Better Weather

Well the weather did improve.  Apart from a wet morning near Oban we've had some pretty good conditions in the last few days.  From Craobh (pronounced "Crove" but you knew that) south of Oban, we went to Loch Spelve on Mull - a lovely place with deer grazing by the lochside and otters swimming about.  Oh yes, and jellyfish.  Which is what the abstract work above is.  I don't know who wins in the battle between otters and jellyfish but the jellyfish seem to be doing fine!

Then on to Dunstaffnage, near Oban, where we met friends, and then on again to Tobermory in Mull.  We stormed up the sound here, aided by our new spinnaker gear, beating several bigger boats (all right,Val points out that they didn't know they were racing!).  Tobermory is a lovely, colourful, picturesque town with a famous fish restaurant - fully booked!  That's what fame does.  But we did have a superb walk over the cliffs.  And tomorrow we'll be off again - somewhere or other!

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Sailors are a bit like farmers.  We''re always moaning about the weather.

 We left Campbeltown on Sunday and had a long motor in no wind around the infamous Mull of Kintyre - above - (Infamous if only for being the worst song Paul McCartney ever wrote). But we got to Gigha - a pleasant little island west of Kintyre. Then on to Craighouse in Jura (no wind again). Jura is a large island - maybe half of the Isle of Wight - with a population of 188.  We were on a mooring, and there was a shop and a hotel, but no mobile phone or wireless or showers.  The people were very friendly and welcoming, the countryside however is harsh and the walking dificult. With 188 people, surely they could build some decent paths? And then there are the Paps (not pictured due to limitations on explicit material in Google Blogs).  Steep, scree covered and very inhospitable. We got some of the way up - but I've definitely seen nicer paps!

Oh yes, the weather.  It started to blow. Hard.  From the wrong direction.  We waited a day for it to improve, but it blew harder.  And the forecast was harder still.  So we had a very strenuous morning sail today in a near gale northwards to a little marina 15 miles south of Oban. We passed within spitting distance (for good spitters) of the famous whirlpool of Corryvreckan but managed to avoid it.  And we now have showers, wireless and phones - all a bit iffy but better than nothing.

All this means that we had to miss our planned stop in Oronsay (population 5) but that's cruising,  We're more or less on schedule, but still at the mercy of theweather!

Well, we've started!  We left Troon on Thursday 16th - a day late, delayed by strong winds in the wrong direction.  (light winds in the wrong direction, we can do, motoring if necessary.  Strong winds in the right direction we can do within limits - gales are always better avoided.  But strong winds in the wrong direction mean a hard slow slog.  For which we lacked enthusiasm)  And we had a good sail to Campbeltown on Thursday, past the snow-capped peaks of Arran.  We were a bit rusty though - remembering what to do and how it all works wasn't our strong point.  Luckily the boat worked fine and we made it with no serious problem - barring a touch of green about Val's gills!

Campbeltown is a mid-sized town near the botton of the Kintyre peninsula - a long droopy peninsular between the Firth of Clyde and the coast further north.  And today it got warm!  And sunny!  And we had a glorious walk in the Kintyre hills with views every which way - to Ireland, to Islay, to Aran, back to Ayrshire. Val is enjoying it in the photo above.

We still need to get round the Mull of Kintyre - the bottom end, which sticks out towards Northern Ireland.  It has quite a fearsome reputation for the tide that rushes past and the seas that that can produce.  So we need a calmish day, and that's not tomorrow, according to the forecast.  Maybe Sunday.  So we're at least a day behind schedule, but we'll catch up.  Honest!