Thursday 25th May: Work done, holiday auto-responses set, laptops closed; we were able to cast off from Largs
Yacht Haven soon after 5:00pm to make some progress towards the Mull of Kintyre, to be rounded the following day. Our cruise started with a cracking beam reach in just the right amount of breeze, and in sunshine, down to Lamlash Bay, where we anchored outside the mooring area.
The forecast for the next week at least looked to be settled, and the longer term forecast also looked promising…. This was looking like we might have struck lucky for a period of great Scottish west coast weather!
For rounding the Mull of Kintyre, with favourable tide, we either had to be approaching the Mull at about 05:00, which would mean a departure from Lamlash by no later than 02:00, or alternatively, at about 17:00 – meaning an arrival at Ardminish, Gigha, the first realistic viable stop, at about 23:00. With broadly NW winds forecast, the usual ‘waiting’ anchorage at Sanda Island was not going to be great, so we initially thought about anchoring off Southend Bay, just before the Mull, to await the morning tide; but, being used to just getting on with it and pushing against contrary tide, in suitable conditions, around Hurst Narrows etc when the tide time did not suit, we thought we would just go for it, with the option of retreating if it was too tedious.
Consequently, next morning we started at a civilised time, with another blue sky day and light airs from the NW; the sunshine lasted until about a mile before the Mull of Kintyre lighthouse, with the west facing coast here in cloud – the cloud was almost solid to the west, too.
We had about 4 knots of contrary tide for a short while, but it was mostly only about 2 knots or so (fairly neapy, but half tide) – there is apparently a good eddy current if really tight in, but with the north-westerly wind blowing here, it was a lee shore and did not seem sensible. Progress was made, none the less, and finally, we had a decent sailing breeze from a viable direction, once abeam Macrahanish, and enjoyed a couple of hours of relief from the engine before the wind dropped to nothing. We arrived at Ardminish Bay, and anchored to the South of the moorings, back in sunshine once more, after a passage from Lamlash of about 9½ hours; the foul tide added perhaps 2 hours to the passage.
Ardminish is a stunning bay, and Gigha is always a joy – there is something special about an island that is owned by the community themselves, having bought it in 2001.
The next day, Saturday 27th May, was to be devoted to exploring Gigha more thoroughly; our last visit in 2022 (our first) was curtailed by the wind filling in from the East overnight, making it rather bouncy and encouraging an early departure! We enjoyed a walk through the village, and through the Achamore House Gardens and woodland, on towards the south end of the island, checking out the airstrip for a possible visit by air sometime, and returning via the hill in the Gardens for the view over the Sound of Jura, which was all delightful; we nipped back to the boat for our showering kit, and were pleased to test out the new showers at the campsite (at a reasonable price, on an honesty basis), before our booked lunch stop at the excellent Boathouse restaurant, at the top of the landing pontoon. They are doing a roaring trade, perhaps partly as the Gigha Hotel was sadly no longer trading, its last tenants recently having gone into administration; hopefully this will be reopened before long.
As the next day’s plan was to go through the Sound of Islay, which would require a fairly early start from Ardminish, we decided to have a late afternoon passage across to Lowlandmans’ Bay, on Jura – slightly more convenient for the Sound, and a delightful anchorage dominated by the Paps of Jura, that like our last visit, we shared with just one other yacht.
Sunday 28th May dawned grey and dull – where was that stunning weather that had been promised? We weighed anchor at a civilised time, and pressed on through the Sound of Islay with the favourable tide, passing the three distilleries on the Islay shoreline, and started to head towards Colonsay, an island we had not previously visited; en route, we realised that conditions allowed a visit to the anchorage off Oronsay, on the south end of Colonsay, which from the pilot books, appeared to be well worth a detour. Not long after we had settled on our anchor, as the only vessel in the beautiful anchorage, another yacht approached – a blue Rustler 44 with a white ensign, which could only be ‘Ballachbuie’, owned and sailed by Sir Tim Laurence and HRH Princess Anne. They chose to anchor a discrete 200m or so away from us – there was after all, bags of space!
On going ashore here, we found the scenery quite breathtaking – and the sun made its appearance at last! We walked around most of the island, and explored the ruined Priory; of particular note were two Merchant Navy graves identified as those of unknown WW2 sailors who had been washed ashore here; and that of Major General Sir John McNeil, VC, for 27 years Equerry to Queen Victoria, who happened to also be Laird of Colonsay and Oronsay.
We moved onwards to the new excellent visitors moorings in Loch Staosnaig, the bay just around the corner from Scalasaig, the ‘capital’ of Colonsay, which again we had to ourselves overnight, and had a quick run ashore for a look around and some basic supplies from the Island Shop in the morning. We departed Colonsay, in sunshine and almost calm winds again, towards the Sound of Iona. We have previously visited Iona a couple of times, including anchoring in the fabulous Tinkers Hole nearby, and on this occasion, decided to pass by and head for Ulva; we enjoyed a cracking fetch from Iona across towards Ulva Ferry, which we enjoyed seeing, but instead decided to move onwards to the amazing anchorage in amongst the rocks at Cragaig Bay – open to the south but sheltered from northerlies – which on our last visit we had entirely to ourselves. On this occasion, we found there were three other yachts already present, but there was still plenty of room for us to join them.
We had an early start the next morning, to visit Lunga in the Treshnish Islands whilst the weather remained calm, and before the tourist boats; we arrived, on a sunny and flat calm morning, to have the whole anchorage to ourselves, though two other yachts joined us in due course. We enjoyed our new electric outboard here, the puffins and razorbills swimming on the sea allowing us to stealthily approach within a couple of metres. On scrambling ashore – a bit of a challenge over the slippery rocks – we found thousands of nesting puffins, which again seemed quite content to allow us to be within a couple of metres. To start with, the crews of the three yachts present had the island to ourselves, but in due course, the tripper boats arrived, discharging their passengers via a clever pontoon arrangement that they drove hard onto the rocky foreshore, so that the inshore end reached over the high water mark.
On dragging ourselves away from Lunga, we started towards Tiree, another island that we have not previously visited; but after a couple of miles, having noted in the forecast that moderate northerlies were due to return, we decided to make more progress northwards, and turned instead for Canna, from where we could choose to head across the Minch to the Outer Hebrides or instead, head up the Sound of Sleat, and visit relations at Armadale on Skye. Many had advised that Canna was their favourite of the Small Islands south of Skye, so we looked forward to this; soon after arriving there, and picking up almost the last visitor’s mooring within the shelter of the harbour, the wind did indeed fill in with a fairly brisk northerly; the remaining moorings further out could have been a little bouncy.
We had a brief explore ashore, (Café Canna not trading on a Wednesday, when we arrived) and a long walk the following morning. We had left our dinghy at the top of the ferry slip – the only practical place to land – and with the ferry due in at 12:30, grabbed a quick bite from the Café and rushed back to launch the dinghy – just getting it into the water and off the slip just as the ferry arrived around the corner! Phew! The CalMac harbour master even helped us launch it; we had feared that the slip might be closed until the ferry departed after its scheduled 3 hour layover here, but the harbour master assured us that it would only be closed whilst the ferry engines were running. Very refreshing after our previous interaction with CalMac at the twin slips of Colintraive, on the East Kyle of Bute, where a small ferry connects the mainland to Bute; the publican was phoned to ask his customers to kindly remove their dinghy from the top left edge of the wide slip that they were not actually using – at about the time that they were mooring the ferry for the night!
Next stop was the inner harbour of the island of Soay, just off Skye; I had been keen to visit since a friend had described it as his favourite anchorage, and having just read Gavin Maxwell’s Harpoon at a Venture, about establishing his basking shark processing factory on the island that he had bought in 1944, as a means of producing economic activity for the few islanders, it was fascinating to see, and to imagine the scenes with the massive fish being hauled up the slip for processing at the factory buildings still remaining. The entrance has a bar that dries to 1.0m on the Antares chart, so we arrived a couple of hours before HW, and the choice was to stay only a short while, or to leave by about 05:00 the next morning – we chose the former!
Despite it being absolutely flat calm at Soay, as we came towards Loch Scavaig, the wind filled in to a good Northerly F5, and only became a little calmer within the ‘sheltered’ anchorage under the Cuillin – the wind whistled down the hills from each side, and the four yachts anchored there swung every which way, until morning! I was pleased to deploy our new 11kg Ultra anchor ring, to assist with reducing our swinging room, and to increase the holding of our 25kg Delta anchor.
We enjoyed a lovely walk ashore, to the freshwater Loch Coruisk, in its superb setting reaching into the middle of the Cuillin mountains, and set the alarm for an early photographic run ashore in the morning, to catch the first light on the scene as the sun rose over the surrounding hills. The winds continued to gust from one side and the other during the night, the boat continuing to swing through 360 degrees all night! The anchor was thoroughly dug in, as we established on weighing anchor in the morning.
Now it was time to decide whether to head to Barra / Uist etc, or to visit Sharon’s aunt and her visiting family at Armadale on the East coast of Sleat, near the SE corner of Skye; the latter won this time, and we enjoyed a great sail around to Armadale, where unfortunately the wind was briskly onshore; the forecast for the next morning was calm, so we pressed onwards to the quiet anchorage at the Sandaig Islands, on the NW corner of Loch Hourn. This is another stunning anchorage that we had to ourselves; we had walked there on several occasions in the past from the road from Glenelg, but it was a delight to arrive by sea. It was another strong Gavin Maxwell connection, for this was his ‘Camusfeàrna’ of Ring of Bright Water; indeed, his ashes remain here, with a memorial rock marking the site of the former lighthouse keeper’s cottage that he lived at, and another memorial to his otter Edal, who died in the fire that destroyed the house.
In the morning, we explored briefly into Loch Hourn, finding another stunning anchorage to visit on another occasion, and crossed the Sound of Sleat for a full Scottish breakfast at Aunt Christine’s house next to Armadale pier; we were assured by a resident yachtsman that it was OK to pick up one of three moorings, contributions welcome, and the old pier has a floating pontoon for dinghies (and an honesty box and BACS details for contributions). We managed a re-supply of various stores from the fabulous new community store at Armadale – we always found that the community stores in even remote places such as Eigg hold an astonishing choice of exotic ingredients, as good as Waitrose! – and cast off at lunchtime to sail back across the Sound of Sleat and up Loch Nevis, to visit Inverie – which, with its famous Forge Inn, has been near the top of my list of places to visit for a long time. The Forge had been bought by the community, and unfortunately was closed whilst they were undertaking a complete refurbishment, so we will have to return again! We were interested to see that there were quite a few cars here, including a Royal Mail postie van – and we walked the full one mile length of the one available road, from one end to the other! It’s a 15 mile or so hike over the hills from the nearest road, to reach Inverie, unless you arrive by sea.
In the morning, we were astonished to see the sea was thick with Moon Jellyfish – there were literally thousands, from the surface all the way down as far as you could see! My brother had a recent experience of parts of jellyfish getting past the coarse filter on the hull inlet, past the water filter, and as far as the impeller in the seawater cooling, when he started the engine of his Oyster with a similar swarm of jellies; so we waited a while for the swarm to thin, or the wind to fill in, before starting up or casting off! We had to wait an hour or so…. It seemed unbelievable that there could be so many coming down the loch on the tide!
We sailed out of Loch Nevis, and headed for the Sound of Arisaig to explore south facing bays mentioned in the CCC Pilot and CAptains Mate app; we paused for lunch in a beautiful quiet bay, and sailed onwards to Loch Moidart, with its very interesting entrance that has you curving around invisible and mostly unmarked obstacles – the Antares charts are a real benefit for this. We had a stunning sail under Genoa only nearly all the way into the loch, and dropped anchor near Castle Tioram, with just one other yacht in the anchorage. A totally stunning location, in fair weather. Another lovely walk ashore, along a private road; and an evening potter around the loch by silent electric tender. The alarm was set for first light photography with the proper DSLR, and although I put the tripod in the dinghy, I didn’t find a suitable location to land for photography so settled for handheld from the dinghy. The light was amazing – light of this quality doesn’t happen too often, especially at home in the South of England!
Following the photographic session, we weighed anchor and threaded our way back out of Loch Moidart; we had heard of the ‘singing sands’ beach so, with the weather being sunny and flat calm, headed south to anchor off the beach for breakfast. I rowed ashore, to walk on the squeaky sands – if you listened carefully, there was indeed a slight squeak from the sand as you walked!
Following breakfast, we headed towards Ardnamurchan Point again, in light airs – the coloured sail came out for the first time in a while, encouraged by two other yachts sailing the same way with theirs out; but it was really too light, and the iron tops’l was used once more.
Off Ardnamurchan, we once more changed our minds as to our destination, deciding on a revisit to Arinagour at Coll, last visited on a bareboat charter a decade before, and arrived to collect the last visitor’s mooring. We enjoyed a lovely walk ashore towards the west coast of the island, before showering and a meal at the Coll Hotel, which had benefitted from massive investment since our previous visit. We were pleased to note that the garden sitting area opposite the terrace of houses on the harbour front still included a sign for ‘La Sitooterie’ – a name for our patio at home that we have used since our first visit!
After a visit to the Coop for ‘messages’ (Scottish term for victuals /comestibles or “food shopping”) – timing the visit such that our wine arrived at the cashier’s end of the conveyor at exactly 10:00am when it became legal to sell alcohol – we set off towards the West end of the island of Coll, to explore into Loch Breachacha, the bay with two castles.
Again, we had the bay entirely to ourselves; after our lunch aboard, we weighed anchor, and headed around to the small isle of Gunna, that lies in the sound between Coll and Tiree. Feeling our way into the anchorage – open to the South – with the Antares chart again, we anchored off the stunning beach and dinghied ashore. There is one house on Gunna, and the lady staying met us after we landed, to welcome us ashore with her dogs; we walked around the island along the beach away from the house, towards Coll. What a stunning island, especially when the tide is out.
We have not previously visited Tiree, so first we looked at the anchorage on the far East end of Tiree, Port Ruadh, which we felt was in sufficiently sheltered for the prevailing and forecast conditions, then moved around to the visitors moorings near the CalMac pier in Gott Bay. A walk ashore to the capital of Tiree, Scarinish, was pleasant, but the Scaranish Hotel was not serving; we collected some stores from the largish Coop there – which must be the Coop closest to a cattle grid of anywhere! – and returned to the boat for dinner in the cockpit, whilst watching the sun set.
The well stocked Coop store at Scaranish, Tiree; cattle and sheep are discouraged!
The choice from here was to sail south leaving Mull to port, or to go via the Sound of Mull; the forecast suggested that we would get a great sail if heading via the Sound of Mull, and this was certainly true – for about 2 hours, until near the Sound; the wind then dropped, and what was left was on the nose rather than behind us as expected from the forecast! Hey ho…. We headed into Loch Spelve, which we had missed on our previous cruises, and anchored near the mussel farm quay, from where we were able to help ourselves to two large bags of mussels for a fiver in the honesty box. They were truly delicious, and were on the menu for two hearty meals!
The next day presented us with tidal gates at both the entrance to Loch Spelve, and to go through the Sound of Cuan, as we needed a pit stop at Craob Marina for water and fuel. We had hoped to sail through the Sound but the wind was a bit too feeble, again; whilst we know the air draft of our HR36 left plenty of margin under the HV power cables across the sound, it does look interestingly close! We whistled through the Sound with the currents swirling around, assisted again by the great Antares chart showing the detail of the rocks and the line to take at the corner of the Sound.
A quick stop at Craob, which we had chartered from previously, and we were onwards to a planned stop off Crinan; but on arriving, we decided to take the opportunity to press on to Carsaig Bay, which, being open to the West, might not be possible on our next visit to this area. Anchoring carefully to avoid the power cable serving Jura, we walked the short distance over the peninsula to the lovely village and anchorage of Tayvallich on Loch Sween, with a lovely meal at the Tayvallich Inn.
The next day we headed to Craighouse on Jura, which we had planned to revisit on our return passage; it was a little bouncy on the visitor’s mooring with the wind in the East, but fine for a lunch stop and a good run ashore to visit the new rum distillery shop, and enjoy a lunch at the cafe; the village stores was closed on the day of our visit, as was the Jura Hotel as far as lunches & drinks were concerned. We were entertained during our stop by two arrivals of Lomond Seaplanes amphibian Cessna Caravan, landing on the sheltered sea inside the of flying islands, and taxiing to the ferry & dinghy pontoon; its departure from the first visit was almost direct from the pontoon, taking off towards the entrance, passing by the visitors moorings with full throttle!
We had hoped to visit stop overnight in Islay in one of the distillery bays on the South coast, or at Port Ellen, before heading back around the Mull; but the wind direction and strength unfortunately made this unsuitable, so this will be a future destination. Instead, we headed over to Gigha, looking in at the north facing bay at the NW corner, rejecting this as insufficiently sheltered from the brisk ENE wind, and instead anchored in the bay immediately on the south side of this peninsula, with one other yacht already present; swinging room was a little tight, with rocks fairly close by, and the Ultra anchor ring was deployed again. We explored ashore over the isthmus to see both beaches and bays from the land side, noting a few camping enthusiasts had established their tents in this beautiful spot.
The following day brought a cracking sail South to the Mull of Kintyre; but on rounding, it became a beat. We did have the current with us this time, however!
On passing to the South of Sanda, we decided to look in at Blackwaterfoot on Arran’s SW coast, which we had not been able to visit previously. The Pilot mentions visitor moorings; in fact there are none, but some crab pot markers in about the relevant location had another visiting yacht confused for a moment!
The penultimate day of our cruise offered the choice of sailing north up Kilbrannan Sound, leaving Arran to starboard, or the other way around, leaving Arran to port; it was flat calm at anchor, but the forecast was to fill in from the North East. We decided on heading to Lamlash, to anchor behind Holy Island, and after a period of motoring out of the wind shadow, we had a good sail along the south of Arran, gradually getting headed and having to aim more and more offshore; eventually, the wind had filled in with a F6 and quite unpleasant seas, but after tacking to head in towards Lamlash Bay, we were soon anchoring in still conditions near the Buddhist retreat on Holy Island. Before long, and for the first time in nearly 12 months, the over-boom sun awning had to be given its airing to provide shade from the overly hot sun.
On the final morning of the cruise, we again had insufficient wind to sail all of the final 17 or so miles, though we did have a drift along for a while.
Our cruise over 16 nights covered 552 nm, 28 stops (only once briefly alongside), about 14.5 days of sunshine, and sprayhood down every single day! Not bad for a Scottish West Coast cruise. And not a single midgie! Fingers crossed for similar luck with the weather for our next cruise!
Travels of Sailing Yacht Kitty B 
Leave a comment