BLUEMOMENT

An excellent , genial cruise around Mull in the last 5 days. Craobh-Lismore, Lismore-Coll, Coll-Ulva, Ulva- Loch Buie, Loch Buie - Craobh. Weather was almost disconcertingly beautiful, and some great sails were had , but also the donkey got a good run.

The thing that was really noticeable on this trip was the "Mini" liner. 4 were anchored or in transit in the Sound of Iona, one was anchored off Staffa.We saw several each day. There seems to have been a real leap in the numbers of these things over the last couple of years. With the tripboats on top of the liner passenger numbers, Lunga in the Trenish isles had well over a hundred people all over it. Lots of yachts about, and power cruisers ( especially in the flat calm conditions). Usually in may we would be the only boat in the anchorage , aside from Coll, but this time only L.Buie was empty.

We had an excellent meal in the Coll Hotel, and they have a full Vegan menu, which almost moved one of my vegan crew to tears of joy, since she is used to usually only having one choice.

Just back from a mini trip with friends: Craobh, Sound of Luing, Tinkers Hole, Puilladobhrain, Sound of Easdale, Cuan Sound, Balvicar, Craobh.

I saw the old converted car ferry cruise liner, a large super yacht style cruise liner, and the smaller fishing boat cruise liners all out and about in Iona. And why not, absolutely beautiful weather that shows Scotland in all its glory. However, I get the numbers could be stressful for the environment in some of these places.

We had great sailing weather, from 3 kts to 7 kts, only one beat for a short duration. Sailing to Tinkers Hole all the bays along the way were full of yachts and I feared it too would be full, but no one else was there, so had the place to our selfs. Puilladobhrain had about 8 to 10 yachts at anchor so we anchored in the bay, just to the east, and inside the the entrance in 2m LAT. As it was just after neaps, no issues with depth. Antares show the detail but has the anchorage outside the bay, towards the Seil channel. Knox anchor dug in hard with minimum reverse. Nice to be away from the crowd.

I left Tinkers Hole using the North passage, and again Antares was wonderfully detailed, unlike UKHO Raster and Raymarine Lighthouse charts that shows a rock awash with a danger line all-round joining the islets. Antares clearly showed the differentiation.

On Thursday there were a lot of yachts about, both motor and sail, and a gaggle of Drascombe style yachts cruising on company. A real tonic this weather for the blues.

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