Great sail on Thursday night up to the Kyles of Bute where a considerable amount of whisky was consumed at anchor. Departed next afternoon for Tarbert in a strong wind and tacked across the top and down the West Kyle. Almost at Tarbert, decided that it was too early and we did not want tie up alongside anyway; changed course for Lochranza. Reefs in, reefs out, but managed to hold it on one one tack.
Now, the App. As you probably have realised, this weekend on the FOC the weather has been windy and showery, less showery more deluge. A friend has this App called 'Dark Skys'. It's available in the Apple App Store, probably for other platforms as well. The App shows a snap shot of the rain radar, and one hours prediction for speed and direction travel of the cloud, colours for rain intensity, your position and a basic map outline. Got caught half way between Skipness and Lochranza in a torrential down pour, sea flattening rain, zero visibility. Then it went away as quick as it arrived.
Lochranza anchorage is not easy with the number of moorings now in place. Very disappointed that they have been allowed to put so many in. Anyway, we picked up one, drank a load more beer, whisky and wine, good craic, good food and a slightly earlier night. Fantastic evening and eventually the moon came out.
Up the next day, big winds, 35 kts, two reefs in the main, 3 in the Genoa and off we go back to Kip. A couple of observations, a lot of yachts motoring in good wind, even down wind, I can't understand why as they would be going just as fast down wind. My Knox anchor, 18 kg, worked well in sand / Kelp in about 25 knots of wind, then when we retrieved in 10m at 15m of scope, it was still holding strong. Very impressed with it.
Untitled by Rival Sailor, on Flickr
Untitled by Rival Sailor, on Flickr
Untitled by Rival Sailor, on Flickr
Untitled by Rival Sailor, on Flickr
Untitled by Rival Sailor, on Flickr