2023 June 2nd, Day 50 to Tobermory.

A dreary day to start but a reasonable wind which died shortly after I left so on went the engine for almost 3 hours, then 3 hours of good sailing in a Force 3 north-westerly. I made Tobermory at 13:45 as the sky cleared for a nice afternoon and evening. 

Facebook Post 2nd June: 

The afternoon was hard work with two trips rowing the dinghy in for diesel and Camping Gaz then a long row right across the harbour to the small beach a few yards away from the CO-OP for supplies. At least the electric pump saves a lot of effort blowing up the dinghy.

Rum to Tobermory

29 miles in six and a quarter hours.

To Loch Aline

2023 June 1st, Day 49 To Loch Na Cuille and Rum

Loch Finsbay to Rum

After a quite start it was a nice Force 3 all of the way down the west coast of Skye, much of it running or on a broad reach, with a calm sea it was very pleasant.

Excellent sailing off Loch Bracadale on the west coast of Skye,

Canna visible off the starboard bow. Best viewed full screen.

  

The anchorage at Loch Na Cuille, a small part of Loch Scresort, is reckoned by many to be the most dramatic in mainland Scotland, the problem is that much of Loch Scresort, including some of Loch Na Cuille has very dense Kelp. The anchorage is also rather shallow and when I arrived all of the best places were occupied, I tried to anchor in one of the recommended alternates but failed to get through the Kelp on each occasion and was in danger in injuring my back again removing lots of long heavy Kelp from the anchor. 

Loch Na Cuille from Loch Scavaig, the anchorage indicated by
the masts sticking above the islet.

A second alternate anchorage was an option but would likely have the same problem and risk my back again, changing the anchor for my folding stock Admiralty pattern (Fisherman) anchor would stand a better chance of penetrating the weed but would inevitably bring up lots more weed when I recovered the anchor, so I decided to give up on the anchorage and to head for Rum.

Loch Scresort on the east coast of Rum has a reputation for swell refracting right round the island making the anchorage uncomfortable but I was lucky and had a very quite night.

Looking out from the anchorage with the sea as rough as it got.

Sundowners were very late, three weeks before the longest day
this far north. This photo was taken at 22:14.

Facebook Post: A Long day, made longer by not being able to anchor on the south side of Skye as planned, it’s a longish story, so did an extra 10 miles to Rum where there is acres of space and only 3 visiting boats. Tobermory tomorrow I think, but no shower because they have closed the facilities, including the Loos to visiting yachtsmen due to a shortage of water on the island, naturally B&Bs, Hotels etc. are not included in the ban. 64 NM in 14 hours. At least it’s a nice warm evening for a change and I had some cracking sailing down the west side of Skye.

Update: by the time I got to Tobermory many business had been shut due to lack of water and B&B's etc were under restrictions; the reason was not, as had been reported lack of available water, it was the failure of one of two pumping and treatment plants that was restricting supply, the repairs took longer than they thought and water supply was not restored until after I left, but the toilets were being opened overnight for the use users of the marina and Buoys.

64 miles in 14 hours.

Click here for Tobermory

2023 May 31st, Day 48 St Kilda to Loch Finsbay, Harris.

The return from St Kilda

I left early with a threat of strong winds later which largely did not materialise although there was a stiff breeze as I entered the sound of Harris:

 

Leaving St Kilda, The main Island Horta on the left, Boray centre.

Passing through the Sound of Shillay,

The wind was up to F5 gusting 6 as I passed Shillay but I had taken down the mainsail just before the worst of it in preparation for the sail in the strong tides of the Sound of Harris, so although a little bumpy it was no big deal. With plenty of wind from astern sailing under headsail alone leaves more time to think about the pilotage and there is no danger from an unintentional and potentially dangerous mainsail gybe whether in error or by a sudden wind shift which is quite likely with mountains close by.

Ensay from the Stomay Channel, a Sea Otter just visible
in the centre of the picture.

Passing the Islet of Stomay (left) and the Red Rock Beacon (right)
Strong tides and broken water here requires care. 3 cables
(600 yards) later the inshore Leverbough channel and the main
Stanton gives 2 options, I took the later. No pictures of the
next section as I was too busy with pilotage in a strong tide
in a twisting channel.

My track (heavy dashed line) through the Stanton Channel.
With a the strong tide you need to be on your toes to make sure you are
not being swept onto the innumerable rocks and Islets. The track on the
west side was me heading north and taking a look at the Ensay anchorage.

I was intending to anchor on the Harris side of the Sound behind the Carminish Islands just past Leverburgh, but just before I reached Leverburgh the Force 5 north-westerly wind abruptly changed to the South-sou-east at 5 knots. That could make the anchorage a little uncomfortable and if the wind increased, untenable. I therefore went through the sound and turned left to Loch Finsbay. 

Carminish where I had planned to anchor.

An hour or so later I was surprised to see the yacht "Slipstream" come in to anchor. An easy name to remember as I sailed on a RAFSA yacht (a S&S 34) called Slipstream of Cowley back in the 70s.

We had first met at Castletown when I took their lines as they arrived the day before I left and we followed much the same route to meet again at Lochboisdale and Loch Maddy and having both stopped off at the Wizards Pool. They had left Loch Maddy the same day as me but went directly to Taransay and onto St Kilda. 

Having left there a little after me they were rather surprised to see me on AIS entering Loch Finsbay which was their planned stop. Ann kindly provided the drone footage below:

The High Res version is 256 M Bytes so may be a bit slow on a mobile connection and is hosted on Flickr as it exceeds the size limit on Blogger, the Low res version (78 Mbyte before loading) is still quite good. 

Sancerre in Loch Finsbay, Isle of Harris, High Res version. 

Sancerre in Loch Finsbay, Isle of Harris,
low resolution version  

Sun downers 😎

The Loch is considerably narrower than the very wide angle view from the drone would suggest.

59 miles in  just under 13 hours.

Click here for Skye and Rum.

2023 May 30th, Day 47. To Village Bay, St Kilda

Facebook post:

[in response to the question as I was on the way back: How was it?]: Cool (most of the time), disappointing motor sail out, spectacular scenery, quite night, left next day due to likely strong winds and host of tourists coming Wednesday, excellent reach back in F4/5, and once though the Sound of Harris little wind and sun!!! Even hot 😀😀😀. quick sailing now down the W of Skye broad reaching in F3-5 now with sun although still a cold wind.

Taransay to St Kilda

Leaving Taransay at 04:10 I had the anchor down in the Village Bay anchorage at 13:50 after motor sailing much of the way due to winds of between 5 and 7 knots which was not a lot of use with a sloppy sea and all of the crud on the bottom of the boat due to the depletion of the anti-fouling (more of that later), but I had made it on my third attempt taking 47 days to cover 933 nautical miles over the ground.

Naturally I had come prepared:

The question was which to open? The Champaign, not my favourite growers tipple which is not available in half bottles (a full bottle would not fit in the electrical cool box) but is still pretty good at the price or a particularly fine Sancerre. 

That was easy; the Champaign with a slightly late lunch and the Sancerre with dinner 😀. 

Approaching the Village Bay anchorage, St Kilda

The weather was dull for much of the day but it brightened and warmed up long enough mid afternoon for a much needed all over wash in the cockpit.

From the anchorage, the modern buildings are used by staff who
monitor the weapons testing range.

The abandoned village with a few restored.

Food would have been stored in over a 1,000 “cleitean” a small
unique stone storage structure that litter the hill sides, even
on some of the steepest parts as seen here.

51 miles in  twelve and three-quarter hours. 

A short piece on St Kilda can be found here (opens in a new window)

Click here for the return.

2023 May 29th Day 46 Opsay Basin to Taransay

Facebook Post:

I didn’t fancy the planned anchorage at Ensay so ended up at loch na Huide (auto corrected to Huddersfield, glad to have noticed), Taransay and its a cracker… and with sun!! St Kilda probably tomorrow.

Threading through the islets and rocks from the Cope passage to the
Stanton passage was interesting, I initially went to an anchorage
off Ensay but decided it was not for me and went on to an excellent
anchorage in Loch Na Huidhe, Taransay.

A more detailed view, interesting but straight forward pilotage
in benign conditions.

Turning to starboard out of the Cope Passage by the stbd hand
green Conical NW of Groay.

I could have done without the ferry which will leave this stbd
Lateral (NW Rodel Rks) close to starboard, there was a safe place
to wait to the east so I let the ferry past here rather than having
problems in the narrow entrance into the Stanton Channel at
Grocis Sgeir.

One of several Minke Whales in the Cope Passage, Sound of Harris.

Loch Na Huidhe anchorage, Taransay.

20 miles in five and a quarter hours.

Click her for St Kilda!

Update

 Posts to follow on each leg but in brief I made St Kilda on Tuesday and now (Saturday) am at Loch Aline off the Sound of Mull, resting after several long days and am on my way home.

Sancerre in Loch Finsby, Isle of Harris, (best viewed full screen) with thanks to Ann of the yacht Slipsteam (also in the vid) - we kept meeting up and came back from St Kilda in very loose company. Coincidentally I sailed on a RAFSA yacht (a S&S 34) called Slipstream back in the 70s.

Update 6 June @ Browns Bay, Larne: still no updates, I have sailed for 11days straight, all with early starts and covered a lot of miles, perhaps tomorrow if, as planned it’s a short sail.