After spending a night in Campbelltown we went up to Portavadie.

We were meeting our friends Brian and Hazel from Broughty Ferry. In fact, they only left an hour or so ago after having a lovely weekend with them.

The weather was pretty rubbish but we did manage out for an evening sail on the Saturday which was great.

However, on the way back in we lost the main halyard to the top of the mast and the only way to get it back was for someone to go up the mast. We nominated Brian for this as he is the lightest, however he encountered some difficulty getting past the radar reflector so down he came and up went Gordon. Let me tell you, after having hoisted Brian up on the winch followed by Gordon my back and arms were blinking killing me. Anyway, good try Brian if it hadn’t been for the Radar thingy you would have made it.

Anyway, just when we thought we had retrieved it successfully, we noticed that Gordon had brought it down the wrong side of the spreaders, so…….yes you’ve guessed it, up he went again. I swore at that point as soon as he was back down I was putting him on a diet.

Unfortunately we didn’t get any pictures of this as it was all a bit urgent as it was getting dark and so was the skippers mood, the last thing we had time for was a photo shoot.

We made it up to the restaurant for the back of nine for dinner and a very well earned glass or two of wine.

Cheers B & H and thanks for a lovely weekend.

 

We are now well and truly back in the Clyde.

Camira is berthed up in Ardrossan Harbour where she will stay for the winter, but not quite yet!         

We are off to Tarbert for the music festival next weekend, weather permitting.

For next year, hopefully Gordon will look at a proper blog so that you can choose when and where, to keep up with us, (or not) and our misadventures.

Editor’s note as you can see not only has he created a “proper” blog he has also retrospectively created these posts originally sent by e-mail

Bye for now, hopefully see some of you soon.

Unfortunately, it was a flying visit to N Ireland; the weather once again was forecast to get a bit rough for the weekend so we decided to cut our losses and head back to Scotland via Rathlin again.

The sail to Rathlin was a wee bit more lumpy than the pervious one and the visibility came & went.

  

The next day however it was an early rise and things were a lot clearer

 

Once more the sail across the North Channel was great, thank goodness.

Time for a snooze.

We are now waiting for the tide and leaving here at 2.30 today.

Well that’s the plan; Kev always leaves half an hour earlier than we plan. Don’t you Kev?

I’ve just done my housework and had a shower, which involves getting into my swimsuit and bringing the cold water hose from the pontoon into the cockpit (not a pretty sight).

Gordon has cleaned out the fuel and water separator, so a busy wee morning. Time for a coffee now, so will catch up with you all soon.

  

We made it to Portrush and met up with Arline, that’s Kevin’s wife for those that don’t know her. She was with Steve that we met earlier on our trip and Steve’s wife Sumter, what a nice couple, and if we are ever in Birmingham Alabama, we will drop in to see you.

We went to the Harbour Bistro for dinner, well, what a great meal, you must go if you are ever there. Anyway, we had a lovely night in there and then back to Kev and Arline’s boat for a nightcap.

 

 

Arline, it was lovely to see you, it had been far too long and thank you for the pork and apple casserole it was delicious, as were your home grown tomatoes, we had the casserole over the next two nights, along with the rest of the fruit loaf, yes…..the diet has gone to pot again.

We are currently in Rathlin.

This was a new step for us, we’ve never been across the North Channel in Camira.

Piece of cake!  Only cause it was a nice calm day, however, you still get the sense of power in the sea, even although it was calm, you still get that big swell which just serves as a wee reminder as to how powerful it is. Thankfully, it was very kind to us.

    

Anyway, next stop Islay.

If you ever go there and go to Port Ellen, go to the local Indian restaurant, it’s great. It’s like a wee old fashioned café and a great wee woman is the waitress. She is lovely, kind of like your Granny. It’s all a bit haphazard; there are no frills, just a really nice meal.

The Islay hotel is also really nice, Kevin’s friend Roland owns this and has done it up lovely, quite a contrast in décor to The Maharani.

 

The Paps of Jura and Krystal in light winds.

 

Approaching Port Ellen

 

Harbour seal who gets fed by the fishermen

   

Harbour views Port Ellen

I have been to Jura before, for the music festival a number of years ago.

However, that’s another story which involved a scabby old caravan to sleep in as there was no other accommodation that night, a very expensive hotel the next night which I happened to get locked in while Iain and Gordon went to a party on the island till five in the morning with “Beastie” the coxswain of the Port Askaig life boat.

As I say that was many moons ago and I was young and daft then. Come to think of it, the only difference is I’m not so young now. Ah! Memories.

 

          The sea plane at Oban                                                     Heading South

  

                Krystal looking good                                       Picking Kevin up in the dinghy

 

Ashore in Craighouse

The weather went a bit pear shaped on us in Portree.

You might remember we went there with the purpose of picking up a pilot book so as to head out to the Outer Hebrides. Well, that never happened. There was a gale forecast a couple of days later and had we gone out that way we would have been stuck there for a fair bit of time.

I know there are worse places you could be stuck but when you go out that way your only choice of overnighting is by anchoring. This could also have been ok, but it wouldn’t be my first choice in that kind of weather. So, all change, we decided to make our way back “again”, but this time with the intention of going to some of the other Islands I haven’t been to before. Well, not quite true, I have been to them, just not sailed to them.

We left Portree and had a great sail back to Mallaig, a nice force four all the way. It’s quite a sight sailing under the Skye Bridge, past Eilean Ban where Gavin Maxwell lived with Midge the otter and wrote Ring of Bright Water.

We only spent one night in Mallaig before going to Salen again.

 

Kev cleaning Krystal’s Gel Coat

Editor’s Note  nice to see the skipper taking his turn, I remember it was usually me

We were meeting up with our friend Kevin who was out with Steve, his friend from America. We stayed in Salen for three nights to allow the gale to pass. Not that it lasted that length of time, but after that kind of wind the seas are pretty rough so it’s best just to sit tight for a day or so to let things calm down. Steve had to get back to N Ireland so he left us on the Monday and the rest of us decided to make our way there as well via Kerrera (again), Jura, Islay and then Rathlin Island, my 1^st sailing footfall to Northern Ireland.

While in Salen, Gordon got his fishing rod out. Now to let you understand, Gordon it the type of person who kills nothing, flies, spiders, any kind of beast, we even have a boat spider that I have to live with. I think he has a bit of the Buddhist Monk about him. Anyway, here he is catching a mackerel.

  

He was just about to let it go however, I think if you go to the bother of catching it you must eat it, there the problem begins, I certainly couldn’t kill it but equally so neither would Gordon. There were a couple of men at the end of the pontoon also fishing so I ran along and asked one of them if they could come and kill it for us….…how embarrassing. Anyway he did, Kevin gutted it and we had it with some lemon juice and salad as a starter that night ……..delicious.

From Mallaig we went to Kyle of Lochalsh where we went for our usual curry.

The Indian restaurant there is great. We stayed there one night, which brings us to today, the 11^th August.

We sailed round to Plockton which is meant to be a beautiful wee place……. I would tell you if I could see it, but at the moment it is absolutely chucking it down and I ain’t getting into a dinghy and rowing across to see it for anyone. As soon as it stops raining I’ll let you know what it’s like.

    

We didn’t get ashore till the next day which is today. However, before that Gordon had the pleasure of unblocking the heads. That’s the toilet for anyone else. It blocked last night but it was too late to sort it out so I’m afraid it was back to basics and the bucket came out….. bucket and chuck it as it’s otherwise known.

  

Anyway, we eventually got ashore and yes, it’s a lovely wee place. Not much going on, but very picturesque.

 

  

Off to Skye tomorrow to pick up the pilot book. Let’s hope it’s stopped raining by then.

Bye for now ………………….

We wanted to go to the Outer Hebrides so we had to head up the Sound of Mull again and into Tobermory. I’ll tell you, if I don’t see Tobermory again it will be too soon, I feel like I know it like the back of my hand we have been there so often. Anyway, from there we went out past Rum, Eigg & Muck, and made our way to Canna.

 

Leaving Tobermory (again!)

 

Canna in the distance                                                   Rum off to starboard

 

North Western end of Rum                                  Sanday & Canna Approach

 

Canna is stunning

   

Our first trip ashore

We think this is our favourite place so far. You would think someone had turned the clock back many many years. There is no pub, no shop to speak of, no phone signal or Wi-Fi, just a beautiful wee island. Actually it’s two islands, Sanday and Canna but they are joined by a bridge. The shop I mentioned is a community shop selling fresh eggs, homemade cake milk and some other basics and is run on an honesty basis. If you buy something, you put a note of it in the book and leave your money in the honesty box.

We stayed here a couple of days and went walking. There are some lovely wee bays with gorgeous white sand, unfortunately we didn’t manage to go in for a dip, and being the Atlantic the water was a bit chilly

  

   

There are loads of seals, one of which comes out to all the boats when they come in and moor up. It just sits there, looking up at you waiting for you to throw some titbits in for it to eat. Gordon has named him Seal Diamond, which he thought was really funny – Gordon that is, not the seal.

 

   

We decided to drag ourselves away from Canna and thought we would head out to Barra. There was only one problem, our pilot book for Skye and western Scotland doesn’t include the Outer Hebrides.

Now we could just have taken a chance and used what we had available for navigation, but not having been there before, and given that we want to go to some of the other islands out that way, we decided to head back in a bit and try and get the pilot book for that area.

Easier said than done. Our best bet was Mallaig. One of the farmers on Canna very kindly phoned the chandlers in Mallaig but they didn’t have one. To cut a long story short, we headed to Mallaig and phoned Gael Force chandlers in Inverness who are having it delivered to Colin the Harbour Master in Portree , Skye for us on Tuesday.