Craighouse Bay Picture by Author
We left Gigha on Monday 15th September for Craighouse on Jura, the most amazing place for spotting wildlife. The sail was delightful and the sight of the rugged Island was breathtaking, especially the Jura Paps which lay straight ahead as we entered the bay. We took the option to take a mooring ball in the bay instead of anchoring, another opportunity for me to get some practice at hooking a duck, as I call it. There are about 15 mooring buoys and a pontoon for dinghies only. The white building of Jura Malt Whisky Distillery helped with orientation of the mooring field, there was plenty of space as September is nearing the end of the season for many sailors. Space meant not too many on lookers, for some reason on lookers just seem to pile on the pressure of hooking the duck first time. Not this time, I was going to be in control of my gremlin and simply play it cool. Slowly we approach the ball from down-wind and I stood on the bow armed with my boat hook trying to determined the type of pick-up and which side the buoy was going to go. I could see a float behind the pick-up eye, by far the easiest type, so I reached forward and picked the line up with my boathook and pulled the mooring buoy towards me so to secure our mooring lines. Once secure Gary came forward to attach the mooring snubber, as I had a very important job, search the fridge for cold beers. A tradition which we had adopted following the end of any passage. Sat out in the cockpit that night, looking at the stars and listening to the stags call was simply magical.
Majestic Stag and his family - Picture by Gary Moxon
The wildlife on the island of Jura was just amazing we saw Wild Goats, Dragon Flies, Sea Eagles, Seals, Red Deer and Stag. Over the next couple of days we explored the island by foot and thanks to the local mechanic and other locals we were able to visit places where the wildlife hang out during the day and early evening. Thanks to Konrad Borkowski, a local artist, I saw a Stag close up for the very first time, such a majestic animal. The community shops and honesty boxes are also the making of places like Gigha and Jura. Jura is an absolute treat and I say thank you for fate, as if it had not been for the Covid pandemic, we would of missed all of this and would have been in Spain or Portugal, where right now Orca are ramming sail boats – Highly unusual and this pod must be under stress to do this. What is happening to our planet? Most of you reading this will also have believed that Gary would have been in the distillery sipping nectar, sadly the Jura Whiskey Distillery Tours were closed. Konrad however, served us a wee tipple of 10 year aged Jura as we looked around his newly opened art gallery, the whiskey is indeed like nectar and Konrad's art takes your breath away. His images of the distillery in action around Islay and Jura made up for not visiting them in person.
Jura Village - Picture by Gary Moxon
Whilst this all seems idyllic it does have its challenges, we have not had a shower in 7 days, we spend a lot of time eating basic foods, listening to clanking halyards in the mast as we roll about in big swells and always in search of a half decent internet connection. However, somethings are just becoming second nature, we are always tuned to VHF channel 16 listening to weather forecasts, which before now have always seemed to be read out by the coastguard at lightning speed, thankfully they now seem to be understandable first time, planning the next passage is a joint affair and a part I truly enjoy. I do however frustrate Gary at times especially when I have to practice knots time and time again but hey that’s the way I learn – repetition. I wish I had his ability to apply practical common sense first time. Poor bugger is stuck with me HAHA!
The Paps of Jura - Picture by Author
Not all of our evenings are spent aboard Sandpiper listening to bagpipes on radio Argyll, recently we met up with our dear cruising friends, MC and Dave, who have been sailing the Orkneys and Sky. We met them in the beautiful anchorage of Puilldorbhain, we laughed, walked miles, visited more gardens, went wild swimming (freezing I might add) and cruised in tandem to Oban in 33 knots of wind with gusts of 45 knots.
Before meeting MC and Dave we decided to give the Crinan Basin a gander, as we planned to traverse the canal later in the season and to be honest I was a bit apprehensive of the whole idea so I look at both the first loch and the basin approach was well worth our time. More on this experience and our time with friends in future blogs.
Bye for now and I am looking forward to hearing from you, comment, like and say hello.
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