Speedwell of Rhu Ship's Log

30 th to 31 st of August 2010 - To Jura
Crew : Helen and Andy
Destinations : Cuan Mor Bay, Loch Tarbet.
Distance : 29 miles

Well, we didn't get our curry last night, and that is a criticism of the curry house in Port Ellen. This morning we had planned to leave around 1200 but were ready by 1000 so decided to go via The Ardmore Islands to wait for a favourable tide through The Sound of Islay. With a bit of careful pilotage we made our way between Islay and the Ardmore islands.


We had a good view of seals,



but a poor view of the beacon to get us through.

As you can see above, the latter did turn up eventually and we headed out of the passage safely and up toward The Sound of Islay. We sailed on and off, when the wind was favourable, and entered Loch Tarbet with the help of painted rocks on the shore to get us through yet more rocks. We found a good spot to anchor in the middle loch, which was much more tucked away than the inner loch had appeared on inspection.


We stayed on board until the following day when we went ashore to explore one of Jura's many raised beaches. These were beaches during the last ice age, but as the weight of the ice was removed the land started to rising. It continues to do so today, in Scotland.

We discovered a plane parked in the small lochan above the beach, which we later saw taking off.

We were lucky to see a wild goat, several deer and a party of stalkers. The last of these meant that we decided not to explore further afield.

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