28th June 2016 – Day 39 – Troon marina to Lamlash bay, Arran

The weather stayed drizzly and the wind blew (Coastguard calls it 'strong wind warnings') for the next couple of days so we stayed put and caught up with all the washing and cleaned the boat.

But the following day we decided to make it over to Lamlash on the island of Arran. We were getting conflicting weather reports from the various weather websites and it was difficult to make any predictions about the next few days. There were still strong winds around, which usually means choppy seas and we didn’t want to be out in force sixes. 

We had left the protection of the smaller lochs behind and were now open to the full force of the Irish sea. The sailing wasn’t a problem as we had proved time and time again, the humans on board give up hours before the boat itself. She is perfectly able to cope in sorts of conditions and usually rides out the storms well.

Looking back towards Troon, miserable grey day

What was on our minds were the nights on anchor or on mooring, without a cosy pontoon to tie up to you are open to all the elements mother nature wants to hurl at you and the boat is not good at sitting still in high winds and rough seas. Fine for a crossing but pretty uncomfortable all night long.

The wind had swung around to the south west so we had a great sailing day, even reaching speeds of 8.1 knots under sail alone. We made it over to Arran and in the bay the sea was flat calm again. We motored passed the Holy Island with its resident Buddhist monks.

We followed another boat in and found the visitor moorings all laid out in a line in front of us. 

Holy Island protecting Lamlash bay behind

Once again no pick up buoys, but we had our technique perfected now and pick it up in reverse and walked the buoy to the front of the boat. We had another spectacle to watch that night from the cockpit as a dinghy race of Toppers and Picos approached and raced out to the island accompanied by 2 safety boats. Later in the evening they all returned being towed quite quickly by the safety boats. Kids were enjoying the ride but a couple of them did spend the journey nearly entirely underwater.

We had a quiet night in the bay, the strong winds had stayed away.