Completing the Scottish Loop

 

Craighouse, Jura. The community provides moorings (£12 per night) as kelp on the seabed can make anchoring tricky

Yesterday we arrived in Craighouse, the only village on the island of Jura. It was an 05.30 start from the anchorage in Puilladobhrain to catch the south-going tide through the Sound of Luing (where we had over four knots of current behind us, causing the water to swirl and boil impressively), we then passed the fearsome Corryvreckan, where dangerous whirlpools form, and hugged the east coast of Jura as we headed south. All of this happened in drizzle and less than 500m visibility, so it was wonderful to have the skies clear and the warm sun appear in the afternoon. 

The route down the east coast of of Jura and on to Islay

A visit ashore allowed Graham to sample some excellent Jura whisky at the distillery and we had a good pub supper in the Jura Hotel. The availability of food at the hotel wasn’t a given – like a lot of places up here, Brexit has been very bad news for the hospitality industry, with too few locals available to fill roles that used to be done by Europeans coming over to work.  At the moment the hotel can’t provide lunchtime meals and evening meals are only available five nights a week.  One can only hope that Jacob Rees-Mogg might come up here with his family on holiday to experience the reality!

The Paps of Jura in the background - they are often shrouded in cloud!

Today was another early start to gain tidal assistance for the passage down to Port Ellen on Islay. We had great sailing in gusty Force 5-6 conditions. Our arrival in Port Ellen marks a milestone for this cruise – we crossed our incoming track to complete our Scottish Loop – we’ve sailed 822nm since we were last here on the 16th of May. 

Our clockwise route in red

We’re now contemplating the crossing of the North Channel back to Northern Ireland to start picking our way down the Irish Sea. We’ll be sad to leave this amazing part of the world but yesterday’s glimpse of warm sunshine has made us realise that we’ve had really poor weather for most of the trip and we look forward to wearing the shorts and t-shirts that have remained packed in our lockers!  There’s another hideously early start (about 04.30) on the cards tomorrow to use the westerly wind and the strong tides to send us south – to Glenarm or maybe further to Bangor if we make good time.