OWNER REPORT
“The wind was light, the sun DOWN CHANNEL
was up and the combination We left the Royal Southern Yacht Club in Hamble on Tuesday 30 June 2009 at
of the sea, rocks and grassy
15:00, in time to take the tide down the Solent and past Portland Bill. With light
easterlies, we motor-sailed all the way down Channel and past the Scillies.
islands with all the birds was Eventually we got a decent reaching wind across the Irish Sea and so it took just
a great sight.”
an hour over two days to do the 360 miles to Kinsale.
OUTSIDE IRELAND
After a weekend in Kinsale – lots of history and the gastronomic capital of
Ireland – we set sail for Scotland, outside the famous Fastnet Rock and all of the
many other headlands and islands off Ireland’s west coast. Now we had real wind,
beating round Ireland’s south west coast for two days and then, as we started
heading north, the wind went north and light and headed us all the way to the
Outer Hebrides.
OUTER HEBRIDES AHOY
As we closed on the uninhabited islands at the south of the Outer Hebrides,
the bird life was just astonishing: guillemots and razorbills littered the surface
of the water, then they were gone, just like little penguins flying under water.
Puffins joined in with the larger birds, petrels, fulmars, gulls, gannets and boobies.
Our route in to Castlebay on Barra was easterly through Pabbay Sound. The pilot
books talk of overfalls, rocks awash and great caution to be taken. For us, the
wind was light, the sun was up and the combination of the sea, rocks and grassy
islands with all the birds was a great sight. As we cleared the Sound, there were
two small sharks close by and a small fishing boat headed down island to haul his
lobster pots.
CASTLEBAY
Castlebay is an incredibly well protected large harbour and ferry port with twelve
free visitors’ moorings. There was a strong wind warning out for that night and so
we chose the one with best shelter from the south east.
The mooring buoys all said ‘Max Wt 15 Tons’. We are 24 tons, so having tidied
up, we went ashore to seek advice. As we dumped the rubbish in the waiting
containers, a man walked by wearing a long yellow waterproof working jacket
with ‘P&O’ on the pocket. Sure enough, Arthur knew all about the moorings:
“Och away”, he said. “Ye dinna ha’ tae worry aboot the weight. There’s bin
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