Fairwinds 2005

Day 23 - Lochinver - Tanera Beg - 13 miles

Light wind and the sun actually shone for a little while this morning. Mended the foot of the genoa with copious amounts of spinnaker tape, then motored gently off the pontoon with the genoa unfurled. Got the main up and killed the engine, drifting slowly and pleasantly out to sea for an hour until the wind picked up and we raced off at five knots. Coming down past Rief and White Rock we were goosewinged in flat water - no pole - very pleasant. White Rock and the area round about it needs a wide berth - it would be a very nasty corner to cut in poor visibility. Somewhere near here Kathy landed two large mackerel.

Goosewinged down the channel between Eilean Mullagrach and Isle Ristol, then reaching along towards the Taneras trying to make out which lump of rock is which - there are a few of them. Eventually we identified the channel between Eilean Fada Mor and Tanbera Beg that leads into the sheltered pool at the South of Fada Mor. (At least, it was sheltered in the continuing brisk North Easterly - I think it would be very exposed in strong Southerlies or South-Easterlies).  It was near low water, so most of the dangers were visible and the channel was, as it usually is, much less scary in reality than on the chart or in the pilot.

There was one other yacht already anchored in the pool, and later it got even busier - a kayaking couple pitched a tent on Eilean Fada Mor, and a tourist RIB from Ullapool breezed through the anchorage with the passengers waving enthusiastically. The bank of coral sand between the islands that protects the South of the anchorage failed to show itself at low water - it must only dry occasionally at low water Springs.

Blew up the dinghy and went exploring on Tanera Beg, and I decided to start semi-seriously collecting Haswell-Smiths (Scottish islands over 40 hectares, as detailed in Hamish Haswell-Smith's wonderful  'The Scottish Islands', a must for the library of any yacht cruising these waters). Tanera Beg was never inhabited, and there was no sign of grazing, so the walking was rugged. Signs of civilisation were found however, in the form of several items of (male) designer underwear tastefully embedded in the summit cairn on the second highest point on the island.

Returned to Fairwinds for mackerel kung po, which was delicious - better than the prawns the night before, particularly as there was so much of it. As the tide turned and the flood began to run through the pool I realised we weren't quite out of the tide when we swung and lay at 90 degrees to the other yacht, which was slightly further in towards the shore - but we had a comfortable night hanging off the trusty Spade in the fresh wind which continued to blow all night.