Saturday 8th April we woke up with the alarm at 05:30 and were off the pontoon with the navigation lights pre-dawn at 06;00.
Off the pontoon we stowed the dock-gear then raised sail with a single reef.
The dawn was just starting to lighten the north eastern sky as we sailed out of the bay and Ambience cruise liner motored towards us passing the Tobermory lighthouse.
With the sun peaking over the hills of Ardnamirchan and Morvern we sailed out of the north of the sound into an increasing wind. Before we got to the Ardnamurchan Lighthouse we were on a double reefed main with an extra reefed foresail and still showing in excess of 9 knots over ground as we passed Santa Bay.
It was described as a bit of a sleigh ride as we flew northbound and passing Bo Faskdale we had consistent speed in excess of 8 knots.
We made it all the way into Mallaig under wind and in the whole day had used less than 30 mins of engine time.
We arrived in Mallaig at 11am and went shopping at the German Bakery, the pharmacy and the Coop (again t=for things we had forgotten)!
There was a large seal who was being fed by the fisherman from Girl Aimee and she posed for photographs afterwards. Her name is Annabelle!
Dinner was pizzas from the Old Pier Bakehouse and they were great. Linda had goats cheese and I had venison pizza; a first for me. The pizzas were really great and we were soon in bed.
Easter Sunday was forecast to be wet with high winds all day so we had a day in Port. Of course it was dry, blue skied, and the winds didn’t turn up till very late in the afternoon.
We had showers in the marine centre and they were great. Only problem was the temperature of the water was too hot!
We had Charlie Bingham,’s Thai Green Chicken Curry for dinner and then went for an after dinner walk in the pleasant evening with only a light blow happening finding the Clachaign Inn at the hill very accommodating. We would certainly try the food there in the future.
33miles in 5 hours