The three Daves

Whilst at home 'between sails' Diane and I attended a BBQ party hosted by Sue and Dave Hatton who follow Blue Star's progress regularly. It was Dave's 60th birthday party. I met Dave many years ago when we were both just starting our degree studies at North Staffordshire Polytechnic - now Staffordshire University. Also attending the 'do' were Dave Wilcox and Dave House, two other friends from student days. There was a little bit of reminiscing. Where did all the time go?!

Joke:
“Poor Old fool,” thought the well-dressed gentleman as he watched an old man fish in a puddle outside a pub. So he invited the old man inside for a drink. As they sipped their whiskeys, the gentleman thought he’d humor the old man and asked, “So how many have you caught today?”
The old man replied, “You’re the eighth.”

Sue and Dave Hatton

L-R Dave Wilcox, Dave House, Dave Hatton and me

By the way......

....did I say how brilliant Graeme Galbraith at James Watt Marina (http://www.jameswattdockmarina.co.uk/) in Greenock has been with regard to looking after Blue Star for us over the winter, and helping us to get her ready for this year's sailing? JWM also waived the fees for several weeks berthing to show support for our cause! Thank you Graeme and JWM! We really appreciate your support and help, you have been fantastic!

A snowy day at JWM when boats were being re-launched

Blue Star is craned back into the water

Joke:

Knock Knock! Who's There? Snow! Snow who? Snow laughing matter.

Going home

We spent a day cleaning the boat and doing various other tasks before returning home. On a visit to the Spar shop we met Barry Pearson who runs The Container Gallery (www.thecontainergallery.co.uk) selling pictures and other works of art. We had stopped to admire Barry's Stag yacht that he is refurbishing next to his art gallery, and he invited us in to see his workshop, pointing out also a Collard dove nesting in the roof! We spoke to a number of local people at Kinlochbervie who seemed very friendly and welcoming; it is clearly a small community where most people know each other, and most people seemed interested in our sailing project. The harbour master, Davie, was also very helpful. Davie identified a spot, rafted up alongside Aeron Lass, where he wanted us to leave our boat so we duly moved her there and re attached mooring lines etc. No sooner had we done so than the owner of Aeron Lass drove up, a lady who explained that she needed to be able to go to sea easily should she wish to, and also she may want to paint her decks and we woudn't want any paint on our boat would we? She went off to speak to the harbour master. We later spoke to the harbour master again and in due course moved Blue Star back to her original place on the visitor's pontoon! It is interesting to note the difference in practice here compared with the Solent where boats are expected to raft up regularly and crews just have to manage boats slipping out of a raft, or back in. I think people take care when painting their boats too!
We had a meal out at the nearby restaurant and then packed for our return home. I hope our boat is still there when we return, undamaged and without extra paint applied!

Joke:
'I've just been on a once-in-a-lifetime sailing holiday. I'll tell you what, never again!''

Barry Pearson with his yacht

The dove nesting at Barry's Container Gallery

Kinlochbervie

Normal service has been resumed. The wind is blowing from where we want to go (the north), and it is very cold!

After filling up with water we went to the Sports Centre in Lochinver, which was all but deserted, to use their wifi and to use their showers. The shower was great (£1.50 for OAPs like me!) but their wifi was difficult to connect to, even with the help of the staff. Anyway, we managed to arrange transport home from Kinlochbervie where a taxi will collect us at 0900 on Sunday and take us to Inverness from where we will all make our way home.

The journey to Kinlochbervie brought its own challenges. The first 20mins sailing out of Lochinver was great, then at the headland we hit the strong winds and waves. We took in the headsail and motor-sailed with double reefed mainsail. There were lots of big waves around the headlands especially (we discussed how big they were, my vote was  about 2 to 3 metres) that caused the boat to slam down badly, making a terrible noise, when the boat went over a crest. We did our best to avoid this happening by approaching the wave crests at an angle, but occasionally we failed, and the whole boat trembled as she slammed down into the sea beyond the waves. I always worry about the mast coming down, but I guess these conditions must have been allowed for in the design of the boat (mustn’t they?). Anyway, slowly we clawed our way north and eventually made it into Kinlochbervie. It would have been good to get further, but we are all very pleased that we have reached this point, and that we remain on schedule. The view from our berth in the marina (one pontoon – is that a marina?) is stunning! The boat will stay here for several weeks now until we resume our challenge.

Battling our way north

Cape Wrath in the background as we head for Kinlochbervie

The view from our berth in Kinlochbervie

Joke:
Q. What vegetable is forbidden on boats?
A. Leeks!

Gairloch to Lochinver

The sun still shone, but the sea was more steep with waves up to 2m. With the wind from the north we decided to motor and it became a somewhat uncomfortable motion. Richard tried fishing and sadly caught a seagull. Another yacht close inshore was sailing and we had to give way to avoid a collision. We tried sailing with genoa sail only (which was easy to deploy). The other boat under full sail caught up with us as we entered Lochinver. We had noted the endless barren mountain ranges inland, and the especially strange shape on Mount Suilven as we approached Lochinver.

A 4hr sail to Kinlochbervie beckons tomorrow. The weather appears to be on the turn so we have abandonned plans for a possible push on around the Cape for now.

Joke:

A nervous skipper enquires 'Do yachts sink very often?'. 'No' says another sailor, 'Usually it is only once'. :-)

The mountainous coast, Mt Suilven standing out

Preparing to enter Lochinver marina

Kyle of Lochalsh to Gairloch

We left Kyle of Lochalsh this morning after Hughie had driven me to the garage to collect some diesel in jerry cans we got from a workshop behind the garage. We replenished the gas too. We said good-bye to Hughie and to Wolfie, and after a quick coffee at the hotel we were on our way. As we approached the bridge to Sky it looked bl**dy close as to whether our mast would fit under. Roger had done the calculations but even he slowed us right down just in case! We needn’t have worried – there was plenty of room, as calculated. We passed Applecross where Monty (whose surname we can’t remember) made a TV series about living as a crofter. (Yesterday we had passed the spot where Gavin Maxwell had written about in Ring Of Bright Water). The weather has been like the scenery, just brilliant(!) – sunshine all the way! The sea was mostly flat but picked up a bit as we cleared Sky and we could see out to the Outer Hebrides. We carried on under double-reefed mainsail alone and Blue Star stayed almost upright and plodded on steadily at 5 knots in the 23 knot wind! David prepared a Spanish omelette for everyone for lunch, which was delicious. As we approached our destination we wondered whether there was any other way of getting to Gairloch – it seemed so isolated with moon-scape mountains behind it!

The weather forecast for the rest of the week looks good, and a plan is being hatched – to carry on after Kinlochbervie and go around the Cape pressing on to Scrabster! But we shall see.

Richard’s Joke:

A sailor was at work when they had the opportunity to leave early. ‘Why are you leaving early?’ their colleague asked. ‘Well’, they said, ‘my spouse has laryngitis’ they said!

David keeping watch

Richard keeping watch

Approaching Gairloch (Is there any other way of reaching it?)

The crew in Gairloch (Kim, Richard, David and Roger)

Blue Star in Gairloch

An eventful day at Kyle of Lochalsh

The main preoccupation this morning was ……….. toilets! And showers! The marina at Mallaig has brilliant ones, BUT, the facility is closed between 5.00pm and 9.00am! So, as long as you don’t need a pee, or something else, outside those hours you are fine! We managed with a pub and the on-board heads. Oh well! The good thing about Mallaig was that the marina manager was very supportive of our cause and only charged us for the electricity we used (£3.60) which was great! Thank you Mr Marina Manager! Today we sailed to Kyle of Lochalsh. There is a pontoon here with an honesty box! Public facilities open 8.00am to 8.00pm. There is also a hotel right next to the pontoon – presumably with facilities! It was a lovely journey to get here, part under sail part motoring in brilliant sunshine with wonderful scenery!

Joke:

I bet you thought there would be another joke here didn’t you? Ah-ha! Well I gave you one this morning and I don’t have another right now so you’ll just have to check tomorrow’s blog! J

P.S.

We got to talk to the skipper of the boat (Blue Migrant) behind us who offered to loan us some jerry cans in which to transport diesel from the garage to fill up the boat tomorrow (you see, as we are getting further north ALL facilities are becoming a bit more ‘difficult’). Hughie was so kind and helpful that we invited him aboard Blue Star to help us to eat the Thai green curry that Kim had prepared. Hughie used to be a helicopter pilot working in Antarctica for Greenpeace but now runs his own business ‘Seadogs’ (www.seadogs.scot) in which he takes clients out in his boat to wreck sites where they can ‘drive’ a remote operated under-water vehicle (ROV) with a camera and take their own video of the wreck! Hughie lives on his boat with his dog Wolfie.

We also went to visit The Lochalsh Hotel and spoke to two beautiful, kind and helpful young ladies on reception (Ella Meekham and Caitlin Cummings) about the possibility of using a room just for its shower and toilet! Having had our cause explained to them they put in a good word with the manager, Murdo Macrae, who agreed we should have the use of a room for free! Thank you ever so much Ella, Caitlin and Mr Macrae! To celebrate we ordered five coffees and five puddings! Yum yum yum!

Entering the Kyle (the narrow section of water)

Approaching Lochalsh with the Sky bridge also in the background

Hughie tastes Kims' curry

Hughie's boat, MV Blue Migrant

Wolfie on board Blue Migrant

The Lochalsh Hotel next to our pontoon mooring where we met Ella and Caitlin

Blue Star and Blue Migrant on the far side of the pontoon, as seen from the hotel

Pudding at The Lochalsh Hotel (Yum yum!!!)