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Date: 28 Jul 2012 23:49:00
Title: Lochaline to Tobermory
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56:37.19N  006:03.78W
 
It’s amazing how a single quiet night can soothe a rough sea.  When we turned into Lochaline yesterday the Sound of Mull ahead was a sheet of turbulent, white water – this morning as we emerged just north of Ardtornish Bay and Castle to continue our passage to Tobermory, it was pretty much flat with a pleasant 10-12kts of wind.
 
 
We were followed out by a succession of boats and soon we were beating up the Sound (the wind whilst perfect for the flat sea was still blowing down the Sound) at the head of a group of around a dozen sailing boats.  One cheated and motored past but the rest of us had an excellent morning recreating our alternative West Highland Yachting Week.  Although the photos show a lot of cloud, we were in sunshine for almost the whole passage, the exception being off Salen, where the broad valley to the west was funnelling through a succession of impressively torrential rain showers.  They were quite slow moving and so close together that everybody got a soaking – but fortunately no significant squalls – so a single precautionary reef in the jib was enough to keep us stable.  In fact, as we were almost though and could see sun on the water 100 yards ahead, the wind stopped and we pretty came to a dead halt with the sun just about in touching range and the rain still pouring.  No hesitation, on went the engine, and 30 seconds later we were steaming in warm sunshine. 
 
 
 
After 15 miles of beating in strengthening winds we were still ahead of the pack and feeling pleased with our sail trim and racing tacks – Ann on the helm and me on the sheets.
We were overtaken in the last few minutes as we came into Tobermory bay and a local boat took a closer line to Calve Island and squeezed ahead of us.  We thought about taking a pontoon berth, but the views are better from the moorings and the wind angle was going to give all the berthed boats wet cockpits from the heavy showers forecast for tonight.  The moorings here are now totally bullet proof – with a pick-up buoy and short rope onto about 5m of heavy chain to the buoy (rated 15t).  The downside is that the chain is a major hazard to shiny topsides and I had to remove the bowsprit so we could take it over our second roller and keep it clear.
 
 
The sun stayed with us the whole afternoon for a splendid mooch around the Tobermory shops and a brisk walk to Aros Park and the waterfalls.  A chill evening with the strengthening NW’ly wind but still good for supper in our revolving restaurant (cockpit) at 9pm.
 




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