No-one been anywhere this year then?

[Nick]

.

[wully]

Well..yes and no.

I set off for my first solo sail in a new to me boat but didn’t get far as the prop shaft seal began to leak, not to bad when sailing but worryingly when motoring. And there has not been a lot of wind recently..
Got the boat back home, lifted out and new seal ordered, delivered and fitted no problem. Well, no problem with the boat engineering part. Unfortunately my back engineering could do with some serious repairs..

The cause of the seal failing looks like the poor engine alignment - probably a bit worse than my back alignment - which has stopped me fixing it.

So hopefully towards the end of next week it will be all lined up and I can get away for a decent sail.

You’ll know if the boats fixed as the weather will turn to excrement..

[wully]

And plenty people are nocking about in boats as they are condemned to staycationing this year so there are no berths available - even for visitors I’m told.

Also boatie engineers are flat out fixing all the visiting boats that are breaking.

I’ve just remembered I need to order an anchor windlass switch as the ‘down’ one is looking like it’s not long for this world.

Whatcha bet it never dies but the ‘up’ one fails? On a stormy night. When the wind shifts 180 degrees. In the rain.

[Nick]

Well, we were out on the water today, but in a friend's RIB. He's a diver, and he put a rope on our ground chain as we are due to replace the riser shortly and didn't want it breaking when we tried to lift it to surface.

Fishing for mackerel (very successfully) and a quick blast through Cuan, followed by a beer and a blether then said mackerel for tea. A very pleasant afternoon altogether.

[Aja]

We're sitting alongside the new to us pontoons in L Boisdale. All very hospitable. Diesel at 70p/litre (Inc tax[?])!

Don't think the hotel will be too chuffed as no one seemed keen on walking round for a pint (you know who I'm talking about Sheena).

Was a bitty windy coming across from Canna. We were heading for Barra but slugging into a F5 occ F6 for a further 4 hours meant we eased sheets and romped here.

Heading north tomorrow to L Maddy thence to Scalpay and then Stornoway. I can see some wind in the forecast from SW then turning N'ly in a few days time. What's not to like.

Viz has been poor but for those that know these islands you don't get to see much anyway.

I need to pop down to the crossroads later tonight as I've been promising sun.....

Donald

[Telo]

We were out for a few weeks from mid-May through to the end of June. Some comments;
1. It was bloody cold the whole time, much more so than I can recall in previous years at that time;
2. It was much windier than normal, which, when we were able to sail at all, ensured some fast passages;
3. The weather forecasts, whether from the Met Office, Windy, XC or the others, were consistently wildly inaccurate - eg a SE3/5 was actually a prolonged NW6/7. I'm not moaning about it, but simply recording that the forecasts were way off beam, presumably because of the complexity of all the lows being spun across the Atlantic;
4. We didn't see many boats north of Ardnamurchan - a few in Loch Scresort, a few in Loch Carron, one in Upper Loch Torridon, a few in the Stornoway area and, for an entire two week period, only two yachts in Loch Roag;
5. We crossed The Minch four times;
6. Errmm, that's it....

[Nick]

We are not worried about what we have missed so far, still hoping to get Fairwinds launched in August and head out for a few weeks.

[cpedw]

We are presently anchored North of Eilean Chonneich, Loch Leven by Ballachulish, and trying to figure the tidal stream. Just now it's about mid flood and it seems to be going west.
Is there a big eddy here? What should we expect on the ebb?
It's not a strong flow; the wind and tide are closely matched in opposite directions so we keep moving.

[aquaplane]

Had a 6 week cruise. A couple of days to Tobers. Round Ardnamurchan and a first visit to Loch Moidart for a bit.

A week knocking about Mallaig, Loch Nevis and Loch Hourn mainly based at Isleornsay/Mallaig.

A couple of weeks in the inner Sound after doing my back in recovering 30m of chain X 3 trying to anchor at Totaig and decamping to a mooring in Plocton in defeat. Rona is wonderful. Portree is good for supplies but could use a Tobers type pontoon to be more attractive, having said that moorings/anchoring and the dinghy will suit many if they haven't done their back in.

We decided to leave some places in the inner sound to visit when we get back and had a long week from Tarbert Harris to Vattersay.

Drifted back to Tayvallich via Coll, Tobers, L Drumbuie, Rum for pianocean, Gometra, Erraid, Collonsay and Gigha.

It did seem busy most places we went, but we haven't been to many of them before so it's hard to judge the difference.

[Burst Boiler]

Totaig was excellent, sorry you couldn't get the hook in. View of Eilen Donan is rubbish from there, but more than made up for by the seals on the little island and the horses on the mainland munching seaweed. Its very tight in there but beautiful to wake up to.

Sandaig was also a stunning little anchorage for us.