Last night we enjoyed a hearty meal of beef olives in onion gravy and new potatoes then vegged out in the saloon complaining how late it felt. The moon was bright over Crinan and the stars sparkling wonderfully but by 10pm we were snoring. That was until 2am when someone (not me) decided to awake and then stay awake till around 5am.

The fun bit was being surrounded by geese around 4am and getting to see the starts silhouette Duntrune Castle.

We had an alarm set for 8am but when I awoke shortly before that we agreed we would just have a long lie. The alarm silenced it was after 10am when I got up and then prepared bacon sannies on the new cooker for the two of us.

Of course then the rain started to really come down and as I prepped to lift anchor the rain was bouncing off my storm suit. I had a seal and a cormorant keeping me company as I weighed anchor and then Linda joined me on the deck and we motored over to Crinan.

There was barely a puff but with the boatyard behind us the sails went up. Initially there wasn’t enough to even move but out past the southern headland a little breeze arrived and out went the genny.

Within 15 minutes I had a doubly reef in the foresail and 30 mins later the foresail as stowed and there was a double reef in the main. We had 4ft waves breaking around us and 25-30kn on our port aft quarter, literally surfing waves in the Sound of Jura.

After putting the reefs in my arms were aching, my knee was swollen, Linda looked drenched and the two of us were exhausted. I wanted to head to Craobh, tie up and get some rest before the week. But… it was blowing a hooley and there was no way I would be able to reverse her into her pontoon beside Witchcraft in these conditions.

A call to the marina followed and we managed a temporary swap to a lagoon side berth and I slid her in nose first easily enough. With a big storm coming in tomorrow I wanted her well sorted. Double roped and all battened down we left her till next weekend.