This morning we set off from Burnt Isle but unfortunately, the sunshine and light breeze meant that we had little wind for sailing, so we decided to stop off at Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, and saw lots of porpoise on the way into the harbour. In this lovely weather, we attempted sunbathing and enjoyed Meg and Emma’s brilliant elevenses of pancakes and melted chocolate. Whilst on the island, Izzy, Fliss and Ruth experienced the luxury of Rothesay’s Victorian Toilets (the winner of ‘Toilet of the Year’ for several years running!) and the crew stocked up on chocolate supplies and took in the sights before lunch.
We then left, finally getting the opportunity to use the sails and broke our record time at getting them out and reached a peak speed of 6.4 knots while Izzy was at the helm. During this time Heather and Emma managed to successfully tack single handed whilst Liv and Jen worked in the kitchen preparing chilli con carne and rocky road; early preparation for our evening meal. Later, we all managed to eat jacket potatoes, cheese and beans, though after carefully managing forkfuls of food while sailing, the wind frustratingly decided to calm and once again we were forced to put away our sails and rely on the engine.
The long journey was saved with beautiful views, wildlife and of course food. We had an apple and orange fest and then the chocolate biscuits were whipped out and consumed within seconds as we were starving having not eaten for all of seventeen minutes! We then sighted several porpoises or ‘porpi’ as Jen likes to say, following in our wake. Today, we have also spotted some eider ducks which we thought we were going to be ‘squashed’ under our boat and when we arrived at our anchorage tonight, we were greeted by a rather angry and mischievous goose!
On the way into Loch Goil, we passed through a military submarine base and were followed by a police boat. However they seemed not to see us as intruders as they gave us a friendly wave. We are currently anchored in Loch Goil looking at Carrick Castle, surrounded by unbelievably still water, which reflects the mountains, and we are hoping to get the dinghy out tomorrow to get some scenic shots.
As we are finishing this blog, to all our amusement, we have just witnessed Ruth and David demonstrating their cha-cha skills on deck - they must be working up an appetite for the rocky road!
Byeeeeee
Read more about Sail Training on board Tenacity of Bolton at http://www.tenacityofbolton.org/
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