St Kilda Trip May 7th

Just getting ready for the trip towards St Kilda leaving on Monday.  Note as in the nautical fashion we don't say "to" but "towards" as its by no means a foregone conclusion we will get to St Kilda - wind and weather are so critical to going there and equally critical to staying for a few days.
Still we shall leave with great expectations!  What else can we hope for:
Wildlife;  Birds: now is a critical time for migrating birds so we will expect to see some interesting birds as they head north to breed in Iceland and Greenland. Pomerine and perhaps long tailed skuas, Brent, white front and other geese, various ducks and perhaps small passerines. The massive gannet colony on Boreray (St Kilda archipelago) is one of the principal attractions of St Kilda.  We may visit the Monachs where the Snowy Owl was well at home last year but also where there are many good birds to be seen - the little tern colony is well established there.  Flowers are not great this early in the season and the superb colorful vistas provided by the machair flowers will not have even started yet.  Kilda has some interesting flora - almost unique mainly because most of the flowers only grow to a very small size (often less than 5 cms) to cope with the high winds there.
Cetacean wise - well we will certainly expect to see lots of harbour porpoise but I don't really count them!!  Many of the Day tripper wildlife cruises offer cetacean watching when porpoise is all there is to be seen - most folk expect whales or at least dolphins!  We will expect to see common dolphins, risso's dolphins to the west of the Uists, and we are usually joined by a group of bottle-nosed dolphins as we pass through the sound of Barra.  Its a good time to see the Orcas at St Kilda, this being a favorite time for them to visit there and we will be confident at seeing minke whales as they migrate back into inshore waters.  Last year we saw a young sperm whale on passage half way between St Kilda and the Western Isles.
We will of course visit other islands on the cruise so expect to see Sea eagles, deer, otters etc but also to have a lot of enjoyment from simply visiting some of the less frequently visited islands as we cruise around.

Sounds good doesn't it?  I'm always very excited at the prospect of the first 12 day cruise but must admit that even after 25 years doing this I still look forward to each and every cruise - they are all so different and of course I meet new guests all the time.

Training for Day skippers

Two students and one other seeking mileage joined me for the last sail training session of the spring.  From now on I hope to concentrate on cruising although tuition and help is always freely available during the cruises.  I seem to be getting more and more "own boat" coaching to do which is great!  There are lots of things not covered by the RYA syllabus as wall as preparing others to handle heavy weather - a real specialty of mine.

 Anyway this is the crew I had on board for the last training course.  Tom, the one with the beard was great company and in fact I thought I recognised him when he arrived.  It later transpired he had spent a day at my Paragliding school some twenty years ago.  Very good at boat handling - he took the yacht through some quite serious northerly wind (coming all the way from Inverness - you could smell the mars bars frying in the chip shops)  against a strong tide at Lismore light.
The other two, Mark and Kate were on the course as active participants.  They had quite a lot of experience and in fact Kate was very good as a technical sailor so we were most interested in improving navigational and "big - boat" handling skills which went well.  For the night passage we went from Loch Spelve (a delicious meal the night beforehand of mussels fresh from the sea!) to the Garvellachs - having to motor the last couple of miles due to lack of wind.  By the time it came to heading back north towards Oban, the wind had picked up and we were faced with a F 4/5 headwind with twenty miles to go.  Bit of a pain but lots of lessons learned by everyone as we made surprisingly brisk progress towards our target - Kerrera and Oban sound.  At one point in the dark, the wind shifted dramatically and it was Kate's skills as a sailor that suggested the best option of easing sheets and bearing off to get going again.  The actual night passage went well with Kate again as the brains of the operation and we arrived safely back at the marina at 0230 - glad to be below as it was getting pretty cold.
The next week I had some personal tuition for a Boatmaster candidate who needs to qualify to skipper the ferry that runs between Port Askaig on Islay and Jura.  We did the theory course on the yacht and as you might expect - the weather changed to very hot and sunny!  What a pain but we got the work done with the other half of the course to be completed when I return from the St Kilda trip in two weeks.  I left Dunstaffnage (22 degs C) on Thursday evening in shorts and Tee shirt to go home to Skye, when I got out of the car in the early dusk the temperature was 8C!! What a difference and then to cap it all next day when I wanted to cut the grass - it snowed!!  Still, very dry up here and today (Saturday) while I update the blog it is very sunny and bright with a light but again cold, northerly wind.
Next week - KILDA so news of that as the trip progresses if I can get a signal to get on the internet

Orkney Week

Just returned from Orkney where I was training some sailors from the club there on Brian Kynocks yacht "Catherine J" an Etap 43. All went well apart from one of the Yachtmaster Offshore candidates anchoring on a leeshore!!  Bit the equivalent of running down an old lady on your driving test!!!
Still the weather was good with plenty of wind although a bit wet at the start. Today Sunday 23rd I'm back at Dunstaffnage marina readying the yacht for sea - a day skipper course (the last) before my cruising season starts with an early May trip to St Kilda. All looking good for the summer - even some time scheduled for me to have some personal time offshore!!

Early Season shakedown cruise

After the beautiful weather earlier in the month, with temperatures in Oban in the twenties, it came as a bit of a shock to find we were back in snow and icy winds for our cruise.  Every year I take the yacht out with friends to make sure everything is OK for the forthcoming season, usually there are some faults that have not been picked up and fixed over the winter refit. Most things were alright apart from as you might expect, the central heating system failed and I am now awaiting the arrival of a new unit to fit next weekend when I get back from Orkney.  Fortunately we have other sources of heating available on board!
Otherwise the boat was in fine fettle as we left Dunstaffnage.

The weather, though cold, was fantastic for our first sail, we went south around the bottom of Mull into a lovely small isolated anchorage where we rarely see other yachts.  It has a wonderful white sand beach, and during our evening walk we came across the remains of a bottle - nosed dolphin that had expired over the winter and been driven ashore into a pile of rocks by the gales.

Meanwhile the yacht was safely on anchor and we were able to get some work done on her in the peace and quiet away from the marina.  Fortunately we have lots of sources of power on board, a new 240v generator, the ships engine of course and a very efficient 24v wind generator which is the one we use whenever possible.  Being pretty Eco-friendly we also have solar panels but need the Sun to appear more regularly to be really useful up here!

In this image you can see how wonderful the evening light was, and perhaps pick out the Paps of Jura in the distance.  We have the mizzen sail up, when on anchor, which really stabilizes the yacht and makes overnight anchoring far more pleasant for all aboard.  This sail is brand new; Gypsy was fitted with an "in-mast" reefing system for the mizzen but as with most sails of this type, it was only a compromise and I am much happier with a fully battened "real" sail.  It also improves her actual sailing performance and makes beating into wind a real pleasure.
We went on through the sound of Iona to Ulva, a small island off the west coast of Mull and anchored there for a full day while the rain descended and we did some interior varnishing!

However already there was another yacht there on anchor but still it was quiet enough and we had yet another fabulous walk over the hill to Ulva Ferry as the evening came on and the rain stopped.  We saw a female hen harrier, shelduck, teal, greenshank, herons, eider and loads of other birds and perhaps a peregrine as we went for a quick look at the cemetery in Crachaig Bay. 

Unfortunately within six weeks, exploring Ulva will become very restricted due to the really extensive (and high) growth of bracken which gets worse every year.
Next morning we sailed across to Lunga (one of the Treshnish Isles) to say hello to the Auks and other birds.  The weather was hopeless, very wet and misty but there were loads of puffins, some already busy getting their nests ready. The other Auks - razorbills and Guillemots - were there in big numbers but as yet they were staying on the water.  We did see a lot of remains of puffins so some raptor must be doing very well feeding on them.. I used to think the large numbers of visitors to Lunga would be disadvantageous to the bird colony, but now I think it is the presence of so many people that gives some element of protection to the nesting birds and is overall a good thing.
Next across to Coll for the night - the new mizzen sail proving its worth on the beat into wind in a big way.  Apart from when we tacked, after initial adjustment of the course, the yacht sailed a lovely tight course into wind without altering the helm one jot - or using the autohelm - brilliant!!  Makes an improvement on speed too and were were mostly making 7 knots hard to wind which is pretty good.
The return home was made via Dorlin (Loch Sunart - where we spoke to Norman, skipper of the yacht "Curlew") then Loch Aline - and another good walk.  We found a new trail through the woods which I'm looking forward to sharing with this year's guests and once again lots of interesting birds.  The flowers are as yet sparse with only violas, celandine's, wood anemones and a few wood sorrel in bloom although plenty of catkins etc on the trees.  The only real colour was on the cultivated plants and escapees!

So now I'm back on Skye doing a few jobs around the house!!  This afternoon I fly from Inverness to Kirkwall in the Orkney's to ready some Yachtmaster candidates for their exams later next week.  Then back to Dunstaffnage - a week of Day Skipper training and then my cruising season starts - thank heavens!!  Kilda is, as usual, the first destination and I'll put news about this up when I have any as well as something about the training courses if anything exciting happens!