Lossiemouth to Oban Sailing Trip 9

Monday 30th May 2011

Tobermory to Dunstaffnage

Reasonable day today, overcast but with sunny spells, getting better throughout the day.
Left Tobermory 0900, motoring, no wind.
Storm sail rigged as mainsail ripped and has been removed ready for repair. Looks a bit odd with it up and next to no wind.
Spent the morning sat on the foredeck sketching as Mull goes by. A few squalls with quite heavy rain and one with hailstones.

Sound of Mull

Thick soup with pasta for lunch. Wind picking up a bit so lovely sailing down the Sound of Mull now with plenty of sketching done. Once out into the Firth of Lorn the conditions became a bit more boistrous, very confused choppy sea.

Sound of Mull 2

 Once across behind Kerrera it calmed down again and we practiced man overboard drill under sail for the Yachtmaster Fast-track candidates. A bit different with only a stormsail fitted and having to use the jib, you normally get rid of the jib straight away but wee needed it to help power the boat. The wind kept dying away then gusting which made things interesting. Anyway we eventually mananged to get 'Fred' back on board each time. The moral of the story is 'don't fall overboard'. By the way, Fred is a big fender with a coil of rope attached, not one of the crew.
It turned into a very nice sunny and breezy afternoon, a nice change from what we have experienced over the last 10 days and a fine end to our adventure sailing trip.
Tied up in Dunstaffnage at 1730 to the usual marina antics, cut up by another yachtsman who proceeded to tie up singlehanded with no fenders on the pontoon side and about 10 on the other side. He jumped off to tie up and bounced back on again once he realised what he had done. Ah well we all do these things from time to time its just better when nobody is watching.
We cleaned the boat this evening before dinner and pub as most of the crew need an early start tomorrow to get home.

Dunstaffnage

Crew Mugshot

Standing left to right.
Me, John (skipper), Roy (yachtmaster fast-track), Rod, Andrew (yachtmaster fast-track)
Sitting left to right.
Steven, Chris, Johnathon (yachmaster fast-track) and David.

Thanks for your company everyone and good luck to the yachtmaster fast-trackers for the rest of the course and the assesment.

Tuesday 31st May 2011

Heavy mist and a bit of drizzle this morning.
Im in no rush to get away today as I dont have too far to go to get home. Bus Dunbeg to Fort William, Bus Fort William to Inverness and a short train ride Inverness to Carrbridge then 400yds walk home.

Summary of trip.

Storm force winds to begin with F10 gusting F11, 69mph recorded on the instruments. Ripped mainsail twice. stormbound in Stromness for two days, and a couple of long wet passages, but good company, fantastic scenery including the Caledonian Canal and some interesting stops along the way.
Total mileage for the trip is 393 miles
All in all a good trip.

Once I get my sketches and sketchbooks in some sort of order I will scan a selection and make them available as a free download from my websites www.paintingwildscotland.co.uk and www.carrbridgestudios.com
In the next few weeks when I get some paintings done and prints produced you will be able to compare the field sketches with the finished work.
In a later blog post I will give some details of my travel sketching kit. It has been reduced to quite a compact kit which can be taken just about anywhere.