Monday 1st July

How about Crinan the skipper asked? I’ve been thinking we need somewhere to hide from the weather later this week and the canal fees are much the same as four nights in a marina, we can stay in the canal for four nights.

So it was agreed and on a damp Monday morning Temptress motored out of Puilldorbhain, saying hi to our Bangor Marina neighbour First Point who was just arriving as we left. By 11:30 we’d the full main up in the north westerly and were heading south west on a reach. Thirty minutes later we dropped in the first reef and rolled up the gennie to its second reef. Instantly Temptress slipped into the lee of Insh island! We drifted for a few hundred metres southward on the remnants of our speed until the wind came back with a vengeance.

Now the naviguesser had allowed the skipper to check the tides and not bothered checking his calculations. As we sailed past Easdale there was still a lot of north going current. Passing by Fladda we were glad of the wind, Temptress was making eight or nine knots through the water and the tidal stream was still flowing at four knots the other way! Still it was good sailing despite the gloomy clouds.

By 14:00 we were anchored off the southern tip of Eileen Macaskin tucked behind some low rocky outcrops. When the tide turned it was a bit bumpy but not uncomfortable. Lunch we’d forgotten about after a late breakfast so we made do with crisps and fruit. The afternoon wasn’t one for sitting in the cockpit, we lounged down below with the heating on, reminding ourselves this is summer.

Having finished last week, a fascinating book about St Kilda and the evacuation in 1930, I’m now working my way through William Longyard’s A Speck on the Sea. It’s a collection of tales of madmen and a few mad women who have attempted to go to sea in the most improbably teeny vessels. Some sadly were never seen again, for a handful more their adventure catapulted them to fame and fortune and the rest languish in obscurity. It’s an entertaining read about some completely bonkers motivations. Not always completely accurate (Co Down is not in the Republic and Bligh was only a tyrant in the films made later) and with a bit of a USA centric view but nonetheless the tales are wonderful if just for learning what not to do!

For supper I cooked up the vacuum packed mince that’s been lurking in the bottom of the fridge and made enough curry to last a couple of suppers.