8th June 2016 – Day 24 – Loch Moidart to Lochaline, Sound of Mull

Woke up to thick fog in the Loch and it was quite difficult, at first, to determine which way the open sea lay. The air was still motionless and we had the eerie experience of the other boats, which had also been anchored in the loch (much further in), approaching us but not able to see them until they were a 10-20 meters away from us. You could hear them approaching and there was the worry that they won’t actually see us until it was too late.  Each one passed at a safe distance and then it was our turn to leave. 

The anchor came up easily with just one small kelp plant and a starfish, the journey out of the loch was simply a case of following our course on the chart plotter in reverse. We were now approaching high tide so we knew we had a lot more water to play with.

Waking up

Brief view of coast line

Slightly better view before fog descended again

Out at sea and the fog temporarily dissipated enough for us to see the headland briefly, but 10 minutes later and it disappeared again and once again we were plunged into the deepest fog blanket. Weirdly it was only a couple of hundred meters high as we could see blue sky above the fog, but it was now other boats and larger traffic we had to be mindful of.

Radar on and fog horn at the ready and then the radio sprang to life with two other boats in our vicinity which were aware of each other but didn’t know where each other were. We watched them flit across our radar screen only a few hundred meters in front on us and thought the safest option was to follow them around the Ardnamurchen point headland.

Several vessels came dancing across the radar screen and one came a little too close for comfort so we gave him a blast on the fog horn. His replying blast and image on the screen told us he was heading away from us. 

We rounded the headland fully expecting to hear the lighthouse fog horn, but silence – maybe the lighthouse was higher than the fog blanket and the automatic fog switch hadn’t been tripped (just a theory).

Just when you think everything was under control we had our scariest moment. Something very large and travelling very quickly started to appear on the screen. We could see it was going to miss us but when the unexpected wake hit us it confirmed the vessel was of considerable size and had been very close. My money is on a ferry and let’s hope he was fully aware of us with our radar reflector doing its job.

Fog lifting creating some spectacular views

A little closer to Tobermory and the traffic and radar screen went nuts. Now we were dodging bullets and when the radio sparked to life again and we listened into a conversation between Leader and the other 18^th century 100ft wooden (i.e. dent resistant and unsinkable) tall ship we now knew they were heading albeit very slowly out into the Sound as well. Hitting either of those would be like hitting a brick wall. But as suddenly as the fog came down it lifted and all became crystal clear with all the boats laid out in front of us like points on a map. The scenes of the retreating fog were spectacular.

We set sails and ran all the way down the Sound of Mull with the genoa acting, once again, like that badly needed cruising shoot. Relaxing, quiet, speedy and under control – perfect sailing!

Small battle with ferry at the entrance of Lochaline inlet and onto the pontoons for the night.

Leader