Wednesday 6 June 2012 - Day trip to Mingulay

There has been no wind from the West for ages, the forecast is for generally light wind and the low tide is in the middle of the day.  It’s therefore an ideal day for a trip to Mingulay which is the second island from the Southern end of the Outer Hebrides.  The only problem is that we will have to motor all the way as there is not enough wind.  Also it’s cloudy, the visibility is not good and the barometer is only showing 997!  We set off and were glad to see the trip boat Boy James overtake us and pass through the Fisherman’s Passage, which is a narrow short-cut.  They confirmed that we were heading for the right gap between the rocks.  We passed the uninhabited islands of Sandray and Pabbay and eventually reached Mingulay where conditions at the beach were beautifully calm. We anchored and headed for the beach in the dinghy.  There is always some swell so you have to land with care to avoid getting wet.  The waves were only a few centimetres high, so there should be no problem. However we were surprised by a tiny wave and Pam ended up with a boot full of water. This was judged to be my fault.  However the sun came out and the mood soon improved.

The people from the Boy James had just landed – the boat had done a circuit of the island, going very close to the big cliffs on the West side of the island and even passing through a rock arch.  There was also a group of tents on the island which belonged to a group of climbers.

We walked up the middle of the island from the ruined village where nettles were growing among the old black houses to peer over the the cliffs at the far side.  It was an astonishing sight – a great cleft in the island, with a vertical cliff about 200m high.  The sea was washing idly at the bottom and a number of sea birds were nesting on the cliff or flying around.  We walked along most of the West side of the island which is all high cliffs with some detached stacks.  Birds included: Great Skua, Buzzard (probably), Tern, Kittiwake, Fulmar, Puffin, Corncrake (heard only), Gannets, Guillemots.

Returning to the beach we found a young seal playing in the shallows and watching us.  We chose a better place to launch, but still suffered wet boots: Pam 2, me 1.  Again it was judged to be my fault.  We had sandwiches and tea to make up for not taking much ashore and decided to try a trip round the island.  The slight problem was that going through the Sound of Berneray (between Berneray and Mingulay) would be against the tide which was a good-sized spring tide with coefficient 101.  Leaving the bay we saw several basking sharks.  The sound was not very long, but progress seemed very slow against about 2 knots of tide.  On the way we saw some of the climbers.  We then emerged into the Atlantic Ocean and found that we were still against the tide as we turned to go North, motor-sailing but mostly motoring.  I did not fancy going in close to the cliffs like the Boy James – those people know the way and also have 2 engines – but we still got a good view of the cliffs.  After a while we reached a point where the tide was behind us and it continued to be with us through the Sound of Mingulay.  Both sounds were smooth water – they can easily get rough with wind against tide or wind against swell and in such conditions we would not go through.  On the way back we even managed to switch off the engine for a while and returned rather late to the moorings at Castlebay.

Sorry - pics have all got jumbled up - whever I try to sort it out it gets worse!

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Anchored in Mingulay bay

Great Skuas

200m cliffs

Nice gneiss

view North over Pabbay, Sandray, Vatersay and Barra

The bay, with the old village visible

Berneray

Hebridean Princess and Kisimul Castle

Tuesday 5 June 2012 – Eigg to Castlebay, Barra

I think you have to be careful staying in the inner harbour at Eigg.  You might just find it too comfortable and sociable and keep finding reasons not to move on.  One boat which we met there last year was still there and seems to have taken root and become part of the community.  So we decided to go across to Castlebay on Barra, which is about 45 miles.  No problem with a fair wind, so we set off and hoped that the wind might fill in when we left the shelter of the islands.  However the wind never really made it and with that sort of distance to cover it’s no good drifting along at 2 or 3 knots, so we motored most of the way apart from the last 2 hours.  It’s good that I had just cleaned the prop while dried out at Eigg as a small amount of fouling makes a big difference.  On the way we listened to the details of the Mallaig lifeboat going to help a fishing boat a few miles away.  It had got a fouled prop and eventually the lifeboat took it in tow to Mallaig, which they said would take 3-4 hours, longer than I had expected.

Saw 1 Minke whale, briefly + a couple of seals + some porpoises.

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Sgurr of Eigg

The mountainous island of Rum

Approaching Barra

Monday 4 June 2012 - Eigg

We climbed the Sgurr of Eigg with Chris and Anna – I hope we did not slow them down too much.  The Sgurr is the impressive ridge which forms the highest part of the island. Its characteristic shape can be seen for miles.  It’s an easy climb which gives a view over the other small isles, lots of the mainland and more if the weather is really clear.

C and A then packed up their gear and departed towards the Sound of Arisaig.

I spent a while cleaning the bottom of the boat and the prop. The latter had some crusty stuff on with a purple colour underneath. It came off with a kitchen scourer but there was not time for a proper polish. Finishing the job ankle deep in the incoming tide, my feet got extremely cold and took ages to warm up afterwards – it’s still too early to start swimming from the boat!

Dried out in Eigg inner harbour

At the top of the Sgurr of Eigg with Chris and Anna

Chris and Anna ready to leave for Sound of Arisaig

Leaving Eigg harbour.

Blogging - trying to keep up to date

A few days have been updated (we are now at Eigg which strangely has good phone and internet access).  But I still have a few days to do.

The idea with a blog is to post stuff as soon as it happens, but that's difficult if I have no internet access, or we have had a long day and I'm tired.

So I prepare the posts using an offline blogging tool, Windows Live Writer.  This also allows me to put the photos in, but they still need a bit of tinkering after publishing.  I still cannot get the photos to appear in the places I want them and I can't be bothered to work out how to do it, so they are just in a heap at the bottom of each post.

1, 2, 3 and 4 June are still not done at all and now it's bedtime, but I will catch up eventually.  Will also add tracks - that's too much bother to try to do each day and needs internet access.

Sunday 3 June 2012 – Muck to Eigg

We visited the Muck Open Day which was a most unusual event.  The Shearwater arrived from Arisaig (via Eigg) at 10 am, so we made sure we got to the tea shop just before the crowd arrived.  After everyone had had plenty of time to have a snack we were taken across the island by 3 tractors and trailers.  Every few hundred yards we all stopped and the Laird, Laurence MacEwen, gave a short talk about that part of the island and also about its history and the type of farming and wildlife conservation schemes that were carried on.  His family have owned and farmed the island for many years.  He is very much a hands-on laird and has been heavily involved in farming the island all his life, with his favourite aspect being rearing cattle. We got off at the farm where he showed us the old byres where he keeps the cattle.  There were a couple of pigs in residence but the cows were all outside.  He no longer has any milking cows as it would be on too small a scale for all the processing equipment which is now mandatory.

Returning to the harbour we just missed Chris and Anna who had paid a brief visit and then returned to Eigg.  We sailed over to Eigg and went straight into the inner harbour, ready to dry out in the evening.  Excellent meal of crab, salad, wine etc with Chris and Anna.  They even brought some wine with them – I didn’t know that kayak camping was so civilised.

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The anchorage at Port Mor, Muck

The Laird, Laurence MacEwen

Chris and Anna were already at the campsite on Eigg

Saturday 2 June – Tobermory to Muck

We had heard from Chris and Anna.  They were taking their kayaks to the Small Isles.  We hoped to meet them at Eigg.  Motoring out of Tobermory the sky was clear and sun warm with no trace of wind – it seemed we might have to motor all the way to Eigg.  Just before reaching Ardnamurchan Point we saw a different patch of water ahead and then a distant boat heeling.  Soon we could turn the engine off and start sailing.  Very soon afterwards we put a reef in.  The sea breeze had filled in as it had on a few previous days, so we had a good sail, although a beat.  I was a little unsure about the approach to Eigg’s harbour in this onshore wind so opted to stop at Port Mor, Muck.  We could then buy crab from the fisherman and prepare a crab supper to share with Chris and Anna the next evening. We met the fisherman at the harbour and he quickly supplied 2 big crabs and 8 big prawns, all for a very reasonable price.  The strange thing is that prawn fishermen catch prawns and they are then served in posh restaurants as Langoustines.  The prawns were delicious.

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Crab ready for the pot

Prawn ready for the pot

Prawns for supper

Sunset over Muck. Mountains of Rum in the distance

Friday 1 June – Eilean Dubh Mor to Tobermory

Wind light, so we motored up Firth of Lorne.  I checked the entrance to Loch Spelve with the binoculars, as we may well want to go there another time, and saw 2 large birds soaring just above the cliff tops.  We think they were golden eagles, but they were too far away for definite identification.  Fed up with motoring, we anchored in Inninmore bay which is on the mainland side, just inside the Sound of Mull, for lunch.  During lunch some wind got up, so we then had a beat all the way up the Sound of Mull to Tobermory

No Pics

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