A new speed record

Saturday 22 July

The day began with a sense of déjà vu, except the wind was tricksy and Mate ran me gently aground while Skipper was retrieving the anchor. Thank goodness for a lifting centreboard – as it was winched up, I managed to wiggle myself free and we headed back down the loch, past the seal colony near the entrance, and collecting another wave from the bridge of another large CalMac ferry, the Hebridean Isles.

We had a lovely broad reach across the top of the Sound of Gigha, listening in to a rescue incident somewhere South of our position, and keeping clear as the Islay lifeboat sped out of the Sound to attend the shout.

The wind veered and was heading us too far North, so we gybed to surf down some biggish rollers to pick up the North-flowing tide through the Sound of Islay. The crew spotted no sign of water at Port Askaig, so we flew on, touching 10 knots just before we popped out of the North end of the Sound into lumpy seas and nasty gusts. Skipper fought to bring my large mainsail down to third reef, which slowed me down dramatically but made helming more manageable. The blue cargo ship, Isis, registered in Douglas and familiar from Wicklow, passed on her way down the Sound.

Once inside Jura’s Loch Tarbert we were glad of the detail shown on the chart plotter, as we wove through rocks and islets, past a busy anchoring pool deep into the head of the main navigable water. We found an empty bay in front of an uninhabited bothy, and tucked in close with a small seal colony outside of us, at first evidenced by their sounds alone – an eerie, mournful call.

Happy hour revealed an additional jib sheet dangling over the bow with a ragged end: it had dropped off the guard rail and caught in the propeller blades, where the cutter had once again done sterling work…oops.

Peace descended as the song of larks climbed into the blue sky of a true wilderness anchorage.