Sunday 8 May. Kinlochbervie to Talmine bay in the Kyle of Tongue 36 nm

I have been thinking about this particular trip for about 3 years.. ever since we decided to do this. So quite a strange and exciting feeling when the morning eventually happened. The alarm went off at 6 as we had to be away by 8 am in order to get to Cape Wrath at slack water ( when the tides are at their weakest) . The weather was kind. It seemed calm and dry, if not as sunny as yesterday. We put up a full main and headsail and headed north under a southwest wind . The wind strength was perfect… 10-15 knots . We were able to see cape Wrath as soon as we turned out of Loch Inchard and were able to basically sail straight towards it. The scenery of the coast was stunning but all looked quite gloomy because of the grey light. Birds accompanied us. We saw no ships. Approaching CW I was waiting for the water to become lumpy and horrid with all the notorious reflected waves. I had studiously avoided looking at the pictures they love to put in the pilot books! As it happened.. today it was fine! We got there at exactly 1057 and although there was a swell, there was no white water and it was calm enough for us to take the inshore route, inside Dulic rock. Such a lonely place with the white lighthouse perched way up on the massive black cliffs looking north to the Faroe Islands and Iceland. After turning corner we trimmed the sails, pulling them in as it was more of a reach to get to our destination of Tamline bay in the Kyle of Tongue on the north coast. The wind eventually dropped and we motored for the last hour . The anchorage we were looking for is a little community around a beautiful sandy bay surrounded by the Rabbit islands. I can only presume there are a lot of rabbits on them or maybe they look like rabbits? 🤔 We anchored using a trip buoy as apparently there are many old mooring chains on the ground and you don’t want to become attached to one. The trip buoy means you can pull the anchor so it unhooks its hooky bit first, thus freeing it from anything it might be caught on. We had the rest of the delicious spaghetti Bol that J had made and had an early night ……. ready for horrible early start tomorrow. It was a beautiful evening and a special anchorage.

What I learned today…… that sometimes things turn out better than you dared to hope!

Sue x

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