Susan joined Steve and I as we fitted the new mainsail and we set off Northwards, waving a fond farewell to the good people at Craobh Haven. We set the new sail on our way to a visitor's mooring off Oban Sailing Club where we had a peaceful overnight stay.
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| Shiny new sail - try not to get it wet! |
Friday 10th May brought us a squally day - ideal opportunity to try out reefing the new sail and the waterproofing in our foulies. One of them works better than the other!
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| New romper suit - don't get it dirty! |
We saw seals, porpoises, a Minke whale and a couple of sea eagles along the way. Anchored for the night off Duisdale beach at Isle Ornsay on Skye. Stunning views, great stew, nice bottle of Musar 1999 (like wine, only better).
Day 3 had another early start to catch the tide through Kyle Rhea and on under the Skye Bridge. 10m clearance over our mast top looks worryingly close when you're looking straight up.
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| Get ready to duck! |
Had a little sail but mostly motoring up to the beautiful Summer Isles for our anchorage. Clear skies meant we had great views of Skye, Torridon, the Summer Isles and out as far as the Western Isles - spectacular!
The water in our anchorage is so clear you can see the sand and gravel through 8m of water. Heavenly!
Sunday 12th promised sunshine and no wind, and a relatively short hop up to Kinlochbervie harbour so we had a leisurely 10am start.
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| Look what I got from the dressing-up box today - I call it "wannabe yachtie" |
More stunning scenery beguiled us, and the weather got good enough for shorts (well, >10° is good enough for me!). We chugged through a pod of common dolphins but they were too busy feeding to come and play in our bow-wave. They still put on a bit of a show, and it's always a joy to see them.
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| Anyone needing a helmsman for their luxury yacht? Low maintenance, good runner, has own hat and gloves. |
Lorne (harbour master, and one of my oldest friends) met us on the pontoon, despite my having hailed him at "Kinlochbervie Marina" on the VHF - it's a serious working harbour, don't you know?!!
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| Kinlochbervie harbour. Not a marina! Visitor facilities remarkably similar to a marina, though. |
He still looked after these yachties very well and helped us plan the next step along our trip with some sage tide and weather advice.
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| Ataraxia on the visitor pontoon at KLB: a great stepping-off point for heading round the top. |
We departed KLB two hours after low tide to ensure we got a favourable push round Cape Wrath. Despite the low pressure system, it was still quite a lumpy passage with variable wind making sailing tricky. We wanted to reach Stromness in Orkney at slack tide so part of our challenge was to travel slowly and avoid a wait off Hoy Sound. We had to drop sail and motor the last part, arriving at 4am - a gentle introduction to the night sailing yet to come.
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| A fine day to tackle Cape Wrath. That's it over there! |
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| Steve helming through some painted-on weather backdrops. |
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| Sunset - now try and find Orkney in the dark... |
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| The sun obligingly rose as we pulled into Stromness. |
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