Sunday 22nd May

In Travemunde until May 2020
Nick Pochin
Sun 22 May 2011 22:11
position 57:21N 05:39W. Plockton.
My last diary report was a week ago so I will bring you up to date.
Donald arrived in Oban on Monday and we left Oban marina on Tuesday
arriving in Loch Scresort on the island of Rhum.We anchored in Port Mor on
the island of Muck for lunch before going on to Rhum.
In Rhum the generator stopped with a terminal problem!! No alternative we
had to go backwards to Askaig to rendezvous with a mechanic to get it
fixed. We sailed across to the mainland on Thursday and spent all day
Friday with our heads in the bilges. It wasn't the head gasket. It was the
valves that were sticking due to overfilling the oil, causing the valves
to carbon up. Charley did a great job and by six o'clock we were back in
business.In the meantime Donald took the girls to Maleig on the steam
train.We tied the dinghy to the stern for the night-or should I say Donald
tied the dinghy, and when I woke up the dinghy had gone!! I spotted it in
the distance about a mile away on the rocks. With help from Graham the
marina manager we retrieved it.
We set off in the early hours of Saturday to go to Ornsay to meet up with
Sue and Bernard.We picked up a mooring buoy off the hotel in 45 knots of
wind in what had become a light breeze compared with the last few days!
Great dinner in the hotel where we said goodbye to Donald and hello to
Bernard.Beaching the dinghy and relaunching was exciting and very wet!
We set off to sail to Plockton a mere 21 n miles but set off at 0730 hrs
to get in ahead of the gale force winds forecast.approaching the bridge to
Skye we furled in the genoa to make navigation easier. The furling line
pulled out of the furler which meant there was no way of furling away the
genoa! We shot under the bridge at 11 knots and why is it that even with
30 metre clearance and with an air draft of 23 metre you still think that
you will slice the mast in two?!! As soon as we were in clear water we
dumped the genoa and motored to Plockton and picked up a mooring buoy in a
gentle zephyr of 35 knots. We have now had a week of thunderstorms, non
stop winds, wind from 25 to 55 knots, thunderstorms,snow, hailstones,and
cold.We intended to sail to Stornoway tomorrow but a hurricaine is coming
later tomorrow and we are not sure if we can get there before it arrives.
Anyway who wants to go to Iceland now the Volcano has errupted! We are
waiting for the wind to drop so that we can hoist the genoa and furl it
away so tomorrow we stay in Plocket and wait for the world to sort itself
out!

Tak jak napisal Nick duzo sie narobilo przez ostatnie pare dni, po tym jak
dzis rano zerwal nam sie fal genuy czekamy juz tylko na dobry wiatr, bo
coz jeszcze moze nam sie przytrafic przed wyprawa na Islandie.Codziennie
sprawdzamy pogode,niestety jutro ma byc okropnie ;/ Czas oczekiwania w
strugach deszczu i szalonym wietrze zabijamy gotowaniem,czytaniem (w
roznych jezykach),gra w karty i kosci (o to kto zmywa po kolacji)oraz
ogladaniem filmow o wyprawach w nieznane.
Wiecznie w pogotowiu, w kaloszach i sztormiakach jak tylko przestaje padac
wskakujemy do "dingiego" (ponton) i plyniemy (z aparatem w rece) zaskoczyc
fleszem jakas pania sprzedajaca scotisch tablet (polska krowka) w cukierni
albo...pana z zapalem zawijajacego w gazety "fish & chips".
Pozdrowienia i czekamy na zyczenia pomyslnych wiatrow, cieplego kubryka i
utalentowanego gitarzysty;D. AA