Ardminish Bay, Gigha 55:40.42N 05:43.88W
19 August
We were expecting a lot of wind last night and it arrived
more or less as forecast at around 2am. Mixed with the wind howling
through the rigging were the faint sounds of our neighbours' sausage dog
- very friendly and nothing like as brave as he made out - whimpering
pathetically. I put it down to lack of sea legs (well legs generally I
suppose) and turned over and went back to sleep. It transpired that the
owners had departed for an evening of partying leaving the fresh water running
- which transferred the contents of their newly, filled water tanks into their
shallow bilge and then the saloon - leaving the sorry little dog in 6 inches of
water. Very serious when you have less than that in legs.
The wind blew out by mid-morning leaving just a very wet
day. Most people were staying put, but no such luxury for us. A quick
look at the forecast made it clear that if we didn't press on and get down to
Gigha so that we can catch the tide and wind to Northern Ireland tomorrow - we
might be stuck here for another week. Ann suggested taking a permanent berth
at Ardfern immediately and then getting the bus to Glasgow - but that was
quickly vetoed. It didn't rain all day - just most of the time. There
was not much wind and what there was was right on the nose - so apart from a 10
minute flirtation with the main when the wind went west, it was engine all the
way. Ann sat below and worked through more of her art history library and
I sat under the sprayhood and drove the boat by wire - using the
autohelm. Visibility got worse and I had the radar on for the last
15 miles or so - very useful for spotting the fishing boats that seem to be
trolling up and down my planned route.
Leaving Loch Craignish
One of the benefits of stopping at Gigha - not that there are
many choices with the current winds - are 11 visitor moorings. Given that
Ardminish Bay is not the best place to be when the wind is in the east or
southeast, and that's where it had been for a while, we were fairly confident
that they would be largely empty. Not so - every one was taken!
A couple of boats had great festoons of chain linking them to the mooring buoy
and I suspect that a few of the visitors had been here for a while. Slightly
miffed (it was raining hard and picking up a mooring buoy would have been the
driest option) we tucked into the SW corner of the bay and dropped our
anchor. First on some kelp, second on some soft mud that gave way at 2000rpm
and third time nice and solid. There will be a bit of south easterly wind
tonight and we should have better shelter than all the moorings. Ann performed
magnificently, dropping and raising the chain without any bad language.
