juli 2022 – Sailing with Saphir

Oban/Kerrera to Largs

So I promised you a not so clean start…. During winter all our pipes to the toilets had been change to avoid any unpleasant smell. So why did we get a very unpleasant stinky smell in the cockpit. The tanks had been emptied several times… Time to investigate where the leka is. We found the reason behind our shower. The crane to empty the tank was not opened….. ( it has always been open every year without us doing anything) so our tank was overfilled and had started leaking. One more time we had to empty the storage in the cockpit and Edgar started to take the worst and then I went in to do the rest….. I can tell you it was not the best smell I had experienced…very glad that Edgar took the start

After that it was time to do drill holes for a new hanging hook for the dinghy. In the evening we went for dinner in the restaurant. The food is really good.

The morning after it was time to leave and go to the next harbour . The view is spectacular along and the tidewater very strong. At one place we had 3knots against us. We even saw a seal that had a fish in his mouth that a bird was very interested in. Need a better objective on the camera to get good shots. The weather changes all the time from sunshine to grey and fog.

Arriving at lovely Port Ellen on Islay. There w e had some nice days, relaxing , fixing, washing and walking around . One of the walks was to the Whiskey distillery Laphrough. There we found a nice one “quarter task“ but it was out of stock, but we got four small bottles in a box and one of them was quarter task.

Time to hoist the sail and get to our next harbour. It started very smooth and nice but after a while it got a bit rough when there was no island to give us some shelter from the Atlantic waves. This time the tidewater was even harder on us so it prolonged the trip with almost two hours. We had when it was as worst 5.5 knots against us.

Few days in Campbeltown, not much to explore. A very boring town. They did have a nice restaurant and a memorial place in memory of Lady Linda McChartny that we went to. I also made a pocket for Mobil, glasses and a book by the bin in guest cabins and Edgar did some small repair.

Next harbour is Tarbeta. Which is a cute little harbour village. Here we meet a nice couple who had sail all the way from Australia. Their boats name is Steel Saphir so it was a bit confusions in the harbour office. We had a nice walk up to the castle and on the way we past the inner part of the harbour where a little sailboat stood by it self without water.

Going to Largs was very short only 4 1/2 hours. This time no wind at all but very warm and sunny. And the view was very beautiful just as Pete from Steel Saphir told us.

Last thing sorted out and a new ladder for the boat and we are ready to go home to Stockholm for David and Tuvalisas wedding.

Now we leave the boat to Carina and Maria to watch it for us . Unfortunately we didn’t see each other since there flight was cancelled so they are at the boat when we land in Sweden .

Next update will be in like two weeks

Hugs Eva

Caledonien Canal from Inverness to Oban

This time there will be a lot of picture.

Lovely morning to start our trip trough the canal . The Caledonian Canal is a sister canal to the Swedish Göta Canal. Time to put on our headphones so we can speak easier to each other. It can be very noisy when the water fills in to the lock. The morning we start in shorts and t-shirt. At the end of the three days we had changed clothes several times and ended up in full rain clothes when we left Caledonian Canel.

The first day we went over Loch Ness to Fort Augustus where we stayed for the night. It was hard to only pick a few pictures so here comes a lot. We went through all kind of weathers sun, rain, wind, fog, warm and cold

The next morning we had to move and wait on the lake so a big cruiser could get past the entrance of the locks before we could start climbing again. This time it was 5 locks at the start. We went up three more before we started to go down. The stop for the night was on top of the Neptune staircases which have 8 locks. Luckily they are going down which is a bit easier then going up.

After a very rainy night we continued with a very rainy day and in between the sun came out as well. The eight locks took us two hour to go down and at the bottom we had to wait for more than an hour since the didn’t have anyone that could open the bridge so we could continue. The scenery around us is fantastic with the threes down to the water and hills looking like fluffy wavy green beds. Leaving the Caledonian Canal and heading to Oban we pass a narrow passage an are very lucky to get extra help from the tidewater. Getting to Oban Marina late hungry and happy that we have some days to relax and fix things on the boat. It is also time to thank Carina for joining us all the way from Henån to Oban. You made the trip much easier and also so much funnier. Specially the dance in the Neptunes Staircase. Maybe there is someone that has tagged us?

The next blogg will be a little shitty😉new problem to solve and clean

Hugs Eva

We saw Dolphines

It was a very rough start. With waves coming from two ways and they where approximately 1-2 meter no wind but sunny. Luckily me and Carina had prepared us with scopoderm plaster . They worked very well. Edgar don’t need them since he doesn’t get seasick if any wonder. It was a lovely sunset and sunrise on the sea.

After the second day we spotted some dolphins several times. But they are hard to catch on photo so a short movie was better.

We also saw a lot of oil rigs and they are even harder to take a photo of since we have to stay 2NM away from them.

Her are some pictures from the coastline in to Invernes.

All in all it took us 81 hours to go 500NM ( 962km) and of them we sail 24 hours due to wrong wind or no wind at all. This little fellow was curious how came in to the bay.

Having some internet problems but hope to solve them soon

Hugs Eva