Loch a Choire was lovely, so lovely in fact that we decided to spend two nights there rather than just one. We spent yesterday learning more about the boat and delving in to some of the systems that we had not extensively studied. We also hopped in the dinghy and paddled ashore to hike up the hill and take some aerial shots of flight and the loch.
The scenery here is absolutely stunning with steep, green hillsides droping in right into the water. Many of the locks are 50 meters deep within a few meters of shore. All over our charts is written “submarine exercise area” as many of the lochs are hundreds of meters deep and a great place to put a sub through its paces.
Whenever we anchor for the night, we always set the anchor alarm so on my phone so that we will know if our anchor is dragging. During the night, the wind picked up to 35 knots and the anchor alarm went off around 1:00 a.m. We scrambled into our foulies and went up on deck to reset the anchor. For me, the cortisol rush caused by the anchor alarm always makes it hard to go back to sleep. Roman volunteered to stay in his foulies, bed down in the salon, and babysit the anchor until we were sure it was holding well and the wind slackened.
The next day, we headed back to Oban to pick up our friend, Karen, who we met in Gosport a few months back. Karen is an Australian who has been living and working in Portsmouth for the past 16 years and although much of her family is in the UK, she said she will never give up her Australian citizenship. Karen is a naturopath, works for a supplement company and is also a Royal Yachting Association (RYA) sailing instructor which is her fun job. We are exactly the same age and she appreciates our sense of humor. Karen had never sailed in Scotland before so she jumped at the chance to join us for a long weekend.
We tied Flight up to a transit birth in the marina and I left Roman to do some boat chores such as filling our water tank and waiting for Karen to arrive, and I headed off to a bookstore for another cruising guide for Northern Scotland and then on to the Tesco to provision. Karen and Roman met up with me at the grocery store to help haul the provisions back to the boat, then we slipped the lines and headed for Loch Aline to anchor for the night.
The next day, we headed for Tobermory. Since Karen is a sailing instructor, she rarely gets to spend at time at the wheel. We had a good stiff breeze right on the nose, and we spent the day tacking back and forth across the Sound of Mull as we headed north and west to Tobermory. Karen spent a good chunk of the day on the wheel as Roman and I managed the sails. We had a great time and enjoyed lively conversation.
Tobermory (founded in 1788) the is a cute little town nestled on the hillside above the bay. The shops on the high street (main street) are painted in bright colors which give the town a cheerful vibe. Karen and I got up early the next morning and tried to walk to the lighthouse, but the trail was closed due to a landslide. Instead, we walked all over the town. I made a mental note of several places that I wanted to revisit once they were open for the day.
While exploring the waterfront, I met two guys who were flying drones. I asked how much their equipment cost and was told £20,000 per drone (about $27,000). After I commented that that was professional level equipment, they told me that they work for the BBC and are filming a sequel to a children’s program called “Balamory” about a school teacher and people in a fictional community which is filmed in Tobermorey. The original series dates from 2002 and all of the people in the community dress in the same colors as their houses. They flew a drone over Flight as she was tied to a mooring in the harbor and let me view her on their screen.
The next day, we sailed west out of Tobermory and into the Sound of Mull in hopes of seeing some cetations (marine mammals – whales, dolphin, etc.). We did see a couple of common dolphin, but the wind was predicted to build overnight and the anchorage on the Island of Coll is not very protected, so we turned east for Loch Na Droma Buidhe which was protected from wind and swell on all sides. After a quiet night on the “hook” (aka anchor), we headed toward Oban to send Karen back to her real world. We had a fun day of downwind sailing and covered about 45 nautical miles.
Leave a Reply