Another ( and the last) beautiful morning of this fine weather spell. Welcome though as this was the day we planned to go through the Notorious Coryvrecken. We had done careful tidal calculations as we needed to be at the entrance just before slack water. Many many boats were out in the glorious sunshine , and calm conditions. The sound of Luing covered in little white sails. None were headed where we were but we were not deterred! Coryvrecken has a reputation of standing waves and whirlpools due to unique underwater geology. When combined with wind and waves in certain conditions can set up ferocious seas and a passage through would be as the pilot book says “ unthinkable “ .! We arrived at the entrance as the the time we had calculated would be right with the last of the tide against us before slack water and the tide turning in our favour. Amazing feeling as we were doing 4.5 boat knots but at one time down to 0.3 knots course over ground. Suddenly the tide changed….. and within minutes we had tide pushing us forward… the boat accelerated and we popped out the other side of Jura. Done it! ✅ off the list. We then spent a lovely hour or so cruising down the beautiful west coast of Jura, truly spectacular scenery but probably not done justice in the pictures. Still no wind and increasingly hazy with sea mist. We pottered gently out to the Hebridean islands of colonsay and oronsay which are very isolated wild and low lying islands separated only by a very narrow isthmus. We had a look a scalasaig … the capital…. a collection of about 10 dwellings and a small ferry terminal, then made our way Down to the anchorage on oronsay. A wide open shallow bay of white sand beaches surrounded by skerries . Again, breathtaking scenery especially in this weather. Of course by now a breeze had sprung up ! We decided to go for a walk once anchored so launched the outboard… this time practiced a launch from the side through the gate ( as an experiment) which actually worked well! We landed on a while sandy beach and set off amongst the tufty peaty meadow terrain with carpets of wildflowers. Our destination was the ruined priory which was supposed to be easy to find by following the line of electricity cables…. unfortunately we must have followed it the wrong way as we never found it! ☹️ never mind we saw some amazing views right out to the west of the island, towards the Outer Hebrides and the Atlantic. We avoided the cows and calves on the way back just in case,and motored back to Angelique out in the bay, for a lovely meal and the Phillips’s trying to teach us to play bridge!
What I learned today….. consult map before setting out into a wilderness! Back on the boat we could see it clearly marked “priory” ! On the chartlet in the pilot book!
Angelique 