The alarm went at 6 am . It was a nice morning though and no fog thank goodness. Let go the mooring and off we went, leaving the Skye bridge behind . We had to be at the Kyle Rhea by 8 am to have a favourable tide ie in the right direction but not TOO strongly in the right direction. J had judged them perfectly and we sluiced through the little narrow gap between Skye and the mainland with 3 extra knots. Once through we were in a big pond of flat but swirling water as we proceeded towards the sound of Sleat. we passed the place where Gavin Maxwell had lived, and written the iconic book about “Midge” the Otter, called Ring of bright water. We could still see a little cottage and according to the pilot there is a memorial to him there . I remember the book well, but didn’t like the sad ending. All the time passing through amazing scenery as we entered the sound of Sleat. The sun by now was warm but sadly no wind so we had to motor. At one point we came across a pod of common dolphins ….. including mums and babies! I took some video and will try and put some on the blog . Our plan was to aim for Mallaig, a fishing town on the mainland just south of Loch Nevis . Two things however made us change our plans. Firstly, there is a deteriorating weather forecast over the next few days and we think we Are likely to be storm bound for a few nights as Storm Ellen hits the UK. With this in mind we feel we need to press on while we can. The other reason being that the harbour master wasn’t terribly helpful at Mallaig saying we should have given more notice! We contacted Tobermory who couldn’t have been more helpful, So we decided to continue for another 25 miles to Mull. There’s somehow a feeling of “getting back into safety “ when rounding Ardnamurchan point and arriving in the sound of Mull. The scenery and sunshine on the wAy there was absolutely beautiful. Sunny and hot ….. can’t believe it’s going to change so much over the next 48 hours. I even read my book and sunbathed on the foredeck for a while! We had great views back to the black cuillins and to the small isles ( Eigg, Rhum and Muck) as we Passed by. Eventually after 55 miles and 11 hours we got there! It started pouring with rain about an hour before we got there…. which we could have done without! J went off to get a can of diesel before the garage shut, while I tidied up the boat. We ate at mccoghans which was on “eat out to help out” which we had forgotten so a nice surprise to get it half price!!!
What I learned today…………….how to tack the boat using the auto pilot…. press auto and standby together; to get the boat to sail to the wind . then press +10 and +1 to make it tack to starboard (right) and -10 and -1 to tack to Port (left)………….I’ll try it when there’s the right sort of wind😬
Sue x
Leaving Skye bridge 
Where the pontoons used to be 
Looking through Lyle Rhea ahead 
3 knots tide with us 
Swirly water 
In Kyle Rhea 
In sound if Sleat 
Gavin maxwells place 
Ardnamurchan point
Gavins place
Angelique 