Day 5 Campbeltown - Gigha

The best time to go would be to get to the Mull at slack water, the Mull of Kintyre has a fearsome reputation and much like Portland Bill there are two ways around one is offshore the other is the inside passage. The meant that the best time to go was around 1pm. Alastair had spotted a very smart restaurant and had been unable to get a table yesterday evening so he booked a table for lunch. The restaurant was called "Number 42" and the food was outstanding. We have been blown away by the quality of the food were are being served here in Scotland and it is at a fraction of the cost of the South Coast.

We returned to the boat and set off, the day was simply beautiful with blue skies everywhere the lighthouse looked even more impressive from the other side but you simply cannot see this in the photo. Traveling by boat gives you a window on the world that you simply can't see from the land. We had about 8 knots of wind on the beam all the way down and we kept the sails up for as long as we could because we knew that when we went around the bottom the wind would be on the nose until we went up the other side. As we turned to corner we found that we could continue to sail much further than expected but eventually we had to roll away the sails and motor. The Seas were as calm as could be imagined… until that is we reached that last little bit of the Mull in the most southern corner. We were suddenly hit by 20+ knots of wind and there in front if us were some huge waves. I kept as close to the shore as I dare but I now know that I should have been a bit closer as we encountered three huge waves over about 150-200 yards giving Jane and me a dunking and one large wave went over the bow and along the deck and just like magic all was calm again. It was amazing to see it, huge wave with smooth seas immediatly beyond and the wind dropped to 6knts. The wind must have just been funnelling around the point because there was very little wind on either side of the Mull.

Strangely and I can't understand this at all, on the Western side ok Kintyre the wind was coming from the north not the west so we were forced to motor the rest if the way which was a huge disappointment we were expecting to have the wind on our beam on both sides of the Kintyre. We arrived at Gigha at 7pm about an hour earlier that expected thanks to a fantastic bit of tide that added about 2knts to our speed. We picked up a lovely Orange buoy rated for our size and later went ashore to pay at the "honesty box". Alastair went to a bar where we met other yachties and some holiday makers and exchanged stories.