After a good long-lie we sat on deck in warm spring sunshine eating bacon sarnies and sipping orange juice. There was a White Throated Diver (Great Northern Diver) fishing in the bay with us and we had occasional fly-bys from geese, cormorants and oyster catchers. One particular cormorant stood out; standing drying his wings on his rock.

We set full sail as we motored out of the Bay. Linda took her by Compass across to the Sound of Islay and did it brilliantly. We passed Glen Shiell going in the opposite direction towards Oronsay about a third of the way towards Islay..

The tide was still set against us and as we got to Bunnahabain we had 3kn against us but we were still making 4kn southbound however approaching Coal Isla the wind had died back and we weren’t making headway against the current so we dropped sail and set the hook right in fromt of the Distillery and watched the chaps working redecorating the ‘New Shed’ which is actually the older of the two buildings on the front. We could see the stills through the big windows but more impressively we could smell the distillation and were definitely enjoying our cut of the Angels Share.

After 45 mins the tide had turned so we left the bay and headed round towards Port Askaig. We were under sail but in light breezes were only making 3.5kn when Finlaggan headed up the Sound towards us. I didn’t realise she was heading into Port Askaig so stayed to the right of her, exactly where she was wanting to go. Finlaggan raised us on the radio and asked if I would mind heading out towards Jura to allow him into his slip which we did and then sailed south. We got all the way to Black Rocks before being calmed again and all the way to Gigha was on and off the engine as the wind came up and died away. 

We arrived in the NW bay of Gigha; Bagh na Doirlinne and anchored up in 4m in the centre-south of the Bay with views across to the Paps and up the Sound of Jura. The white sand under us grabbed the anchor well and the light breeze from the south is holding us in good shape on the hook. 

Dinner was Chicken Pie with Scalloped Potatoes and Mange Tout. The heater is on, our faces are glowing, Linda is watching Masterchef and its just relaxing.

We totalled 35miles in 7 hours; Saillog Entry.