Anyway, a brief(ish) update of what we've been up to...
12th July (Glorious or not...)
Port Ellen (1015) to Asknish Bay (1901)
To be honest, there really wasn't much to blog about today. We motored up the sound of Jura, against the tide (!) We won't mention names, but let's just say 'somebody' read the tide tables incorrectly. The kids played on deck & helped Chris blow up the dinghy and we had crusty bread & tomato soup for lunch (the fact that this has made it into the list of highlights for the day, indicates how little happened!) We tied to one of the Loch Melfort Hotel moorings & went up for dinner in the hotel, which has a playpark, much to the joy of the children who had been stuck on a boat all day! They do offer free showers to sailors, but they had run out of water (we didn't pursue the reason of how), so we went away dirty but with full stomachs, so it was fine.
13th July
Asknish Bay (0606) to Tobermory (1200)
Chris slipped the mooring at an unearthly hour, the kids & I stayed in our bunks until a more civilised hour. A fairly uneventful passage later, we were alongside in Tobermory. We ended up spending 3 nights here, walking in the forest, eating seafood, fishing for mackerel (Hannah & Chris caught 9!) and playing in the dinghy.
Tobermory is also home to the 7 minute shower dash. Where you pay Tobermory Harbour Association £2 & they let you shower for 7 (Yes SEVEN) luke warm minutes. And let me tell you, if you have long hair & legs that need shaved, 7 minutes disappears in a soapy blurr, faster than you can say "someone's having a laugh"....
Also worth noting is the 'Tobermory bounce'. Basically any wisp of moving air from the NE direction & the pontoons become a bouncy castle of boats!
Other things which happened in Tober/Balamory:
- Hot Chocolate (for me)
- A bunny rabbit on board (Rebekah's new towel has bunny ears)
- A cut from a thorn which might as well have been an amputation, the way Hannah reacted!
16th July
Tobermory (1015) to Eigg (1345)
A respectable start time, followed by bacon & toast for Hannah and me. There was concern from the outset about what appeared to be a mass exodus out the north end of the sound of Mull, but most headed for Coll, so as long as the Classic Malters weren't at Eigg, we'd be fine. Nearing Eigg, Chris had a moment where he saw "at least 4 other masts in the anchorage" only to realise it was lamp posts on the ferry pier. Doh!
Anyway, we got anchored in Poll Nam Parten (one of the anchorages on Eigg) with 3 other boats & plenty of room, had a bacon & cheese omelette for lunch & swiftly set off for the beach which Hannah has been talking about since last year.
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH - Hannah overcame her fear of the sea! Despite being happy to hang over the side of Whisper in a force 5, Hannah has always been frightened of 3cm high waves breaking on a beach (logic anyone?). Maybe it was not wanting to be shown up by her fearless (insane) younger sister, but whatever the motivation, the two of them splashed, paddled & built sandcastles until the tide came in & the beach disappeared. A great afternoon had by all:)
17th July
Eigg (0935) to Knoydart (1235)
Up anchor & a careful course steered out of the anchorage and we were back in the sound of sleat, with a single heading across to Mallaig, on the corner of Loch Nevis.
Arriving at Knoydart, we picked up one of the few remaining hotel moorings (it was only lunchtime!), packed our shower stuff & took the dinghy to the pub on shore. Full tummies later (mine full of the tastiest hand dived scallops Scotland has to offer) and we took it in turns to shower ourselves and the kids.
Thankfully Hawk-eye Hannah (as we now know her) spotted "a funny black thing in your belly button mummy", which later transpired to be a blood sucking tick! Chris did an excellent job of pulling it out (head & all) and we now live in hope that I don't have Lyme's disease.
It started raining just after lunch & basically rained non-stop for 24 hours, well we had to have Scottish weather at some point! We were lucky we got to Knoydart when we did, a number of boats had to anchor due to lack of moorings, but this was mainly due to a good amount of the Classic Malters deciding this was a good stop off point on the way to Tobermory.
18th July
Knoydart (0601) to Salen Jetty (1334)
Another unearthly start where I stayed in bed, which was fine, since there was no wind, so it was easy for Chris to slip the mooring on his own. Visability was pretty poor, but with the AIS, the most likely hazard were pot buoys and other yachts. Two other boats followed us out of loch Nevis, both classic malters headed for their rendezvous at Tobermory on the 19th.
We headed left after Ardnamurchan lighthouse, into Loch Sunart & headed up to the new Jetty at Salen. It's owned by a couple from Yorkshire & they are hoping to have showers and toilets there by next year. But your £2.20 per meter gives you a lovely location, with excellent shelter & includes electricity. Hannah & Chris also caught 5 or 6 mackerel and a small cod! So it was fresh fish & pasta for dinner:)
19th July
Salen Jetty (1530) to Loch Drambuie (1715)
This morning we walked round to the forest on the far shore & walked out to the viewpoint & back, eating lots of wild Bilberries and picking up a few more ticks on the way (we're getting good at it!)
After lunch we slipped our lines at Salen, sailed out through the narrows & down to Loch Drambuie, which is behind the island of Oronsay at the mouth of Loch Sunart.
We got buzzed by a Tornado jet fighter on the way through the narrows, obviously we made good low-flying target practice!
After the tornado, we presumed we were in for a quiet night, where we would probably be one of just a few boats, but there were 16 others in the anchorage by the end of the evening!
We also had no Internet or mobile signal - although Warren (Kingfisher) has since informed us there's loch Drambuie WiFi! We didn't even think to look, given the surroundings!
20th July
Loch Drambuie (0950) to Lochaline (1243)
Up anchor & a short trip down the sound of Mull, to Loch Aline. Today's low flying aircraft was a Hercules! Pretty impressive!
Avoiding the Calmac ferry, logging freighter & rocks at the entrance of Loch Aline, we were soon tied up at the pontoons.
We had lunch in the Whitehouse restaurant, which gives the boathouse in Bangor a run for it's money in terms of quality & value. Then it was the community raft race in the afternoon, which was an entertaining watch. Apparently they had to make a rule this year that you have to build your raft on the day of the race, because people were turning up with impressive feats of marine engineering which they'd spent months designing & building. Which sort of took away from the fun a bit...
We had a quick paddle at the beach to finish off the day...as good a way as any I guess.
And that's us up to date...I'll do today's blog later.
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