A pretty awful night… the wind was howling, the boat was crashing around grinding the anchor making sleep pretty impossible. And then knowing you’ve got to get up before dawn to catch the tide in 20 plus knots of wind leaves me wondering why??? Any we did do it and the dawn was stunning. The freezing cold easterly wind was behind us along the bottom of the Mull of kintyre, and we barrelled along under just headsail with the tide hitting 12.5 knots at one point. The sea did get very lumpy off the lighthouse where there are masses of huge swirls on the screen of the plotter. As we turned the corner, the wind did funny things . Poor Angelique was bucking up and down and this of course was the point at which Julian decided we had to put the main up with a reef in . We managed somehow though he did get very wet! Then a wonderful thing happened… a little tiny bird …a finch type..landed on the boat from nowhere. Greenish yellow and smaller than a sparrow . Obviously tired it sat on Julian’s hand for a while and tucked its little head in. Eventually it flew away, J said after I’d offered it my fruit cake! After rounding the Mull of course the wind was on the nose so we had to tack our way to Gigha. The wind was variable to start with in the Lee of the land but settled down to a relentless 4/5. Eventually arrived at Gigha to find the moorings untenable in that wind and extremely weedy which meant we had no choice but to continue on. Tired by now we just hoped Craighouse would be better. At least the sun shone and when we got to Jura we were pleased to see they had relaid the moorings there and it was ( relatively) sheltered. However there was still considerable swell as can be seen by the picture taken by our good friends Nigel an Brenda on a fly past! So we moved and anchored. Eventually all was sorted and we did have a well deserved drink! Alice cooked a wonderful meal sausage beans and mash and we felt relieved to sit in the peaceful sunshine after 12 hours.
What I learned today… appreciate the lulls in life… the gusts never seem far away
Nigel and Brenda’s photos Angelique from the sky 
Us in Craighouse just off the Jura distillery
Angelique 
Queens bay (where the royal yacht Britannia used to anchor) on the NW side of Gigha is always a lovely anchorage in an easterly wind.
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Aha! Is that in the north end of west tarbert bay? That would’ve been just the job!
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