Friday August 6th, 2021 Back to Sanna Bay
We had been thinking about how to get back to Portishead for the last few days and we had a few options. However, we didn’t think that we would be up in this part of the world again for a long time, and we have a special love for Ireland. So we were considering going back to Portishead via the West coast of the Green Isle, sometimes known as the Wild Atlantic Way. It has a reputation amongst sailors as being challenging.
To make that leg of the journey happen, we would need to allow some time to explore, and potentially to have to wait for good weather too. We had been very lucky with the weather in Scotland, but now the entering August, it was more possible that we would get Atlantic Lows. So we made a plan to get back to Northern Ireland over the next few days and then turn West and take on the challenge.
We left Loch Scavaig that afternoon and had a downwind sail (finally!) going back south through the small Isles of Rum and Eigg and headed for the harbour on the East coast of Muck (Port Mhor). We dropped the hook, but there was not alot of room to swing, and a swell entering the harbour made it rolly. So we made a decision to move a few miles further South back to Sanna Bay on the end of Ardnamurchan peninsula, where we had stopped on the way up.
As we left Muck, a huge rain cloud, that was deep grey cut by a rainbow was moving slowly towards us. You could see the sheets of rain, even though we remained in sunshine. We just made it in to Sanna Bay before the rain hit. Of course, sods law …. the anchorage at Sanna was even more rolly than Muck. Oh well, it was an uncomfortable night … sometimes you have to take the rough with the smooth.
Saturday 7th August, 2021, Sound of Mull
We left Sanna Bay that morning, and no wind meant motoring around Ardnamurchan Point and in to the Sound of Mull. Once we entered the sound, we had 15 knots of wind on the nose again! It doesn’t seem to matter which direction you go, the wind is always on the nose! We headed for Loch Aline again for an easy night at anchor. We took the dinghy in to shore and walked to the farm shop on the estate to find it shut! Then defeated, we decided to relax for the rest of the day.
Sunday 8th August, 2021 Loch Aline to Loch Keils
We awoke to a still day and left Loch Aline at 0900am. Motored down the Sound of Mull out in to the Firth of Lorne and headed to Dunstaffnage Marina to take on some more fuel, and get rid of the mountain of rubbish we had accumulated. We still had to get rid of all the beer bottles from the visit by the lads! Dunstaffnage is a beautifully looked after marina with really friendly staff.
Leaving the marina at 1300 we were expecting to motor all the way down the Firth of Lorne, but thankfully the wind picked up and we tacked our way down the Firth in a fresh breeze and sailed in to the Sound of Luing through the pretty scary entrance strewn with rocks, islands, other boats and lobster pots!
We had timed the tide really well for the entrance to Luing, and now we really picked up speed. The wind picked up too, or at least the apparent wind. As we crossed Corryvreckan we hit 10.7 knots as we were totally over sailed and were hit by 27knots of wind. The autopilot gave up, so I was hanging on the wheel for dear life, and managed to steer us through the worst of it. As quick as the gusts appeared, they dropped again. This is certainly a formidable stretch of water. Stress over the rest of the sail was nice and easy down the Sound of Jura and back to Loch Keils for the night.
Monday 9th August, 2021, Loch Keils to Port Ellen, Isle of Islay
One of the Isles that we hadn’t visited on the way up was Islay, famous for its whiskey distilleries. It had to be visited to complete our tour of the Hebrides. It was another day of motoring, with no wind as we pulled out in to the Sound of Jura from Loch Keils with the South going tide.
Ailsa skippered us all the way to Ardbeg distillery and we dropped the hook in the anchorage right outside. It looked very quiet…. we were the only boat there. So we went online to check, only to find that the distillery is closed on Mondays!!! Pearce organisation strikes again, couldn’t organise a piss up in a distillery?!
Turns out all of the distilleries were closed, so we took our tour from the sea! On the plus side we probably saved ourselves a fortune in specialist whiskeys
Just round the corner is port Ellen Bay and we anchored off a white sand beach for the night, in prime position to head south again.
Tuesday 10th August, 2021, Port Ellen to Coleraine
We had an early start and was sailing by 0630. The wind was great for crossing the North channel to Northern Ireland until about 2/3rds of the way across and then it died. We were visited again by a huge pod of dolphins.
As we approached Northern Ireland, we started to fight the strong tide and because its shallow, the sea got really rough and choppy with short seas. We had to motor the last few hours to get close to the shore and our planned anchorage looked really rough. We decided to head for Coleraine and an anchorage on the river Bann.
The River Bann has a very strange entrance from the sea, where walls have been built out from the beach and a channel dredged to the entrance. Where the sea meets the river, the waves were short and sharp, but once through, we found ourselves pottering down a pretty river to the anchorage about 2 miles further down.
A check of the weather looked concerning, as there was a big Atlantic Low developing to the west which was due to bring 40 knot winds on to this North West coast of Ireland over the next few days. We both decided that we did not want to be tacking Malin Head and the North West corner of Ireland in those kind of conditions. The anchorage on the river was not very big and would not be sheltered from the coming storm, so we decided to get a spot in the local marina for a few nights and brave out the gale. It was a nice motor further up the river down a narrow dredged channel and we berthed up for the next few nights.
