Voyage from Dunstaffnage to Loch Aline – 02/07/24
Up bright and early for a full Scottish breakfast to fuel us for a busy day ahead, we then made our way from Oban to Dunstaffnage Marina for handover. We took over ‘Pintail’, loaded our kit into the forepeak and picked out our oilies (all a few sizes too large!). Beth, our skipper, and Elise, our first mate, went over the relevant safety bits and pieces and we were away! Keen to head off quickly while the tide was on our side!
We completed our first passage as a crew from Dunstaffnage to Loch Aline – practising boat handling, lots of tacking, and learning our way around the boat. As we got used to being on board we were greeted by the delightful Scottish weather, leaving us all suitably soggy but still in good spirits upon reaching Loch Aline. That evening, following a delicious oven-pizza dinner a la chef Beth, the girls went off for a dip while myself and Ollie and I took a well-earned nap having sailed all of 20 nautical miles – a hard day’s work. A little later on, we all went over some theory – covering cardinals and points of sail – and came to the realisation that we had missed some essentials when shopping and a stock up of hot chocolate was needed asap!
Voyage from Loch Aline to Tobermory – 03/07/24
We started off our day with a speedy sail up to Tobermory – racing the other boats up the Sound of Mull to secure a spot in the marina before the storm rolled in! On our way up we practiced a few knots and executed our first gibe of the expedition. We reached Tobermory in the early afternoon, having had soggy wraps in the drizzle for lunch before squeezing into one of the last spots in Tobermory marina!
Leaving Pintail safely moored up we went to explore the island. After a little look around, we made our way down a muddy coastal path to Tobermory lighthouse – so pretty! On our walk back, we ventured up to the war memorial overlooking the harbour and then sat in a café with a view of the colourful ‘Ballamory’ houses, with a few of the crew being disappointed to realise the pink castle from the BBC childrens’ series doesn’t actually exist.
To finish off the day we went over some knots and how to calculate tides – leaving myself and Seb thoroughly confused and Harry (maths undergraduate) completely in his element. We had to wait until he took a bathroom break around 11pm to hide the books after he’d spent the last couple of hours doing nothing but calculate the tides for the next few decades…
Day in Tobermory – 04/07/24
Despite constantly checking the weather in hopes of change, a storm was blowing in and we couldn’t risk venturing out due to gale force winds. Not wanting to waste a day up in the beautiful highlands, we spent the day walking to and back from Glengorm Castle, skilfully navigating the singular path across the island. We stopped off at the castle café for a hot brew and cheeky packed lunch and visited Isle of Mull cheese and spirit with their own distillery, dairy farm and beautiful greenhouse café!
Back on Pintail for an easy evening, dinner, and of course more theory and some Adventure Training Leadership and Resilience training!
Voyage from Tobermory to Loch Nevis – 05/07/24
Finally we were back sailing after the storm, the whole crew grateful to be back on the water! On our way out of Tobermory first thing we saw a superyacht fit for a Bond villain – helicopter on board and all – fitting right in with the smalltown scenery of Tobermory… Once out in open water we practised our man overboard drills – quickly and effectively recovering our fallen soldier (Sam Fender) twice. Heading onwards out of the Sound of Mull into rougher waters, Elise and I weren’t the biggest fans of this newfound turbulence and found ourselves feeding the fish once or twice.
A few hours down the line, having completed a racing sail change and settled our churned stomachs, the sun came out!! We saw some stunning views as we hugged the coast of Eigg, even coming across some dolphins and lots of jellyfish! On our way from Eigg to Loch Nevis we saw a trawler ahead of us with no AIS and we struggled to make out if there was a line behind it… As we got closer, we could see there was and steered well clear.
Onwards to the beautiful Loch Nevis, we came across our final obstacle of the day – a suspicious looking line of foam, conveniently placed directly over the harbour boundary. Unsure if there was a line just below the surface we circled back and made attempts to contact the harbour – daytime and out-of-hours numbers – to no avail. And so we bravely advanced only to discover it was just a scum line that we came across at the unfortunate moment it happened to be directly over the harbour boundary. We then found ourselves a gorgeous spot to anchor for the night and Chef Irons and sous-chef Lees made us a delightful 3 course meal of a Cup-a-soup, smoked salmon pasta (delish!), and bourbon biscuits for dessert – truly spoilt after a day of great views and tunes on board.
Voyage from Loch Nevis to Loch Harport – 06/07/24
Started off our day with a hearty fry up from Chef Harry (delicious), then we got to work getting out and blowing up the tender – a true team effort, using the halyards to winch it up out of the forepeak and lower it into the water. Ollie and Seb named him ‘Razzmatazz’ – their trusty vessel that shortly began filling with water (despite the bung being firmly in place) and with an engine that refused to start. Despite these difficulties the boys were determined to take Razzmatazz on an adventure, so they began rowing away from us, singing the titanic theme as they went. In the meantime, the rest of us went for a dip in the lovely Mediterranean-esque waters of the Highlands. Upon the boys’ return we made a halyard swing and got some fun promo shots on the drone of us all gracefully swinging into the water before hoisting the tender back on board and setting off for the day!
12 hours of sailing commenced, making our way back over the scary harbour boundary where the scum line was no longer. We tacked and tacked and tacked again to make it out of Loch Nevis and headed up towards Skye. Enjoying some good tunes and a bit of a boogie in the sun, we took in some gorgeous views along the coast of Skye. Wind was changing regularly so the Head sail came down and went back up a few times! Harry, Ollie and Elise went for a nap (in anticipation of a potential night passage) in the late afternoon, while the three of us true brits still above deck, radio tuned in to the Euros football quarter-final – great play from the boys, it’s coming home. Powering on up to Loch Harport our lovely chef Harry made us dinner on the move – with rough seas and the wind picking up this ended up being quite the challenge down in the gally! Despite the tough conditions we were served a lovely two courses of cup-a-soup and tomato and basil pasta – although a few of the basil garnishes may have blown away…
In the very early hours we made it to Loch Harport, and, after a long day sailing, we anchored down.
Voyage from Loch Harport to Loch na Droma Buidhe – 07/07/24
Starting our day off with a look around the village of Carbost after a couple of trips to and from the yacht on Razzmatazz, captained by Ollie, to get us all to dry land! We went for a quick coffee then explored the local village, taking in the views of the serene loch. The Talisker distillery shop gave the crew a chance to get some truly Scottish gifts for friends and family and, with little else to see around Carbost we all hopped back into Razzmatazz and got the yacht ready to sail!
We set off in the early afternoon with blue skies and sun keeping spirits high! We aimed to reach Canna for a few hours anchored and a look around the island in the evening and so we sailed out away from Skye into open waters. It was a gorgeous day – winds were perfect to continue with sails up all day! And we were lucky enough that the sun stayed out, with a few of us sunbathing (and occasionally napping) on the stern. We were lucky enough that this lasted almost all day, with a touch of rain in the early evening. Seb and I started on dinner as we got closer to Canna so we could all eat after we’d anchored and make the most of time on the island – unfortunately this wasn’t able to happen as all the buoys and anchorages were taken… however we still enjoyed our last dinner onboard and headed onwards towards the Sound of Mull!
We had an easy crossing over from Canna to Loch na Droma Buidhe at the top of the Sound of Mull. We were lucky enough to see a rainbow over Skye and a beautiful sunset for our last evening on the water! Anchoring up in the dark after another long day of sailing, we set our alarms for 05:30am to set everything up before the first watch started our short night passage down towards Dunstaffnage.
Voyage from Loch na Droma Buidhe to Dunstaffnage – 08/07/24
First watch- Beth, Ollie and Harry, got us safely out of the Loch and down the Sound of Mull for a couple of hours. They were getting on so well they decided not to wake the rest of us! Seb got himself up shortly after our watch was due to start but myself and Elise slept soundly in the forepeak until we were woken by the anchor being readied! It was an easy trip down past the Isle of Mull – sadly all under motor due to a lack of wind. As we approached Oban for a quick top up on cleaning supplies before heading to Dunstaffnage, we were all above deck helping where we could and making sure everyone had eaten breakfast as the first watch crew had relied on biscuits and crisps thus far!
After a very confusing half an hour trying to find the correct buoy to anchor too – and some impressive boat handling from Beth getting us between all the boats, buoys and lines – we got Razzmatazz on the water for the last time to take Ollie and Beth ashore for a stock up. The rest of us began cleaning and tidying (somehow Ollie had a personal item in every nook and cranny of the boat) with some excellent 80s tunes on as per!
Once everyone was back on board, including Razzmatazz, we made our way over to Dunstaffnage. Moored up by the early afternoon we spent the rest of the day cleaning, deflating poor Razzmatazz, and emptying the fridge! Headed to Oban for a lovely fish and chip dinner and a few pints (we got the bus), we concluded the exercise – a great success and many miles covered!
QUOTES:
‘While I always learn more about sailing and refine my skills on these expeditions, as Skipper, Ex Highland Express also really helped to develop my leadership skills. With adverse weather and quite challenging conditions, I had to adjust my route planning to accommodate the needs of the crew. This meant listening to everyone, constantly checking in on how everyone was doing and finding a solution that suited all including those being sea-sick, those wanting to explore more on land and those wanting to get in as much sailing as possible.
As I am someone who likes to be hands on, I also worked on my delegation and communication skills, stepping back and looking at the whole situation before instructing the crew on the required task.
It was a great expedition because everyone really listened to each other, helping each other and working well as a team.’
