Reasonable forecast and the weather looks OK too. The only problem with going North is the wind is to be N or NE and the tide is mostly heading South. So we set off with the idea of going to Eriskay or Lochboisdale, depending on progress.
A beat all the way, taking one long tack out as part of our tide strategy as the tide near the E side of the islands is different from that further out, and then still needing a few tacks to enter Lochboisdale. On the way we passed a number of fishing buoys. I still find it surprising that these are placed in more than 100m of water – they must have a good winch to pull the stuff up.
Just before picking up the visitors buoy we seemed to have a gearbox problem – it seemed to be whining and not engaging properly, so we put the genoa back up for a bit while we messed with it. After a few tries in forwards and astern it seemed to be working OK, so it’s possible there was some seaweed on the prop but I don’t fancy swimming to check it out! Soon after picking up the mooring 2 other boats arrived and moored and the wind then went up to 6-7, so nobody has gone ashore.
Mobile phone access again. Tomorrow we may carry on to Loch Skipport or if the weather is not suitable we can explore S Uist.
No photos – not that sort of day.
Follow our track on Google Maps.
