Sunday 2nd September: Richard and I travelled up to Oban from 11am - roughly! Passed the mouth of Loch Etive and the Connel Bridge and stooped to view the impressive Falls Of Lora. (The falls are generated when the tide level in the Firth of Lorn drops below the level of the water in Loch Etive. On the Ebb tide, the seawater in Loch Etive pours out through the narrows).
Got to Dunstaffnage at around 6pm and loaded the boat & ate at 'The Wide Mouthed Frog'.
Monday 3rd September: Sailed up The Sound Of Mull. We set off about 1pm - on the engine until we had past the fish farm south of Ardmucknish/Dunstaffnage Bay - then we sailed with a reef - the second one - on the mainsail and creamed up the Sound of Mull.
The weather was OK and we enjoyed the beam reach with strong winds. I got a mooring by ringing the relief pontoon manager at Tobermory. We reached Calve Island and turned in and by then we were in heavy rain. By the time we had moored up - quite close in - we were thoroughly wet, so we ate in 'Macgochans' - the nearest place to the pontoons. It was v. average.
Tuesday 4th September: I looked around Tobermory and bought some milk from the Coop. We set sail, motoring out of Tobermory and headed north up the Sound. We had the sail up pretty quickly and had a good sail heading Northwestwards. Then we turned east for Loch Sunart - a sea loch that runs east from the sea, bounded to the north by the Sunart district of Ardnamurchan.
We passed Glenborrodale Castle and Mingary Castle ruins as well as Ben Hiant. Ben Laga and Ben Resipole can be clearly seen. At 19 miles long it is one of the longest sea lochs in the Highlands with a maximum depth of the loch over 120 metres (East of Càrna and the entrance to Loch Teacuis). Islands in the loch include Oronsay, seaward of Càrna, Risga, which lies between the two larger islands, and Eilean Mòr, which lies towards the landward end of the loch in line with Beinn Resipol. We sailed past Salen Bay and headed up the loch.
We spent about an hour sailing up towards Salen Jetty. This is situated within Salen Bay on the north shore of Loch Sunart on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. We had a meal at the Salen Hotel and afterwards Tom (Colville) joined us - Richard had called him as we relaxed at the Pier - he lives locally and enjoyed a couple of coffees as I listened to then reminisce about Drascombes.
Wednesday 5th September: We set off from the Pier at around 09:30 and motored out of the Loch. We put the sails up before we left the loch - just on the land side of the tidal island of Eilean Mor - and then turned down the Sound after we cleared Oronsay - a uninhabited, low-lying, barren and rocky, enclosing Loch Drumbuie.
We sailed down and then the wind dropped a bit. After Richard played around with the sails we got some good wind and had to gybe down the lower part of the Sound - using the engine at the latter stages and made it to Dunstaffnage - albeit late in the day - it was about 7 pm before we switched off and moored etc.
Thursday 5th September: The day dawned, with Cryptic on the pontoon at Dunstaffnage, wet and windy. More wind then rain but nevertheless not a pleasant start. I sorted a few things out while Richard had a shower etc. and got an up-to-date weather forecast. It looked grim so we decided to go home ... stopped off in Callander - at the Roman Camp Hotel - in 20 acres of gardens, on the banks of the River Teith, (salmon sea trout and brown trout!), a unique country house hotel.
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