So here we are, two days in to the actual sailing. And things are looking good.
Flyer, a Sun Odyssey 35, is proving to be a most weatherly boat. We had what could only be called erratic winds today, mostly on the beam, and with a sail plan that was 2 reefs in the mainsail and a variable amount of headsail we made a very comfortable 6-7 knots.
In Eric, our 28′ Etap, we used to do route planning assuming we could get 4 knots in the direction that we actually wanted to go. 20 nm was a good day, and when we once did 65nm across the Channel we planned for it ages in advance, got up early and arrived late.
It would seem that with Flyer we can be a bit more ambitious. Today’s run was nearly 30nm, and we did it between 9:30 and 4pm. Office hours sailing! (sorry that is an old rally joke). So we can easily plan for 30-40nm days, and 50-70nm would still be a day sail.
On the other hand, not much is open round here – Covid rules still hold and the main sailing season has yet to start. Also the weather is very changeable, and we are wary of getting trapped in a session of bad weather with some long passages to get Flyer back on the 20th as promised. We’ve currently got good – but unusual – winds from the east; the prevailing winds in the UK are from the southwest.
Our original plan was to do the Outer Hebrides loop shown in red on the chart.
Once we arrived and Doris completely lost her nerve it felt like the Tour De Mull in green would be too big an ask.
Over the last couple of days we were thinking that a tour of Skye, shown in purple, could be attractive.
But if you look closely at the chart, can you see the elbow shape in yellow between Skye and the mainland. That has some fearsome tides, it needs to be taken very seriously, and many of the places that we could take refuge in if we get the timing wrong are shut now.
We have redone our plans and we’re going to go up the west coast of Skye. It’s pretty, the tides are easy, and importantly the crew of “Kelpie C” on the next pontoon have recommended it to us. We might even pick up a mooring for a couple of nights, inflate the dinghy and go ashore.
Sid has been warned.