We anchored in Loch Aline, this meant that on this trip we had been on the pontoon, taken a mooring ball, and now we were anchored. So, if you ever come to the Loch Aline, there are plenty of places for you to choose how you want to secure yourself.
While we were anchored we meet up with one of our followers, so we had a very nice time aboard their boat. We love meeting up with people and we always try to spend time with people. It is all part of our journey.
While we were anchored up, I tend to sew, or do puzzles, so on this particular day Patch draped himself around my salopettes to remind me that they needed a patch, so that is what I did.
We had been on anchor for one day because the wind was not in our favour, but the next day, it was still partly against but some of the wind could be of use to us, so I decided that we could depart. It meant that Beverley certainly got her exercise in because it was a short tack day, with plenty of tack up the Sound of Mull. However the wind started to increase and soon the wind was up to a Force 6 and we were bashing into it, so it was really trying, so I decided that we had, had enough so we turned around and went down the Sound of Mull to Loch Aline. This meant that I got a bit of down wind practice and goose winged down the Sound of Mull.
That night we took the pontoon, just so that we could have a shower and things like that. Also, I would have lots of electricity so that I could do some work.
Two days later the wind flipped by 180° so now the wind would be with us rather than against us. The wind was still a force 6 but because we were going with the wind, our speed over ground was subtracted from the wind speed so it felt less rather than more. On top of this the wind was going with the tide so the wave height was also reduced. The passage was a little bit swelly, but nothing that we couldn't cope with.
We decided to go into Tobermory because in the Outer Hebrides where we were going, we had been told that diesel could be a little bit hard to come by, so we decided that we would get a jerry can and fill that us so that we had spare. By the time we had done all our shopping and sorted ourselves out, it was getting late so we decided to take a ball for the night.
Even though we were very close to the town and the marina, we had no phone signal and the Wi-Fi from the marina was very spotty, so we had to get the weather forecast from the radio and our tide book was out supplying us with tidal heights and information that we required for our passage. This is one of Beverley's pet topics so she tells me to understand them. Sometimes it is a real pain, but I'm getting better at it every day.
The mooring ball that we took was really tucked in and we had to put much of its chain onto the deck, just so that our turning circle was reduced. The other issue with the moorings at Tobermory at the moment is that some of the moorings have been moved by boats that were far too big for the moorings.
We left the next day, motor sailing and soon we were at Ardnamurchan point the most westerly point on main land Britain and to celebrate this point Beverley gave us the Ardnamurchan rap, which personally I found funny.
