Terra Firma

Himself, Keith and I are back after 10 days at sea and the house is still swaying.

Look for the Canadian courtesy flag - and yes, all the tell tales are smartly flicking away.

We started with a sail up the Sound of Mull for a night at anchor in Loch na Drooma Budhie (aka Drambuie), then over to the Isle of Canna where we had a wonderful meal at the Canna Restaurant and a nasty night in high winds. Keith hauled up a whole load of kelp in the morning.

The next day, a quick nip over to the Isle of Rhum to finally take the tour of Kinloch Castle (my nose imprints are all over the windows; it was amazing to finally see the interior). 

Kinloch Castle has a short yet colourful history. Among the many unique features that the castle has is a very special music player called the 'Orchestrion'. The Orchestrion is essentially an organ driven by electric motor that plays perforated card rolls. It was originally made for Queen Victoria, who subsequently died before receiving it, and as the house was already completed, it had to be squished under the stairs! Make sure your volume is up; it is hilarious!!

And then a vicious sail on to Loch Moidart, on the mainland of Morven, which has a very scary entry. We stayed two quiet nights at anchor to enjoy exploring the ruined Castle Tioram and the lovely Silver Walk along the loch.   

We carried on back down to Sound with a great sail to Loch Aline for another walk, this time in the sadly neglected gardens and the wonderful woodlands of the Ardtornish Estate.  We met Alan Davidson who has the enormous task of cleaning up fallen trees after the huge winds we experienced a couple of weeks ago.

A short sail the next day took us to Loch Spelve where we bought £4 worth of fresh mussels; Keith cooked them on board and there were way too many for the three of us - d e l i c i o u s!

It was a great 6 hour sail to my favourite anchorage at West Loch Tarbet, Jura where the wind howled and screamed and the boats strained at the anchors all night. I was disappointed to have to run away but the conditions were fierce.

So, we upped and battled our way to the Sound of Islay where the tide was with us and whipped down and over to Craighouse, Jura in no time.  Mercifully we had a mooring; the skippers could get a reasonable night's sleep and we had a nice meal in the pub where we unexpectedly met up with friends.

The next day we goose-winged all the way up the Sound of Jura to anchor in the lovely Ardinamor Bay (with a very, very, very shallow entrance).

We waited for hight tide the next morning and then negotiated the challenging Cuan Sound to return back to base at Dunstaffnage Marina just before the rains came pelting down.

We passed by NBH.