Tuesday morning dawned bright and breezy. We went ashore at Balvicar boatyard after a slightly wet trip in the dinghy.
We were due to meet a colleague of Debbie’s. She had met Sam networking in Devon. Sam had moved up to Scotland a couple of years ago and, through Twitter, saw that we had been in Ardfern and were now in Balvicar. Amazingly she had a yoga class in Balvicar that morning so they had arranged to meet at the village shop for a chat. Chat over, we did a little shopping and made our way back to the boat.
The wind had increased by this time so we (royal we) had a hard row back to the boat with the admiral complaining about getting splashed!
We then had time to spare as we were heading north through Cuan Sound and would not have a fair tide until 16.30. We were aiming for either Easdale, originally the centre of the local slate industry, or Puilladobhrain (pronounced Puldohran). A well sheltered anchorage in attractive, remote, surroundings. We were motoring through Cuan Sound as it is quite narrow with rocks to watch out for. Passing into Easdale Bay the wind was gusting to 25 knots, more than the days forecast. We should have decided on what sails to use while we were in flat water but as we decided that Easdale Sound would not be good shelter we opted to motor into the wind to get to Puilladobrhain, slow going. We would probably have been better sailing even though we would have travelled further. Puilladobrhain turned out to be an excellent anchorage, almost landlocked with tidal islands providing shelter from any swell.
It is a popular place and there were already a few yachts in there. We found ourselves a good spot, well into the anchorage and tested our windlass for the first time. The anchor dug in well and we decided not to rush off the next morning but to stay and walk over to Clachan bridge, ‘The Bridge over the Atlantic’ as it is known.
This turned out to be a good choice as the morning dawned almost calm with blue skies and bright sunshine. We missed one signpost and got a bit lost on our walk to the bridge and the pub by the bridge was being refurbished and was not doing food. The walk back was much quicker! A few yachts had arrived while we were away and during the afternoon more arrived so by early evening there wasn’t much space left. For the first time this year we have been able to sit out on deck in shorts and polo shirts. Still not much wind so we got a quiet night.
Moving on we aimed for Port Ramsey on the North end of Lismore Island. We left with the expectation of a light but sailable breeze. The sun shone but the wind never materialised, the log records calm for most of the trip. Once clear of the Lady’s Rock and the traffic route up the Sound of Mull we throttled back to idling speed and trolled along with a mackerel line out. All very pleasant in the sunshine but up to our usual success rate in terms of catching anything, ie nothing! By 1400 we were anchored in Port Ramsey for an afternoon’s reading and sunbathing. A pleasant spot with a couple of seals to entertain us. No wind in the afternoon or evening so we had to run the engine to top up the batteries and keep the fridge running.
The pattern for the following day, Friday, was much the same. Planning to go to Loch Aline in the Sound of Mull with a forecast SE 4 to 5 but the reality was calm so we were motoring down Loch Linnhe. As we approached the Sound of Mull the forecast wind did arrive but with only a couple of miles to go we left the mainsail down and unfurled the genoa, blowing along at a steady 5 knots. We entered Loch Aline and went alongside the yacht pontoons for a short stay and a walk to the village for a little shopping followed by showers before moving on to anchor at the North West end of the loch with more seals for entertainment.
The Loch Aline sand mine was very prominent with their clean white silica sand product standing out in the landscape. In the evening the weather started to show signs of change to cooler and wetter with grey clouds starting to build up.
Saturday was the day for heading into Oban to do a major shop and await Robyn, joining us on Sunday. The weather was telling us we’d had our spell of summer with mist over the hills and grey skies threatening rain. The wind was still light and teased us by increasing enough to sail then fading away.
The plan had been to pick up an Oban sailing club buoy and go alongside the club jetty to pick up Robyn but with strong south westerlies forecast we decided to go into Oban marina on Kerrera island and take their ferry to the town for shopping. True to form it was raining by the time we caught the ferry although it did ease off for a while. We raided Aldi, a short walk from the pier and came back well laden. We had to leave the beer behind!
Sailing Lacerta 