The Race, whirlpools, swell and ticks…dangers all around.
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| Gulf of Corryvreckan between Scarba and Jura |
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Water boiling and whirlpools
at slack water |
Aleria was among the first group of five boats to pass through the
Corryvreckan and, even at slack
water, the water was still boiling all around us as we passed through under power at almost 10 knots. Our speed through the water was only 5.8 knots as we raced over a 224 foot deep chasm that would soon shallow out abruptly. We were being set quite substantially.
We
anchored in hard sand and weed in gorgeous Pig Bay (Bagh Gleann nam Much) just on the inside of the top
of
Jura with the Race's waters rushing past the opening to the Bay while inside it was
calm and secure. The Race extends out quite a distance, which is called an overfall here in Scotland. Luckily, there wasn't much wind, only about 10 knots, because when wind opposes tide, it can get very nasty, with standing waves and square chop intertwined.
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| 9.8 kts SOG with 5.8 kts STW |
The nice thing about sailing with such experienced people is
that you can trust their judgement. All have completed at least a 1000 mile offshore passage in a boat of less than 70 feet. Most have many thousands of miles beneath
their keels. Just watching everyone come
in and anchor was such a pleasure. You could see everyone preparing, thinking
through, and choosing exactly the right spot for their boat relative to
others. It was a joy to
experience. Mind you it took us two
attempts to anchor here as in the first attempt, the anchor dropped into an uncharted hole
and took all of our chain rode straight down! It was the first time we had actually gotten to the end of our rode. Luckily we had followed our own advice and had the rode secured to the bulkhead! The
second attempt was actually a two and half, as the first spot had too much weed
so we just lifted and drifted until we were over a more weedless
environment. We’re sure everyone was
watching; but we were comfortable in the knowledge that we did not succumb until our boat was securely anchored.
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| Pig Bay opens up from the Gulf |
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Onyx supervising the anchoring
maneuver |
It was a beautiful morning, so Alex and I took the dinghy
ashore and went for a hike to search for the lookout point from which you can
see to the other side and watch the Race at its height from a secure vantage
point. We never did find that spot, but had a lovely picnic at the very top of
the steep hills overlooking the harbour and all the boats anchored below.
Beautiful.
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The crew of Calypso building
sand castles |
We met Tim and Sophie off the lovely Bowman 46
Calypso playing with their children on the made-for-kids beach. OCC members too, they were locals from Loch Craignish on holiday here by chance. We introduced them to Simon and Sally on Shimshal when they came in.
Although we knew there were ticks on Jura because of the
deer population, and we had taken precautions (long sleeved shirts and long
trousers, socks and hiking boots, all sprayed with 50% deet) we came back to
the boat crawling with hundreds of ticks. We spent the next several hours
grooming each other to get to the ticks before they got to us. Ich! Creepy. Crawly.
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| Rain greets the second half of the fleet |
The second fleet came through unscathed on the afternoon
tide. Bill told us later that he was
nervous anchoring knowing that the “experts” were in the harbour, citing our book "
Happy Hooking". Everyone found a suitable spot expertly and all boats stayed put for the duration.
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Pleasure coming through gives
a sense of the scale |
Some crew managed to get ashore for a walk. Others
just relaxed onboard as the wind shifted and a light rain started to fall, the
first in many days. A planned get together aboard
Pleasure was postponed. A gentle swell
entering the harbour made for an unpleasant night for some of the smaller
boats, while we slept peacefully as usual.
It would be a relatively early morning again the next day to
catch the slack water coming out of Pig Bay.
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| We took the opportunity to hike up the hill in sunshine. |
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| Climbing through bracken taller than me |
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| The magnificent view of Pig Bay from the top |
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| Venus Fly Trap in the wild |
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| Alex unknowingly being infested with ticks during lunch |
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| Two OCC vessels in this beautiful anchorage |
I think we were all a bit nervous about anchoring within the view of Aleria - Good to know we passed the test!
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