Two Day Sails - Part I - 11:17 PM, Nov. 4, 2005

Only a regular weekend this time out so I went up on Friday evening after work. Nick and Kathy on Fairwinds were sailing south from Ballachulish on Saturday and we’d arranged to meet on the water and return to Dunstaffnage together.

Saturday 15^th October

Had a late start and had to wait ‘til after (very) low water to get out. We ran before a fresh breeze across Ardmucknish Bay, making 5 or 6 knots and came onto a broad reach, initially, after turning north into the Lynn of Lorne. I suppose we’d had the benefit of an accelerated wind funnelling out of Loch Etive and as we went further up into the sheltered waters of the Lynn of Lorne it gradually eased.

By the time I met Fairwinds (with Eilean Dubh abeam) the wind had vanished altogether and Nick reported having motored and drifted all the way from Ballachulish after an early start to catch the tide under the bridge. We bobbed about only yards apart for a while. This was fortunate as we were able to speak after discovering that Nick’s VHF was only transmitting intermittently (broken microphone lead) and mine barely at all (dunno but suspect the coax/aerial joint at the masthead.) More radio checks required? - Discuss!

Nick took the first photo that I’ve seen of Silkie under sail and was understandably dismayed that I hadn’t brought a camera to return the favour! This became BlueMoment’s calendar pic for November in due course.

Seeing it later also sparked a train of thought about the genoa trim problem that I’ve been unable to resolve to date and I can’t wait to get out again to try out a wee change to the set-up. Fingers crossed for a mid-November break in the weather.

We gradually drifted into more wind, albeit variable in direction and as we emerged once more into the Firth of Lorne I could see that the wind there was just as fresh as it had been earlier and blowing straight out of Loch Etive (on the nose) of course. I’d been quite pleased with the way Silkie was going compared to Fairwinds in the lighter winds and foolishly tried to hang on to the full main. You know how it is. We weren’t racing of course, but..

The gusts were putting the rail well under (Nick reckons my bargain anti-foul has worked well this season!) and I was having a real battle with the tiller. When I could put it off no longer the reefing didn’t go smoothly and I had to return to the cockpit in the middle of the operation to sort out a fankle. I lost a lot of ground while this was going on and Fairwinds was well up to windward by the time I was sailing properly again. Nick has an anemometer and said later that we’d had 24 knots apparent at this stage.

However it was only about fifteen minutes later when it was time to shake out the reef again. Fairwinds had reefed just after Silkie (more out of sympathy than need I suspect) and was first under full sail again. The two boats were a fair distance apart by now and I’m not sure what happened but we either found different winds or Nick and Kathy let me “win.” In any event Silkie was a few minutes ahead as we entered Dunstaffnage Bay and I took their lines as Fairwinds came alongside. Very satisfying!

A few beers aboard Fairwinds were followed by dinner in the Frog where Nick and Kathy picked up the tab. Thanks guys. We returned to Silkie (since she has a shore-powered heater) for a nightcap or three.