Scotland - Caitlin & Talisker

After saying farewell to our "Pipedreamer" crew on Saturday morning (7th July) we had time for a quick cappuccino outside the village store before the advance guard for the next crews arrived. Frank & Terry Page had kindly offered to do a mega shop at Oban for us so we were very pleased to see them.

Meanwhile we transfered our gear onto Caitlin, a Beneteau Oceanis 411. Mike and Elsie Lyth arrived from Carlisle in the afternoon. We had worked on OM with Mike and Elsie in the '70's and Mike is team leader of the OM International Co-ordinating team. We were thrilled they could join us and renew friendship.

The rest our our crew and the crew for Talisker eventually arrived by minibus from Glasgow airport. Jim McGibbon and Baastian van Griensven completed the eight for Caitlin. Mike Salisbury, Richard Hovey, Mary Heathcote, Gay Maxwell and Peter Jolly were assigned to Talisker, a Dufour 385. Mike had sailed with me on Kerenza last year and to Brittany and Guernsey on Wild Betony in April this year. It was great to have him take on skippering a second boat, our first attenpt at running two boats together.

We decided not to sail on Saturday evening, giving time for folk to settle into the boats. On Sunday after briefings, we headed out into the loch for an introduction to sailing for the uninitiated and a chance to see how the boats worked.

Then we set off around Shuna and Luing and up to the Firth of Lorn. We decided to head for Loch Spelve again as it was such a success the previous week. We had a weird experience crossing the Firth when the echo sound recorded minimal depths, even zero where the charts showed at least 90 metres of water. We could only comclude that a submarine was lurking beneath us!

On our boat we had keen bird watchers Frank and Terry giving a running commentary on the bird life around us. Mary on Talisker is a regular visitor to Mull and could tell us exactly what birds and animals to expect at every turn.

In addition to this being the first outing with two boats it was also the first time we have had eight people on one boat, six being the maximum previously. Caitlin has eight berths without having to use the saloon, having said that Jim and Baastian had to shrink to fit into their bunks! Overall I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked. The trick seems to be 'divided and conquer' as in large families. When there are different activities such as sailing, navigating, sleeping, reading and birdwatching people seem to find their own space and the boat doesn't feel too crowded.

We sailed from Loch Spelve to Tobermory again on the Monday, the Sound of Mull presenting some great sailing and wonderful scenery again.

Tobermory was very busy when we arrived there and we didn't think we would get a mooring but the harbourmaster kindly let us raft up on the outside of the fuel pontoon for the night which was great as the shopping and showers brigade could tumble ashore with glee.

It was a beautiful evening when the effects of a late summer sunset in the north was put to good effect in the colourful setting of Tobermory Harbour. We were able to have our dinner in the cockpits almost Mediterranean style.

Sailing from Tobermory the next morning we headed north around the top of Mull and set course for Coll. After motoring on Caitlin into a head wind we then had a terrific sail. Talisker chose to tack out of the Sound of Mull, geting caught in some rain but finally broke free into fine weather joining us in Aringour harbour.

The plan was for a walk across the island to some sandy beaches on the north side. Only three of the party made it the whole way and reported on wonderful sands. The rest either enjoyed exploring Aringour or stayed on baord reading. In the evening we all met up at the Hotel for a terrific meal in a very friendly establishment.

On the next day we set sail for the Treshnish Islands. We were very fortunate having ideal weather and sea conditions for visit to these amazing islands two weeks running. Everyone was very excited at the prospest of walk amongst the puffins.

After arriving at the anchorage Lois informed Talisker on the ship's vhf that we would have lunch on board and wait 'til the 'grockles' had all left the island before going ashore. She forgotn that on marine vhf every vessel from Cape Wrath to Malin Head can listen in on your conversation - including the 'grockle' boat 50 metres away! When we got back to the marina at the end of the week people from other boats keptr commenting on the ' authoritative sounding lady on Caitlin'!

As predicted, everyone was totally amazed at the Treshnish experience. The guillemots put on another deafening display of community screeching and the puffins strutted their stuff posing for photos and demonstrating their unique version of flying.

We eventually tore ourselves away from this little paradise and headed for our next stop, Fingal's Cave on Staffa. On the way we encountered a trawler doing what trawlers do. The previous week it was very late and dull when we got to Staffa. This week we had glorious evening sunlight and got some great photos.

We stopped overnight in our usual anchorage at Bunessan, sailing again in the morning through the Sound of Iona. This time the weather was very dull, even threatening to be foggy. The tide was low so we had to engotiate the Sound carefully. Thanksfully the mist cleared as we came out into the Firth of Lorne as there are a maze of rocks defending the southern end of the Sound.

We then had a very pleasant and 'sunny' sail across the Firth, I even managed to get a couple of hours kip down below. Then we had to wend our way around the Garvellachs and into the Sound of Luing with some very challenging tides pushing us this way and that (or was it Frank's steering Terry wondered?!).

We eventually reached the quiet waters of Loch Craignish and anchored for the night in the 'Lagoon'. We were joined later in the evening by 'Seventh Wave', our friend Andrew's training yacht. The next morning we saw him teaching a bunch of inner city Doncaster youngsters to rig the sails.

On our final day we decided to invade an island. Our friends Chris and Mary Jenkin (see Pipedreamer) had invited us to visit their family island Eilean Macaskin in Loch Craignish, just opposite Crinan. So we anchored off Goat Ilsnad and went ashore prepared for a one and a half mile walk to their cabin at the other end. It was pretty rough terrain and eventually some of our crew were rescued by thier 80 year old motor launch! We had a great time with Lucy and her children and friends. It was like stepping into an 'Arthur Ransome / Enid Blyton world and a great conclusion to our cruise.

Friday night found us back in Craobh Haven enjoying a celebratory meal at the Lord of the Isles pub. Everyone agreed we had had a very successful week exploring the Inner Hebrides again.