BLUEMOMENT

Who else was doing round mull? I saw Marisca. Friday was superb weather and stunning spinnaker run up the sound of mull once we had motored to the re-jigged start. Saturday was tough, started well but gusty (35knt +) condition made it hard, we had a few issues with our genoa furler which didn't help , but we saw a shredded spinnaker and broken spinny pole so felt we had done well just to get to Bunessan. Sunday we were cursed by a jammed windlass so started late, but chancing a strike south from the sound of Iona ( and avoiding the steamer passage) meant we got better wind and tide and caught a few of our class up. It looked a tough and slow finish as the wind died on sunday afternoon, did class 3 make it in time?

Marisca and Scintilla did. The rest were tacking big angles into an increasing tide with little wind so I don't know.

Round Mull results on OSC website.

There's a photo of Marisca on Saturday morning that I posted onto the RMR Facebook page via Flickr. It doesn't do justice to the strength of the wind but it looks a bit wet and blowy.

Thanks. Was it really that calm?

I've never tacked in the Erraid Steamer Passage before...

You were a lot braver than me! I looked at the angles and decided a slow tacking Contessa in that passage together with faster, more agile soap dishes was not a good idea. Luckily the rest of my class seemed to agree and I'm not sure we lost very much.

We're also not a soap dish - in fact, I suspect that we're somewhat older than Marisca! However, we sneaked through and managed to get a huge lift when many fell into a hole in the wind. We crossed the line with the majority of the class 1 fleet, having been third from the back in the Sound of Iona. We kept tacking further and further out from Mull on the way to FL's Island. We learnt from last year when we had to retire on the last leg. Or perhaps it was just luck and a desire to beat Sorr of Appin over the line...

Anyway, I spent a happy half hour in the Bosun's Locker yesterday buying various blocks and rope shackles to get the spinnaker guys set up to avoid having to let go the kite when a huge gust comes in on the beam. If you were near us on the Lochaline -> Tobermory leg you would have had a giggle watching the blue and yellow striped monster flying free from the masthead in an utter cluster.

It's a steep learning curve this racing thing.

We also avoided the steamer channel (cheers from my crew). We had a very late start from Bunessan due to a jammed windlass, as we came up to the channel the boats in front all stalled and started to tack we headed straight on carried wind with us all the way to FL. Any favourable tide inshore was cancelled by the fact we had steady 10-12 knts 3-4 miles off the shore.

Ah yes - you came up behind us in the Sound of Iona. I think we crossed the finish line at about the same time though

To be fair we wanted to go outside the island but we utterly mis-judged it and were hemmed in by Tegumai so we went for the tricky tack. Still, less scary than going through last year with the kite up!