I woke in the early hours to hear drip, drip, drip. Can’t be rain as it’s not that sort of weather. Oh no – it must be fog, condensing off the sail cover and dripping in the cockpit. When the alarm went off the harbour and town were quite foggy and so going back to bed seemed the best option. However as we had breakfast the harbour and loch cleared, so we left only slightly late and sailed down the loch and out to sea. There were fog patches around but visibility was not too bad. We started heading down to the Mull, which turned out to be against wind and tide. After a while it became obvious, even to me, that we were not making enough progress to keep to the necessary schedule to get round in the tidal window. So we started motoring and the fog closed in.
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| Sanda just visible |
After a while we could see Sanda Island as we passed between it and the mainland – then it disappeared in the mist again. When turning W along the Southern edge of the Mull we could bear away enough to use the genoa, but kept the engine going slowly until just near the lighthouse when it was no longer needed. We then seemed to move into a completely different climatic zone, with no fog, warm sun, clear sky and fair wind. It took another 4 hours to reach Gigha, during which we used the cruising chute for a while, so we have now tried out most of the boat’s equipment. Having started the day in thermals and waterproofs we now felt the need to remove a few layers.
We picked up one of the mooring buoys and took a quick trip ashore, meeting the crew of another boat which had come round at the same time.
Follow our
track on Google Maps.
Tomorrow we explore the island.
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| Mull of Kintyre lighthouse |
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| Approaching Ardminish Bay, Gigha |
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| Ardminish Bay moorings from the shore with school party bathing! |
