A different day in Scotland and the weather was completely different. The day before we had too much wind, while on this day we had too little and what we did have was bang on our nose, so we started out motoring. So we motored up the sound and between the islands, one of which had a rock that looked just like a dog, and the peninsular near Keillmore, but once we had navigated that little passage, we turned up the sound of Jura. Now the wind was in our favour, so we got the sails out and turned the engine off.

While we were making passage, we had various choices, put the motor on then anchor for a few hours so that we made the tidal gate, or sail slow and still make the gate. We decided to sail slow, which is just as relaxing as being at an anchor, even more so if you can relax, which we were doing. Near Carsaig bay, we crossed the sound of Jura so that we could miss Dorus Mor, but on the Jura side we had catabatic winds coming off the island, so we had to be a little bit more on our game. Near the end of the Gulf of Corryvreckan, we saw a pod of dolphins and one cat that was also looking at the dolphins, came very close to us because they were so set on following the pod. I put the engine on to go through the Sound of Luing, but as soon as I got through the gap between the light houses the engine was off and we were back to sailing. We sailed as much as we could, but we finished the sail with a motor sail up Kerrera Sound all the way to Oban transit marina.

The next day we met some fellow You Tubers Rob and Jen from sailing Volupia. Before we bought Salty Lass, we followed them, when they bought a shed of a boat called Squires Lady. They fixed it up and then sold it to buy their bigger boat Volupia. Seeing as they were there I thought that I would get a quick tour of their boat, which is a Beneteau first 435 from 1988. They are planning to live-aboard like we do, so they are in the process of getting rid of stuff so that they have more room for boat stuff.

We had travelled to Oban so that we could meet our friend Karen, so that we could go on a weeks holiday with her.

While we were in Oban we also noticed a clipper race boat, back in 2017, we had hosted the start of the 2017 clipper race and as club officers we had met with skippers and crew. So I was very cheeky and got a quick tour of the clipper training vessel. On the clipper race there are 22 crew, so you have 11 people in each watch. On for six hours in the day and four hours on and four hours off at night.

Each crew member has a bunk and three spaces for their personal stuff, while the skipper and the first mate have a bunk with some privacy. Although not a lot, as their room is also the ships stores for wet gear and other essential equipment. I was particularly interested in the galley as it only had a 2 ring gas burner and no fridge. Normally, they do about 4 or 5 sail changes in a day, so the crew have plenty to keep themselves occupied.

Back on Salty Lass, I found Beverley dismantling the toilet as a whole load of seaweed had gone up the water in take for the toilet. So we cleared the pipe as best as we could, then put the pipe back on using a spike that we found in the locker. We laughed because we only had one spike, two would be an extravagance.

The next day, we had Karen on the helm as we navigated through the overflows at Lismore and into Loch Aline, our first stop.