Speedwell of Rhu Ship's Log

25 th to 26 th of June 2012 - Over the sea to Skye

Monday 25 ^th June

We sailed off our anchor around 0930, after a quiet night in one of our favourite anchorages. Unfortunately the wind died so we motored out of the Loch into The Sound of Mull. We tacked up toward Tobermory, racing a couple of other boats. By 1220 we were still a long way off Tobermory and only making 3.5 knots to windward. We had a long way still to go after that so we turned on the engine. We motor sailed past Ardnamurchan Point and toward Eigg and Rum.

ARDNAMURCHAN POINT WITH EIGG IN THE BACKGROUND

As we passed Rum the wind changed in our favour and we were able to sail the next 15 miles at 6-7 knots all the way to Loch Scavaig on Skye.

APPROACHING SKYE.......A GLYMPSE OF THE RED CUILLIN

We could see other boats in the distance heading the same way so were a bit worried about the space in the anchorage. We went in slowly to ensure we missed the rocks at the entrance. Once we were in we scouted around and found depths of 0.4m under a waterfall which left us a bit panicked. We were about to give up and go back into the outer loch when a man on one of the other yachts advised us that there was plenty of depth tucked further in near the steps. He was right so we found a place with about 2.7 m of water under the keel, plenty given our draft of 1.85 m and not so far to row when we went ashore.

Tuesday 26 ^th June

The weather was lovely so we made a packed lunch, retrieved our walking poles and shoes and went ashore. We walked around the beautiful Loch Coruisk towered over by The Black Cuillin. We met a few other people who had been dropped off by boat but the morning was very quiet and the sun shone.

I finally achieved my life long ambition with a naked swim at the head of the loch. The water was clear and a perfect depth.

On the way back the blue sky disappeared and we made it back to our perfect floating holiday cottage just in time. The rain got heavier and heavier. We watched lots of very wet day trippers come and go, including some poorly clad teenagers in a kayak and two small boats. Fortunately they had an outboard motor but, nonetheless, quite a long way to go to where ever they had come from. Had I known there were so many people I'm not sure I would have swum, fortunately not many make it to the end of the loch. By 5pm they had all gone and the anchorage was quiet enough again for the seals to come out and play. It remained very wet and the waterfall got much bigger and noisier.

Previous : Index : Next