55:38.1N 6:07.5W

The skipper took advantage of the 36 hour crew interregnum, progressing the never ending maintenance list.  Various crew members will be pleased to know that such troublesome items as the small leak in the pressurised FW system and the associated insufficient HW temperature, the breakaway navigator’s chair, the rattling companionway stairs while the engine is running, the fractured cockpit drinks holder, the frayed ensign and the noisy hinge in the heads cupboard have all been sorted.  For now, at any rate. 

 

 

As the saying goes, cruising under sail is really all about ‘fixing boats in exotic places’.

Pippa and Stuart flew in on Sunday as scheduled, but unfortunately we had taken the decision a few days earlier that Sarah would have to delay her participation in this venture until the situation with Mum, who broke her hip a week ago, was back on an even keel.  Dorchester Hospital seem to have done a superb job so far, and with a bit of luck she will be back at her home in the Old Vic fairly soon.

The new crew soon made themselves at home – task one for the skipper was to provide the correct voltage for a hair dryer:

 

 

Wasn’t like this with the delivery crew…..!

We sailed on Monday in a SW4-5, with the intent of nosing our way into the very tight entrance to Lagavulin Bay.  The 4 mile trip was not without incident: the skipper’s old laptop that he has used for the past 9 years to display electronic charts did not survive an encounter with a breakaway nav station panel.  I had failed to properly secure the bolts to the latter.  So nav reverted to Plan B (visual fixing) as we made our way to the bay’s extremely tight entrance.  Feeling our way in at 0.5kt, we had one brief encounter with a kelp covered rock, but a 5m adjustment brought success at ‘take 2’.  10 minutes later we were secured to a buoy, 50m off the Holy Grail.

Needless to say, we went ashore for a tour – here is the crew before the event:

 

 

 Back on board, Stuart spent hours attempting to put in a software patch so that my normal laptop can display GPS inputs from the nav station.  Progress was made – we are now ‘tantalisingly close’ (needs to be said in a Welsh accent – in joke with delivery crew since listening to the election results back in Holyhead)….he turned in still mulling over the problem.  A superb ‘sausage pasta mit je ne sais quois’ by Pippa rounded off a fun day.

Tomorrow, we plan to tour the distilleries warehouses (will post detail sin next blog), and then head further up the Sound of Jura.  That’s assuming we can get past this lot….