We departed Crinan with the first opening of the lock, said our farewells to Good Craic and headed down the Sound of Jura – destination Islay. Sadly the wind was ‘on the nose’ for the vast majority of the passage so we motored, arriving in Port Ellen marina at around tea time. On our way in towards the harbour we passed the Ardberg, Lagavulin, Port Ellen and Laphroag distilleries and were berthed very close to the port with some impressively big buildings for such a small island; we learned that they are grain storage facilities for the distilleries.
We enjoyed Port Ellen. The port was busy and felt purposeful and not touristy, the pub was welcoming and the local hotel served good food with excellent live music.
Our tour of the Laphroag distillery was interesting and, as a paid up ‘Friend of Laphroag’, Nigel was able to identify his personal square foot of Islay peat bog!
In order to catch the favourable tide northwards and through the Sound of Islay we needed to leave my mid afternoon so after a quick trips to the fuel station to refill jerry cans and to the shop for ice and a few other essentials we were off again.
That evening we anchored in Lock Tarbert on the west coast of Jura. A deserted and dramatic anchorage surrounding by towering hills (the Paps) and raised beaches and under some extremely dark clouds that delivered some torrential rain overnight.
The following day we intended to transit the Gulf of Corryvrekan. This stretch of water lies between Jura and Scaba to the north and has a fearsome reputation for turbulence and whirlpools caused by the combination of strong tides and uneven bottom. Our nautical almanac (Reeds 2022) says – ‘the Gulf of Corryvrekan is best avoided and should never be attempted by small craft except at slack water and in calm conditions’. The weather was calm and after studying the tide tables both Nigel and I agreed that slack water was at 1242 so, adjusting our speed in order to arrive ‘on time’ we approached Corryvrekan from the west. As we arrived into the Gulf we were lucky enough to have the company of a Minke whale for a few minutes but our timing was good; there was very little turbulence but some evidence of whirlpools and on several occasions we needed to make quite bold alterations of the helm in order to keep Little Scarlet on her course.
Once through Corryvrekan we wanted to head up towards Oban for the night so we passed Loch Melfort, through the Cuan Sound (more turbulence than Corryvrekan!) and then up to Kerrara Island and the marina for the night.
Some old neighbours of Nigel’s parents were in Kerrara Marina with their very smart Beneteau Swift Trawler 35. They had been taught to sail by Nigel’s dad and although they were both experienced sailors they had opted for power over sail and were now cruising the west coast of Scotland in some style! We were jealous of their home comforts but not so much of their fuel bills – 8 litres an hour at 7 knots, 50 litres an hour at 15 knots and 80 litres and hour at 21 knots! For comparison, Little Scarlet uses under 2 litres and hour although of course the wind is free and we do try to sail whenever we can!
From Oban and Kerrara our ‘mission’ was to get up to Fort William to rendezvous with family. My chemist brother-in-law had moved up to the highlands with my sister and family nearly 30 years ago to manage the pulp mill at Corpach, just outside Ft William. The mill is now closed and my brother-in-law and sister have moved away but their daughter is a GP in Fort William, married and with two children that I had only met a couple of times so we were hoping to spend a few days with them all. There house is vey close to the Caledonian Canal and I had hoped to be able to moor within the canal but this proved difficult to arrange as they were apparently too busy with transitting craft, so we planned to take a mooring at the Lochaber Yacht Club.
Although the skies were leaden, we were blessed with a south westerly breeze that allowed us to sail up Lock Linnhe, through the Corran Narrows and to Fort William. There was no doubt that we were now properly in the highlands with mountains towering either side, proper ‘Braveheart’ stuff! As we arrived we were greeted with a fairly vigorous squall and torrential rain fall that lasted through most of the night so we delayed heading ashore until the morning and stayed onboard in the warm and dry.
