We left west Jura this morning in overcast skies, moving through a choppy sea. Little different in weather from yesterday and the day before but a stronger wind and a cold spray was splashing over my face while I was on-watch. The waterproofs are uncomfortable, the hood scratches the back of your neck when it’s down and if you have it up the hood stays put when you turn your head.

We passed through the sound of Islay, initially under sail but as the wind dropped, under power. The boat is more comfortable under power; it sits more level in the water but is noisier. Under sail there is peace and quiet and steering the boat is challenging and rewarding, I can understand how people fall in love with sailing. Mind you, It’s not easy to make or even drink a cup of tea when the boat’s shifting from upright to it’s side in a fraction of a second or when the winds suddenly picks up or drops off, always without notice. The skipper assured me that the boat will not capsize, even if it keels over to 90 degrees from vertical – I’m unconvinced but we still made our destination.

We saw our first sea-mammals today at about 1pm this afternoon – a solitary porpoise in the Islay Sound. Shortly afterwards we spotted another, another one on its own. We were watched by a couple of grey seals in the Sound but it wasn’t until about 4pm that we caught sight of another of our quarry – another porpoise. Much concentrated searching and all we turned up for the rest of the afternoon were plastic bags (of which there are far too many floating around in the ocean) and jelly-fish (including one Portuguese Man-o-War – the waters must be warmer than they felt to me).

Today is the first day since we began this trip that the sun started to shine. It has an amazing and beautiful effect on the water, which turned from a dull and uninviting slate-grey sea to a deep blue which reflected the sun like a million small diamonds on the water. As I write this, we are anchored in the harbour at Craighouse on the Isle of Jura, the sky is once more overcast and the water’s returned to its natural slate-grey colour. On the plus side, we are just spitting distance from the Isle of Jura distillery and the Jura Hotel serves a very welcome pint of 80 -/-.

Position at anchor: Craighouse, Jura, 56 deg 54 min N; 6 deg 8 min W
Weather: overcast with showers, advanciung to sunshine with clear skies force 4 SW decreasing during the day
Distance travelled : 46 miles

Written by Chris