After a great night’s sleep I awoke feeling refresh and alert after not at all feeling like myself yesterday. I was up at 7am and watched some of the yachts slip their moorings and depart with the tide. I popped the outboard onto the rack, then loaded, deflated and packed the dinghy. After that I made Sherpa Tea and awoke Linda.

By 08:30 we were motoring out of the bay south towards Cara. We split the channel between Cara and Gigha and headed for the Sound of Islay. We had a solid breeze of between 10 and 15 kn and made great time all the way to the base of the Sound. There were a few other yachts around and all the ay through the Sound we were making more than eight knots.

At the north end we headed out towards the north of Colonsay with a plan that we could anchor in the north of the island if needs be or head on towards Iona. The crossing was excellent and we only started to lose speed and drop below 6 knots when we were north of Scalasaig. Blue Clipper was moored at the village and we had a good view of her as we sailed past.

At Balnahard Bay we could have anchored there nicely and have been well protected overnight but we had already decided to push on. As we went round the top of island we caught the Atlantic swell; all 4 metres of it! The wind picked up to a close hauled true 15 knots, We were doing 8 knots and flying over pretty high swell but making good progress north-west towards the Sound of Iona.

I plotted a course that would bring us into the path between the skerries on the SE of the Sound of Iona and we had checked we would have tide with us through the Sound all the way to 7pm. We pushed hard and kept sailing tight for an hour before we were able to lesson off, turn more northerly opening the angles and getting a lot more comfortable sailing across and with the swell. We passed a yacht going the other way in the high swell but they didn’t even return our greeting.

We hit the south of the Sound of Iona and still had 2m swell with us but it reduced as we went north through the Sound. By the time we turned right and headed across towards Camus Tuath it was less than a metre and our sails were stowed as we motored into the anchorage charging up the batteries.

There was a yacht already in Camus Tuath so we anchored tight in the top in 4m LAT (8m actual) and laid out 35m chain to the waterline. It bit perfectly first time and we settles ourselves to a delicious dinner of roast chicken breast, Mac & Cheese, and sweetcorn followed by jelly and fruit.

The boat router wasn’t picking up any signal on Vodafone to I fired up EE and was able to get us some internet. I guess an early night is coming up now.

66 miles in 9.5 hours