Miss little sunshine

Welcoming our daughter Romaine aboard Fabule meant a lot to us. She was involved in the project since the beginning and visited second-hand boats and boatyards with us. Now she would discover the boat and live on it for a couple of weeks. She landed in Glasgow which is an easy train/bus travel away from Inverkip marina.

After a historically rainy and gusty month of May, the sun was shining over Scotland. We liked to say that Romaine brought the sun with her. This high pressure system also meant that there was less wind. During our travel from Inverkip (mainland) to Lamlash (Arran), we motored in a flat glossy sea, as smooth as oil.

Mull of Kintyre

After a night at anchor in Lamlash (Arran) we started our journey West around the Mull of Kintyre, known for its strong currents. The rocks, lighthouses and birds provided gorgeous views. We had light winds for this journey and alternated motoring and sailing to reach Port Ellen (Islay). The highlight was a good stretch of light downwind under spinnaker.

Lagavulin Whisky on Islay

Islay has 3000 inhabitants and 9 distilleries. The island is famous for the smoky peated flavour of its whisky. The well-known Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Ardberg distilleries are situated on the coast and can be reached by boat. We very much enjoyed our visit to Lagavulin. On site, they produce the precious spirit (distillation) which is then sent via truck to other locations for the maturing in oak casks. As we had walked to the distillery, we could fully appreciate the testing with a group of other sailors.

Rock formations at Loch Tarbert (Jura)

Continuing our journey through the Islay sound, we reached the south west corner of Jura Island.

The good side of motoring in flat seas is that you can watch wildlife more.

We anchored in Loch Tarbert. This loch presents remarkable rock formations and a colony of seals. It displays raised shore platforms and raised beaches. These landforms reflect changes in relative sea level associated with the growth and decay of ice sheets. We wanted to stay there to explore more but we had a unique wind window to progress towards north that we needed to seize.

Sailing to Oban

For our sail to Oban, we eventually had a little of everything. The wind kept changing. Our new crew had to adapt from a 70 meter 3 mast tall ship to the way of doing things on Fabule. Fortunately, the sun was bright and made it a lovely journey. The smiles speak for themselves.