Canna
Bliss
Wed 18 May 2016 10:10
Bliss on mooring in Canna Harbour
Monday, 16th May
We Left Loch Aline at about 9.30 after having "bent-on" the repaired mainsail, much less problematic than we expected it to be, having been only 6 weeks since we did it before launching. I also had to call up the "submarine activity 24hr hotline", we will be sailing through submarine exercise areas and don't want to bump into one! They broadcast the information twice a day, but we'd missed that. I'm not sure that many sailors bother as the officer that answered the phone didn't have the information to hand and had to call me back half an hour later with the reassurance that "there would be no submarine activity in the areas we were sailing and to have a great day's sailing", lovely man. Quite tempted to call him up again today but he might think us incompetent having failed to catch the broadcast on two consecutive days, so we'll just keep a sharp lookout for periscopes!
With a good following breeze we sailed up to Tobermory for fuel and arrived at the same time as the rain. Tobermory is a very pretty town on Mull, and it would have been nice to stay a while, maybe we will on the way back. We had a good sailing breeze, but forecast of very light day on Wednesday and then strong wind for several days, so we have to work backwards with our planning. We need to know we have a safe, sheltered mooring for the stormy days. We are aiming to get to Loch Harport on Skye, it has good shelter, has some good walks and mountains to climb, being close to the Cuillin Hills, and if the weather is really bad, actually even if it isn't , there are tasting tours of the Talisker distillery. Neither Chris or I are particularly keen on whisky, it would be fair to say that we dislike the stuff, so we shall immerse ourselves in the history, the passion, the mystique that surrounds the distilling process and see if we can be converted, if it's going to happen, it will here, Skye's only, and one of the most famous distilleries in Scotland. We'll give it our best shot, or two.
Canna, a beautiful little island with lots of birds and not many people. We picked up a mooring at about 6pm, it had rained since we left Tobermory and everything was very wet. Our first night on a swinging mooring, without the marina facilities or the ability to step off the boat onto a pontoon, we're glad of our wind generator to keep the fridge running and lights working. A magical little bay with just a few boats. The wind dropped, the rain stopped; peaceful, beautiful. This is what this adventure is about.
We took the dinghy ashore and to our surprise and delight the Canna Cafe serves evening meals which were highly recommended by fellow sailors. We had a glass of Skye ale, Chris ordered lobster and I had a veggie burger, all absolutely delicious. The cafe was full, 12 customers, some sailors, some staying in holiday cottages, we chatted to a few, swapped stories with sailors. Great to see a place like this thriving on somewhere so remote.
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