Linda and I headed up to the boat late on Friday and, as usual, had dinner in Lord of the Isles and then an early night upon Misha. We knew that the forecast was for wet weather all weekend and also that there was a blow forecast late on Sunday but we planned on visiting Richard and Marie-Ann of Gabriella up in Lochaline. So, after a short long lie till 9am, on Saturday morning we filled up the water and headed out towards the Sound of Mull.
I would like to say that the breeze was constant but it wasn’t. It was up and down and down and up all the way there. That said, we had a good trip enjoying seeing eagles, dolphins (far away) and seals. We timed Cuan well and swept through on a nice tide. With full sail set we made a decent 5 kn out past Easdale and northward up the Sound of Lorne. However the wind started fluking and we ended up on motor on and off all the way up into the Sound of Mull.
We arrived in the NE corner of Lochaline about 15:30 and met up with our friends. I cooked a meal of Mediterranean Chicken and Vegetables, and Marie-Ann brought a ginger crepe-cake and some lovely wines. We had a cracking evening with them then an early night as we planned on a 04:30 departure on Sunday.
I got up with the alarm on Sunday morning at 04:15 and I immediately noticed there was more wind than forecast at this time. The forecast predicted 3-5 mph until around 11am which it would increase up to gusts of 35mph in the afternoon. As I motored towards the mouth of Lochaline I was recording 18mph on my (frankly dodgy) anemometer.
Out in the Sound, with Linda now awake and by my side, I was very glad I had rigged up fully reefed as we were experiencing 23mph with stronger gusts. All the way round the Sound of Mull we made great speed while fully reefed with reported Speed Over Ground in excess of 8kn.
In fact as we rounded the Easdale Point we were doing 9kn and had a 35mph gust with 1.5-2m waves.
We were safe and tied up in Craobh before 9am and no worse for wear!
https://saillogger.com/log/010656
https://saillogger.com/log/010679
Circa 50 miles over the two days.