Whitehaven to Ardminish (Gigha)

A suitable weather window opened up for a further trip north and so we thought that we should take it. After many days of strong(ish) winds it was finally due to subside. The start of the trip would be bumpy heading west to the Mull of Galloway but after that we would turn north and be sheltered by the land. Then the wind was due to die away totally and give us a very plesant run up the Mull of Kintyre which can be very rough in the wrong tide /weather conditions.

The only drawback was the best timing to leave. It had to be around high water at Whitehaven because of the lock and then we try to time things so we had a fair tide around the headlands. Yup, that meant leaving Whitehaven at 9pm. At least it was still twilight then and the lock was on free flow so we extricated ourselves from the berth, backed carefully past the yacht astern of us and headed out to sea.

There were plenty of birds around, this poor picture gives you an idea of how the FLIR sees them as they fly away from the Nordhavn bearing down on them:

As we got further from the land, so the wave pattern built up, on our starboard stern quarter. That is one of the less comfortable angles as the boat has to "corkscrew" over the waves passing underneath us whilist the stabilisers fight to keep her from rolling. It was not helped by a way stronger than forecast wind either:

They had suggested that there would be force 5 gusts (up to 21 knots or about 24 mph) but as you can see it hit over 31 knots which is force 7, a near gale in Beaufort terminology. That gave us a nice bumpy ride out towards the Mull of Galloway and the stabilisers were very busy, hitting full deflection both ways to try and keep us from rolling too much. A couple of times they failed in that and, annoyingly, our Furuno satellite compass decided to lose its heading readings again. This happened a couple of years ago after a battery change by Paul from Maricom. Last summer he sorted out the configuration error that had been introduced and all should have been well......... Our trips during a truncated summer cruising last year were very calm and so we didn't have a chance to check that all was well. Clearly, it is not.

The irritation is that you get beeped at by lots of devices, have to wait for the satellite compass to reset, then re-engage the autopilot and hit a key on several screens around the pilothouse to stop them beeping a warning. At the same time the boat has been through a heavy roll, you can hear things moving around in the cupboards and it is pitch black outside. Not nice. It does wake you up a bit.

As we passed the top of the Isle of Man, things began to calm down. We reached the turning point where we head north west (see our track image):

just before the tide turned against us, and then had a quieter time sheltered by the land from the easterly winds. Looking at the route, one yottie character asked us if we'd had a tough trip as it looks like we just had to tell the autopilot to make two 20 degree turns to starboard. These rag and stick folks do not quite understand how much better it is travelling overnight in a warm pilothouse wearing your slippers compared to being out in the elements huddled in a chilly cockpit (doused with spray earlier on in the trip too). OK, we might not be as macho but we are happy to be feeble, warm and dry.

As we started north, there were no AIS targets at all (for the non boaters, the ships and other AIS equipped boats in the area send out position, speed etc information by radio):

Naturally we kept our eyes open for any P and O ferries that were drifting about with no engine power (see BBC news report) but we managed to avoid playing rescue boat for them.

As we headed towards the Mull of Kintyre (cue the song, if you must) the number of AIS targets around us grew dramatically:

although it didn't seem that busy out there really and we were lucky again, not having to change course to avoid any of the big guys.

Approaching the Mull of Kintyre in perfect weather is always exciting:

and although the place can have very rough seas around it, today we just swept past with a following tide:

As you can just see, Patrick the penguin is still busy cuddling Kylie....  

The "lighthouse" on the Mull is pretty unimpressive considering how dangerous the area can be:

and looks rather insignificant hidden in the hillside. The depth changes in the area are quite dramatic though. We were not that far off the land but in 130 metres of water under our keel:

You can also see how much help we were getting from the tide (10.3 knots over the ground, 6.4 through the water)

Heading up the side of the Mull towards Gigha some clouds popped up but didn't upset the overall splendour of the area:

After dodging a few pot markers in Gigha sound, this little fishing boat was determined to turn towards us no matter which way we went to avoid him:

However, we managed to do so despite his annoying Kamakaze tendencies and we then prowled around Ardminish looking for a good spot to anchor. The number of mooring bouys seems to have been increased since we were here several years ago so we ended up anchoring well off the little reef outside the bay. Still only in 4 metres of water under the keel though.  The expected tidal range was a tiny 0.4 metres, Gigha is an amphidromic point. Don't know what one of those is? Well look at wikipedia for enlightenment. 

The evening finished with a celebratory glass of white for reaching Nicolaland, sitting in the pilothouse enjoying the great views:

The only thing disturbing the tranquility was the last couple of crossings by the CalMac ferry:

which is not the prettiest of things really, unlike the surroundings. We had to share the bay with two other yachts:

and you can see how huge the main village on the island is too. Oh, we should not forget the slipway for the ferry:

the buoy in the foreground marks the little reef which we are anchored outside of.  Despite the occasional ferry, things were incredibly tranquil:

and we were treated to a colourful sunset too:

followed by a great night of sleep, we had plenty to catch up on in beautiful surroundings.

The trip is about 123 nautical miles or 142 land miles. We had an overall help from the tides so we actually travelled less that that (by about 6%) through the water. Think of the diesel savings! Amazingly the mobile phone signal off Gigha was way better then the one in Penarth marina. In fact for most of the trip up from the Mull of Kintyre we had an excellent 4G signal. The 163 reported inhabitants of the island and all the local sheep on the Mull must be so happy that they can surf the internet so quickly compared to the numerous folks clustered around Penarth Marina.

Maintenance news:

Before the trip, the captain did the horrid job of slackening off the stuffing box for the wing engine as it was not dripping water through as it should. Reaching it hidden underneath the sump of the wing engine is a pesky job, Fortunately when we gave the wing engine some exercise approaching Gigha it seemed to have worked. 

The new encapsulated LED navigation bulb that was fitted in Whitehaven worked OK, as it should for the price. We will see how long this one lasts......