Al

HWD 07:15 & 19:41 Tide runs south from 6 hrs before HWD Peel approx 48Nm Plan to set off around 12:00 with winds gradually forecast to increase mid morning and to take advantage of the tide going south. We will need to stay north of the direct line to Peel as the winds in the centre of the channel are shown to be too light for sailing Concern over visitor mooring at Peel being exposed to Northerly winds overnight. Shopping in Asda. Water tank filled. Fuel up with £37.25 @ 1.56 at 12:10 = 23.8ltr. Interestingly Bangor Marina do offer Camping Gaz in the small bottles we use, for future reference. We motored out from the fuel berth and raised the main leaving the job until we had gone round the headland. With a 12kt wind we sailed on a beat to the cardinal buoy, shutting down the engine. There were several sailing boats following us down from further up Belfast Lough and as we turned into the Donaghadee Sound the wind died as we unfurled the code 0, switched to the spinnaker and really just drifted down on the tide through the channel. Once we got the spinnaker sorted we sailed for a while testing our spinnaker knowledge in V light winds.. When we came to try and drop the spinnaker it was clear that there was a problem with the halyard, As we weren’t able to resolve this from the deck Luke engaged on a mast climb, reporting back that there was a knot in the halyard around 300mm from the head shackle. Once cleared we recovered Luke and the spinnaker and continued with a mixture of the code 0 and the motor. 16:33 wind was dying so attempted to start the engine, loud noise and engine stalled. Tried again and saw a big plastic bag come off under the stern. Still not operating so started in neutral and selected reverse then forward. Now OK. For a short period the winds increased and we deployed the code 0 again, 10 minutes later we had to give up and go with the motor. 17:45 still motoring as winds now less than 4kt. A significant occluded front is following us while we are currently in beautiful sunshine so now we must prepare for the next wet and windy period of this crossing to Peel. Atmospheric pressure is at 1006 at 17:50 A fishing vessel was due to cross exactly on our course so I called them up and informed them we would sail to their stern so I asked how long their nets were, approx 50m, however they turned and didn’t get in our way too much. We managed to avoid the rain once again during the late afternoon as we sailed towards Peel arriving at around 21:20 picking up one of the visitor moorings.

Today’s plan is to sail south to Ballycastle Slight increase in pressure Departure 10:00 High water Rathlin 14:28 Cast off at #10:01 Motored to exit the harbour to get a good line to the starboard cardinal mark. Raised the main and turned to point to a waypoint to the west of Rathlin Island. Initially 2 reefs with wind speeds of 19kt and the threat of showers. Course 190 deg 11:30 It is now sunny and the wind speed are dropping off to 11kt. We took out the reefs and resumed our course, now max,185 deg Winds varying and affecting our course but making good progress until 13:00 when the winds died down so that we had to motor sail to keep us west of Rathlin Island as the tide would start to carry us eastwards shortly. As we crossed the TSZ there was a survey vessel, Corystes, running along the centre of the TSZ to the west. As it was directly on our bow and travelling very slowly I checked on the VHF to ask if we were OK to transit her stern. Having received their permission with a warning that they were towing some survey equipment we continued to head up to regain our westward cross track difference. 13;30 engine off eased our course back to a heading of 190. So far we had sailed bSlowed to avoid the next showered between the rain showers and not got wet so we slowed down on this next section to avoid the incoming next heavy showers which were now covering Ballycastle and the west end of Rathlin Island. Over the course of today we have seen lots of groups of gannets flying in their long perfect lines as though it was just one joined up tail swinging low between the now rolling atlantic swell. . Passing the western end of Rathlin Island Called the harbour master at Ballycastle to check on moorings, told to ring back when we were 15 minutes out. Having confirmed the location of our berth we entered the harbour after checking with the dredger, on operations in the harbour, that we were good to pass ahead of her. This was the same vessel which we had seen in Portrush in the early days of this cruise. On the pontoon for 15:16

Some heavy early morning rain dampened our enthusiasm a little as we prepared to set off to head south of The Sound of Luing. The wind rapidly filled in after we came out of the loch and we could see the rain clouds building to the South. Soon we had to put in 2 reefs and down came the rain. We were so wet as we passed Easdale we decided to go and moor for a quick lunch and we picked up a morning buoy. After reviewing our understanding of the tides and the currents we realied that we should be going now! So we motored round the headland and raised the main in winds varying from 9kt to 26kt until we had got through the very narrow channel in the Sound of Luing and had passed a yacht making passage north when we deployed the jib and sailed at up to 9kt with the tides running through the sound. As by now we were pretty wet and running out of energy we decided to head for Ardfern rather than our original destination for the evening at Loch Sween. We arrived at the marina at around 14:15 and had our long awaited lunch which Luke had cooked while we headed north uo the loch. The marina at Ardfern had changed a fair bit since I had been here on Marian Maid back in the 2020’s. The chandlery is well stocked as is the local shop where we restocked some basics and returned to Flair IV. The rain has kept us onboard for the afternoon and even now at 20:20 we are hesitating to go for a walk.

Luke came on board at 03:00 We spent the morning doing jobs such as mending the lazyjack sailbag zip and straightening out and re-furling the Code Zero We left the pontoon around 11 and headed out to follow Moonraker out towards the Sound of Mull. Almost as soon as we set off the ferry started to move so we had to loiter for a while. We flew the code zero as we left the harbour area and passed Moonraker to say a last goodbye on their passage to Iceland, then headed up to sail across to Loch Spelve. Sailing southwest towards our destination in glorious sunshine along the coast of Mull. We followed 1 yacht into the loch but they went to the western area of the lock whereas we went round the massive fish farm areas to the north. We had anchored at 15:45 after motoring up through the narrow passage and shortly after there came 3 other yachts and anchored in the same area. We launched the tender and went ashore via the fish farm pontoon. The fish farm is a fantastic facility with an honesty jar for buying mussels. We bought a bag 2kg ready for our dinner and then went for a walk to look for deciduous trees. On spotting several large oak trees Al and I turned and walked back. Collecting our mussels and a bag of ice from the ice maker we got back to the launch to go back to the boat when Mr Jogger, Luke, reappeared and we all returned to FlairIV to create our dinner of way to many mussels! I made a white wine sauce with some of my crème franchise.

Tobermory to Puilladobhrain Cast off 07:25 Winds s 10:15 Sails raised coming out from Tobermory Tacking south on The Sound of Mull. 10:45 unfurled the main. Exiting the sound of Mull. 11:30 Set course to anchorage 12:00 Arrived 13:15 The anchorage is small and quite narrow but we allowed 25m of chain. The anchorage became very busy! Evening spent with colleagues from Holyhead on Moonraker and crew Walked towards the Bridge over the Atlantic to go to the pub but it was closed Monday and Tuesday.

09:25 left the harbour 09:58 raised main A nice easterly 10 Kt breeze met us as we exited the harbour but this was on the bow so motoring out to the open seas was the only option. At the eastern end of the loch we raised the main and unfurled the jib, however after a couple of minutes it was obvious that the there was insufficient wind; back on the motor with the main pulling slightly we headed north. 11:35 altered course to go into Usinish bay.. feeding pod of common dolphins and gannets stopped motoring to watch keeping a safe distance. Crew went ashore for a wander and came back with Al’s collection of discarded buoys significantly enlarged, almost no room remaining in his cabin now! Lifted anchor. At 14:35 Resuming planned route to Loch Maddy Wind filled in a little from the East Northeast by 15:15 allowing us to sail for a while. Beatiful conditions with the sea mist forming just above the water making the coastline look spectacular, rising above the mist in the blazing sunshine, as we sailed past Benbecula. Arouind 17;10 the winds started to back and ease off so by 17:20 we furled the jib and started the motor to get into Loch Maddy and seek out the anchorage in the sheltered bay at the SE corner of the loch. There are a couple of moorings but the advice is that these should not be used so we anchored and watched our swing as the seabed here is very weedy. A late dinner on the cockpit table cooked by Tess skillfully managing to provide Al a non spicy variant of our pasta, and everything else that needed eating, stirfry.

We saw the 3 super motor yachts, that we had seen as we left the Ross of Mull, in line racing north. The wind continued at around 10 - 12 Kt until aroun 10:00 when it started to die away. Our speed over the ground dropped to around 5kt on a course of 330. This is when we saw the first significant pod of common dolphins. The approached us from our port quarter and played around under the boat around the bow, beautiful to watch! After about a half hour break we saw a second smaller pod at 56-43.72N 6-54.5W. With all our first round of watches nearing completion we are now some 21Nm to our destination at Eriksay. 15:00 winds too light for the spinnaker and battery power down to 11.5, dropped the spinnaker and the main to motor the last 3.5 nm to the first waypoint into the An Anacarsaid Mhor. Conditions in the bay made it quite difficult to anchor safely but we ended up on the south side of the bay to the east missing two pots. 16:0 on anchor and checking swing as we were very close to the rock face. Following discussions it was decided that we would have dinner at anchor and then move up to Loch Eynort. The plan for getting Tess to her transport options on the 18th led to more discussions on how to spend the remaining days, a gradual move with short hops up the east coast, weather dependent to get us to LochMaddy in time for Tess’s departure. Having discovered that the inflatable dinghy pump had lost a steel retaining strip we jury rigged the pump, glue, duct tape and string being the chosen repair items. Anyway it worked and we were able to reinflate the dinghy ready in case anyone needed to go ashore before we set off. Al cooked macaroni cheese while we were tending to the tender and then we prepared to lift the anchor at 20:15. By now the warmth was beginning to fade a little but with very little wind and that there was was riptht on the nose, so motoring was our only option. ETA at the little marina is 22:05. With the srain in gently setting the glare on the water as we go west makes it difficult to see any pots etc. and now it is getting quite chilly.

Off anchor at 09:30 but flat calm so we had to motor all the way to our destination of Tyree. From here we are hoping to make passage to Barra either overnight or tomorrow. We moored on one of the visitor moorings at 12:15 and then sat in the saloon sorting out the shopping list. Fuel refilled tank at Gott Bay it appears we have used less than 20ltr since Portrush Al took Helen and Tess ashore at 14:00 with laundry, food bags etc before Al returns to the boat to pick me up with the diesel and water containers and the rubbish we collected from various beaches on our travels, Unfortunately there were no facilities for us to leave rubbish here so we had to bring the haul back. Al and I went to get Diesel which involved a 4 mile excursion kindly assisted by the café owner. A nice meal in the pub before returning to FlairIV for a quiet nights sleep

Plan to raise the anchor art 09:00 was managed to the minute as we motored in flat calm conditions away from this lovely anchorage. Visibility was slightly occluded but perfect conditions for motoring and recharging the batteries. With very limited access through my Vodafone network I am struggling to make connections to use the new apps I had hoped to take advantage of, Savvy Navvy and Sail ties. Approaching Staffa we did get good internet allowing me to update various pieces of the software mix. So Vodafone is not good here, Al gets much more connectivity on EE! Dolphins Helen saw at 10:20 The voyage to Staffa went without a hitch under motor and we passed 4 significant sized motor yachts with overall length in excess of 100m in the other small coves to the west of where we had spent the night, thank goodness we had been on our own! The sound between Iona and the Ross of Mull looked very interesting, with its Cathedral, but we had decided to stay outside the west coast of Iona so we motored on seeing boats in Tinkers Hole and avoiding the isolated rocks to the south of Iona. Rounding the Iona we headed north watching with interest the marine traffic arriving and departing from Fingals Cave. We had the Mendelssohn Fingals Cave playing on the radio from Spotify as we approached with a beautiful large French sailing boat circling around the entrance. We decided to M toro past the masses and anchored off the northern side of the entrance and sat down for our mackerel and salad lunch. After lunch Helen decided to stay on Flair IV on ancho r watch while we other 3 went ashore to look at the birds and get into the cave. The place was busy, although nothing like the crows at The Giants Causeway, but from our landing place we walked up the steep cliff path meeting lots of visitors who had come on the Staffa Tour boats. Having negotiated the human traffic on the very steep and busy stairs we finally made it into the cave. it is hugely impressive especially the accousatics for Tess singing. I received a call from Helen concerned about the anchor slipping just as I was about to enter the cave, I advised her that it was probably just the anchor chain slipping to straighten itself but asked her to call me if the situation developed further. In the cave I informed the crew and we then hurried back t the boat and after a slightly difficult launch with the dinghy in the now brisk Northerly wind but we made it safely back to Flair and prepared to set off on the second leg for the day eastwards to Geometra Harbour. With the wind now at 16 to 22 Kt this passage did not take very long from 15:00 when we raised the anchor to 16:30 on the anchor in the bay in around 6m of water at 2 hours after the start of the ebb tide. Passage discussions over a drink before Helen went for a swim have and then she and Al went off in the dinghy while Tess made dinner and I sat to write up todays log.

Day 2 After a very still night at anchor in Bangor Bay the crew seemed to have had a good night’s sleep and we were almost ready to up anchor at 08:00 but a slight glitch in the anchor locker meant a short delay; the anchor rope had got caught in the chain and stuck in the windlasst drive wheel. Flair’s new windlass worked well and my great uncle, Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor’s design, the CQR anchor, which had held us well, lifted as per the design spec with the windlass clutch tightened for the final lift from the sea bed. Once freed we set off with a quickly infilling wind sailing with the main and the code 0 with the SE wind at 8 to 10kn. A really encouraging start to the day. Flair made good progress across the entrance to Belfast Lough avoiding the odd ferry or two. As we rounded the end of the Lough and turned to port our apparent wind angle went beyond the useful point for the code 0 and the floater spinnaker was deployed in the reducing winds. By 11:15 we had to give up on the spinnaker too and resorted to motor sailing, this remained the case for the majority of the day. In the morning the passage plan route was given to Savvy Navvy to verify with the tides and timings this route was then exported as a gpx file and transferred to the B&G chart plotter. All good and off we set with the intention of being at Rathlin Sound by the time the tidal streams would be in our favour.