Dave is a bit bored of rewriting things, so when this blog post didn’t save the first time round it took a while to get round to doing it again. However, here it is, and hopefully the rest of our trips since the summer will follow shortly.
In August, we found ourselves in Oban on the first sunny day of the season worrying about the lack of wind. We were about to take charge of a charter yacht and have a week sailing with Jo’s parents.
The first few days we had fantastic weather – warm, sunny, just enough wind to get along the long exposed and shelterless south coast of Mull to a truly amazing anchorage and swimming near Iona with clear (cold) water and blue skies. After a short stop on Iona, the weather was perfect for a sail close around Staffa and Treshnish Isles, where we heard (and saw) lots of seals and birds. We then anchored in lovely but quite space-limited and rather isolated spot off Gometra (NW Mull) and enjoyed a wonderful sunset.
The next morning our intended fast exit failed when we found all our batteries were flat. The wind was getting up, and we didn’t really have enough chain out to stay where we were for long (but couldn’t put more out as we would swing onto the rocks). The crew of the other boat in the anchorage had gone ashore, but luckily we were saved from having to sail out of our enclosed bay in gusty winds by a couple of blokes from a nearby fish farm with a spare battery. I was just tightening up the spare battery when Jo shouted something about another boat being quite close. I thought nothing of this and continued connecting the battery until the message was that the boat was within a length of us. By the time I was on deck, the other boat was being pushed off the bow, and a quick check showed that it was them moving not us. By now the wind had picked up considerably, and while the fish farm boat had towed the drifting boat into the back of the bay, they couldn’t make it stick. It soon became clear that this runaway boat was in serious danger of drifting onto rocks/out into the Atlantic, and we didn’t know for certain if anyone was on board or not. On the advice of the coastguard, we carefully manoeuvred our yacht so that Dave could jump between the boats, which required some skilful helming not to ground our own yacht.
I found myself aboard a smart looking Vancouver 34 about to hit some rocks. Thankfully the key was in the ignition and engine started first time, after which I followed Jo to open water. I could then turn the instruments on, get the anchor up and clear the 1 m diameter ball of seaweed off the anchor. After having a few moments to collect my thoughts, I realised I was going to have to anchor this unknown boat single handed. The thought that letting it ground in the bay would be better than it drifting out to sea or being dashed against rocks gave me some comfort. Even once anchored, the excitement continued as I found (or rather didn’t find) the engine is switched off in an unusual place, so I was forced to leave the engine running. Jo did an excellent job of running alongside the anchored boat and picked me off at high speed with only minor bumping as the wind buffeted both boats.
By this time, the rain joined the increasing wind and it was an easy decision to head for Tobermory and a pontoon with little chance of dragging an anchor. Even then it was a long sail round, as we discovered hired sailing waterproofs aren’t waterproof, although made much better by an entertaining evening in the Mishnish Inn courtesy of the owners of the rescued boat.
Next day we headed across Loch Sunart to Ardnamurchan. This provided great sailing at first, but as we got further into the narrowing loch, we discovered our charter boat preferred not to go upwind in strong winds and it became rather exciting in a confined space. We moored in a bay to visit Jo’s parents’ friends, again on a nice strong mooring buoy, and made the (in hindsight) silly decision to go ashore in dinghy. The wind and waves stronger than expected meant that having got ashore, getting back to the boat was almost impossible and we had to stay ashore for the night and wait for winds to drop
in the morning to get back on board .
After the beautiful weather in the first part of the week, followed by the various excitements, the last couple of days provided some more traditional Scottish sailing, with wind, cloud and some sun. We spent most of the day beating along the Sound of Mull, but this was relaxing all the same. The last day was sunny again, and with little wind, we drifted and played with porpoises for a hour or so. Unfortunately, the drifting and associated motoring to get away from ferries and rocks meant that all the batteries were flat again. We were rescued once more – an easy job this time as we were almost within spitting distance of the charterers. We have concluded we had just been sailing too much, not using the engine enough and that electric windlasses are silly.
Yellow Van Mountaineering 