Stromness to Home (1st-2nd August)

Angus arrived on the morning of the 1st of August for the route march home.

We had a sail in Scapa Flow, visiting Houton Bay for future reference. Then my old sprayhood split some of its stitching and we decided to head for Longhope and a visitors' mooring to rest up until 7pm when we could head across the firth.  Two or three hours of food, stiching, and sitting around seemed to put us in the right place.

We dropped the mooring about twenty to seven, and then motored into a headwind the whole way to Inverness, finally switching the engine off in the marina at 10:36 the following morning.

Scrabster to Stromness (30th-31st July)

I had another lazy start on the 30th of July, as the choices (to hit the tide in Hoy Sound) were 2am and 2pm. Not a hard choice, actually. I had a gorgeous sail into a NW 3/4, arriving in Stromness about 7pm.

I spent two nights in Stromness, catching up with some friends in Orkney, and visiting the Ring of Brognar & Scara Brae. Angus made a long bus/ferry journey up from Aberdeen to rejoin the boat. On reflection he'd have been better flying - especially as the bus was late for the ferry and he had to spend a night in Thurso.

Hoy in the evening sunlight:



Obligatory (?!) picture of the Old Man:



I met some of the 'Avalon' crew - there are 10 (!) altogether on the boat, taking two hour rowing stints:

Loch Eriboll to Scrabster (29th July)

I hung around for a good part of the morning of the 29th, watching squalls come down the loch and wondering what conditions outisde would be like. Finally decided to 'take a look', and lifted the anchor aobut 1pm.

In the end, it was lumpy but manageable. I arrived in Scrabster about 8:30pm.




I was just about on a beam reach, and the boat was rolling unpleasantly on the anticipated northerly swell. Quite a long day ...

I actually felt a bit seasick for part of it. This is fairly rare for me, but getting worse with age, I think. I'll need to experiment with some pills.

Probably better than trying to survive on apple juice. All* the cafes in Scrabster were closed or closing when I arrived.

Holborn Head:



Scrabster:



*There were slightly more than one.

Kinlochbervie to Loch Eriboll (25th-28th July)

I explained in an earlier post how this leg started with a worrying false start.

When I set out again on the afternoon of the 28th the forecast was NE 4/5 and then getting a bit worse before dropping back. I wanted to spend a day in Orkney, though, and was beginning to run up against time pressure for getting back to Inverness.

I have almost nothing written in the log for the trip round to Loch Eriboll.  I dropped anchor south of spit in Ard Neackie about 8pm.

The following morning I took a while to decide whether to go onwards. I was prompted by time pressure and the terrible phone connection, but worried a bit about the forecast and the sea conditions that steady northerly weather would have built up.

Ard Neackie:

Kyleakin to Kinlochbervie (25th-27th July)

The trip from Kyleakin to Loch Ewe was uneventful - mixed motoring and sailing. I anchored off Aultbea, from whence this view southwards:


Loch Ewe to Kinlochbervie (see earlier post) provided some impressive views.


Old man of Stoer:



Stac Pollaidh:

Fort William to Kyleakin, via Muck and Loch Scavaig (9th-24th July)

I took Raasay down Neptune's Staircase and on to Dunstaffnage on my own, having been abandoned by a crew struck down by sanity. I picked up Angus in Dunstaffnage and we went to Tobermory, Muck, Loch Scavaig (see earlier post) and Kyleakin - from whence he bussed home.

We had a good run up the Sound of Mull under the Aries - poled out genoa and prevented main. Everything very steady controlled. We couldn't have stopped easily, mind you ...:



You can see her yawing a bit here, but the vane brings her back on track easily:



Tobermory:



Gallanach Bay, Muck, with Rum in the distance:



The Muck Shop:



Eigg, from Muck:



Leaving Loch Scavaig:



Visitors' mooring, Kyleakin, among friends:



Sunset, last day in Skye, Kyleakin:

Inverness to Fort William (14-8th July, 2015)

Our trip down the canal was not so nice as last year. The weather was moderate rather than sublime, and became progressively wetter.

Some photos -

Dochgarroch:


Foyers:



Fort Augustus:



Allen Carr, with Rix and friends, "Enterprise" of Slaughden, Loch Lochy:



Raasay rafted up to Enterprise, just above the Double Lock, Corpach:

Loch Scavaig, Loch na Cuilce, Loch Coruisk (22nd-23rd July)

This is a popular and much reviewed anchorage. Angus and I spent the night of 22nd/23rd July there, getting time to have a walk by Loch Coruisk when we arrived. One or two trip boats visited while we were there, but the weather kept everyone else away.





I thought we'd be reasonably sheltered, because the forecast was for strong winds from the SW, veering W. In the event, they seemed to curl up the loch and blow straight in.

One of the trip boat skippers remarked, casually, that he didn't think the the anchorage was good holding ground.

The wind increased later on the first day, and by bed time the boat was snatching hard at the anchor and swinging to strong gusts. Some of these were 35 knots, straight up the loch. Others were 50 knot katabatic demons that seemed to come from any direction. We'd seen some of them hitting Loch Coruisk during our walk, lifting dense spray straight off the surface of the water like ectoplasm in a Victorian nightmare.




Anyhow, between the wild wind and the trip skipper's bon mot I spent most of the night sitting up in foul weather gear while Angus slept in the fo'c'sle ...

The GPS showed no movement apart from swinging to the rode, but the blackness beyond the cockpit seemed full of looming rocky shoreline. Watching the tethered dinghy being repeaedly flipped upside down and back up again didn't help my state of mind.

I thought later that I might have felt more secure with the engine running and the radar on - both to give me some comfort about nearby hazards and because I could quickly put the boat in gear if we dragged.

Anyhow, we were fine. I think the anchor must have dug at least a metre into the thick mud, much of which came up onto the foredeck in the morning and got all over Angus' foul weather gear.

Catching up ...

I've let so much time go by that the catching up problem has reached intimidating proportions ... which doesn't help me to address it.

I've decided to do bits, and not aim for completeness. I've got some nice photos I'd like to post, and some stories (technical and aesthetic) which may be interesting, so I'll just stick them up as they occur to me.

I'll start with a photo of where I was when I last posted:




I had an interesting passage round Cape Wrath. The weather last summer was a bit lumpy (some of you may remember ...) so sailing was a bit more taxing than blissful.

I sailed from Kinlochbervie early (before 4am), to pick up a favourable tide. I was plodding northwards in varying visibility, motoring much of the time. The wind was from the NE.

About nine miles from CW, the charging light and warning buzzer came on.

I hove to and switched off the engine to check the wiring. There didn't seem to be any loose contacts, or other simple explanations. There was some water in the starter battery box, but nowhere near the wiring - I sponged all of this out just in case.

After spraying everything with WD 40 I restarted the engine. For a while, things seemed fine. I kept the revs a bit lower, to reduce boat motion. I wasn't sure how this might be relevant, but it felt a bit more comfortable, even though I was worrying about whether the tide would stay with me.

After a while, the alarm came on again. Again, I shut down the engine and had another good look around, more hopelessly ...

After another restart, and another alarm, I realised I had a more serious, and apparently unrelated, problem - there was more water in the bilges than their should have been. In fact, it was not far under the floorboards, and was slopping over them as the boat rolled.

Hove to again, with the engine off, I checked the boat from end to end looking for the leak.

The ususal suspect - the heads sink outlet - was innocent. The seacock was safely closed. No explanation presented itself, and the water level didn't seem to be rising. I pumped it all out and had a think. I realised that the only safe course of action was to head back to Kinlochbervie and find the leak.

I then tried one more thing, more on a hunch than because I had any real theory: I started the engine again and lifted the companionway steps out of the way while it was running.

This time I could see that hose from the water pump to the cylinder head had punctured. With the pump pressurising it, it was spraying water onto the alternator belt, leading it to slip; and also filling the boat up with water.

Either heat or wear had caused the puncture - not from current circumstances, but possibly because of a previous poor fitting that led to it rubbing on something.  I stopped the engine again and taped the hose up well enough to get back to Kinlochbervie and replace it.

Another tale of confusing symptoms, trying to think in lumpy conditions, and instinctive explorations ... it's funny how obvious the source of the problem seemed in retrospect. I've almost forgotten the despair and confusion ...

Later that day, I picked up the afternoon tide and made a fairly uneventful (though choppy) passage to Loch Eriboll.