared a cab back to the Marina. Once back we all went to the wide mouthed frog for dinner. We got back to the boat late and exhausted.

Friday July 21 2017.

We all got up early as Dianne had to catch a cab to take her to the Train station as she was leaving us and going on the train to Mallaig,then to Glasgow and on to Edinberg.

Sally managed to get one load of washing done. At 0900 we met Dave and Dawn on Chrystolyn for a planning session as to where we were going to go. It was decided that we would go North to Loch Drambuie on Saturday. Returned to Kalinka1 and had a very easy lay about day as we were both shattered.