Norman Nopals Sails Again - 9:55 PM, May. 24, 2005

Pleased with the success of my single-handed trip to Puilldobhrain and wanting to try it again in slightly (ever so slightly) more interesting conditions I set off on Saturday for Tobermory with the wind forecast to go to F4/5. We were barely out of Dunstaffnage Bay and I was up at the mast hoisting the main when Silkie started to bear away on to a run; the pin securing the tillerpilot to the tiller had pulled out. I stuck it back in and continued but when it happened again on two consecutive tacks I decided to put back in for repairs.

Every cloud has a silver lining though. Back at the marina, I made a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea before starting work and ran out of gas. I had a spare in the car and would have been too mean to buy another if I'd got to Tobermory before running out, since a cylinder lasts me a whole season. Epoxied the pin back in and decided to catch the tide on Sunday morning. Made a new panel to house the switchgear and VHF so the time wasn't entirely wasted.

I was determined to sail as much as possible but didn't allow enough time to tack over to Lismore in the light winds the next morning so the flood was well established (a couple of days before springs) and we went barrelling through between Lismore and Lady's Rock on a broad reach with over 8 knots showing on the GPS.  The wind was doing it's famous blowing-from-both-ends-and-meeting-in-the-middle trick in the Sound of Mull so we were on a run up to the entrance to Loch Aline, motored through ten minutes of calm and then started tacking - all without changing course (well you know what I mean).

I let the tillerpilot do most of the steering to try to figure out it's foibles and I've some way to go before getting the tacking down pat. Silkie does heave-to nicely, it has to be said. The breeze freshened as we approached the dog-leg at Salen and it was interesting (!) to see the tillerpilot extended and quivering as it countered the weather helm. Reef earlier or pay more attention to sail trim maybe? I still haven't had to reef while on my own and that's something else I'm looking forward to (not). We don't have any truck with that new-fangled all-lines-led-back nonsense on the good ship Silkie! Motored in through the Doirlinn and tied up at the pontoons. All-in-all it had been a good sail in varied conditions. It had taken nearly 8 hours but (apart from leaving and arriving) I'd only done 10 minutes motoring (when I could see that there was wind ahead) and had kept sailing even when the speed dropped below 2 knots. We'll gloss over the thunder and lightning .. and the hailstones only lasted ten or fifteen minutes.

I'd decided to leave at high water 0620 on the Monday for the return trip and listened to the 2120 forecast suggesting NW F2/3/4 (always open to interpretation since we're on the border of the Caledonia and Minch forecast areas) which is one of the few directions which hold out the hope of a consistent wind in the Sound of Mull. Got up the next morning and listened to the 0520 forecast to hear that the wind was to be S/SW F5-7 and no mention of a North wind for the next 48 hours. Where did that come from? I've got into a spot of bother before by not believing the forecast but set off anyway, as planned, ot 0615. It rained that steady, vertical rain that the west coast does so characteristically and so persistently but there was not a breath of wind (didn't even bother to raise the main) and I listened to the drone of the outboard (relieved only momentarily by switching tanks) all 26 miles back to Dunstaffnage.

The joys of sailing!

Miles this trip 60

Miles this season 204 (s/h 93)