Lussa Bay Jura Scotland

Great sailing conditions heading up to Lussa Bay

After a fun morning ashore, we left Craighouse Bay on Jura at 1210hrs.  With 15-20 knots of wind from the northwest we had great sailing conditions and beautiful sunny weather as well.

The Paps of Jura

As we sailed north we enjoyed great views of Jura’s coastline bathed in sunlight and then shadow as cumulus clouds tracked serenely overhead.

Hard on the wind in great sailing conditions

Anchored in Lussa Bay.  Bottom:  the northern inlet

It only took us a couple of hours to reach Lussa Bay.  There was already one yacht anchored at the entrance to the northern arm and a smaller boat further inside that reach, so we anchored outside, fairly close to the western beach.  We contemplated pumping up the dinghy and then walking the 2 miles or so to the Lussa Gin distillery but reckoned that they would likely have closed up shop for the day by the time that we got there.  Instead we enjoyed the weather, read our books and watched the seals when the tide dropped and exposed a rocky reef to the west of us.

New, clean watermaker filters.  And, with the wet locker empty it’s an ideal time to exercise the stopcocks that
are under the locker’s floor

We spent Friday morning doing technical jobs – there seems to be a never-ending list of these!  First up was the routine check of the main engine, followed by a check of the generator (which usually entails topping up the oil a fraction).  Then it was onto the watermaker and a change of the salt water intake filters – a good job for getting water everywhere but a useful opportunity to also exercise some of the stopcocks which live under the floor of the wet locker where the filters are located.  Finally, I got right into the generator/machinery space and made some small adjustments to the DuoGen regulator to try to ensure that the DuoGen would fully charge the batteries but would not over-charge them.

Grey seals enjoying the sun

With the jobs complete we enjoyed coffee on deck.  The seals had returned and were obviously enjoying their equivalent of a coffee break in the sun on the warm rocks.

A stag on the headland which protects the northern arm of Lussa Bay

In the opposite direction a stag appeared on the headland to the east of the northern arm.  It was the only deer we saw in the area but, like the seals (and us), it too seemed to be enjoying the warm sunshine.

Rustler 42 Cruachan

Just before we left, the Rustler 42 that had been in the anchorage the previous day returned.  This time we could see her name and port of registry (Cruachan, Glasgow) and we waved and called hello as we motored past to catch the start of the flood tide northwards.

Lussa Bay, Jura, Scotland

Craighouse Bay Jura Scotland

We had an OCC Open House BBQ to attend on Sat 6 Aug so we decided to keep progressing gently up towards Craobh Haven and made an easy lunchtime start from Gigha on Wednesday 3 August.

Approaching Craighouse Bay with the Paps of Jura in and out of the cloud

The breeze was much less than the day before, only around 7 knots, but it was from the northwest so we had some civilised upwind sailing.  Again the scenery was lovely, albeit a bit greyer than the previous day with more cloud around, but when the sun broke through the hills just glowed!

Goat welcoming committee

At the entrance to Craighouse is a modern light structure, rather reminiscent of Marvin the Paranoid Android from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  As we got closer we saw that there was a goat sitting at its base. Not what we would have expected in Scotland but we subsequently saw a fair number of goats on our travels around the islands.

On a mooring in Craighouse Bay with the Jura distillery dominating the scene to our left

Craighouse Bay, like a lot of the anchorages in western Scotland, suffers from kelp which can make it difficult to get the anchor dug in and secure.  Consequently, the Jura Development Trust has laid a number of moorings in the bay and, with the gift of a 4G internet connection, you can pay the £12 per day charge by BACS transfer or you can pay the more traditional way, by cash, in the village shop, at the Jura Hotel or at the Antlers café. 

The Paps of Jura

From our mooring we had a great view of the village (including, importantly, of the distillery) and of the Paps of Jura.  But we were at the beginning of The Barkers’ West Scotland Malt Trail and so we pumped up the dinghy and high-tailed it ashore to recce the distillery.

Nothing is very far in Craighouse village but by the time we got ashore the shop, café and distillery had closed up for the day.  We took a good stroll around and then repaired to the surprisingly busy Jura Hotel for a local beer.  The bartender told us that the Jura Brewery had not yet formally set up on the island but was awaiting planning permission to build.  Meanwhile, the company is based on the mainland just across the Sound of Jura.

View across Craighouse Bay towards Jura…..

…..and towards the mainland (and BV!)

We drank our beers, enjoyed the fab views from the hotel and plotted for the next day.

One of the other visiting yachts on a Jura Development Trust mooring with a view of the Mariners’ Cottages
 behind.  According to a tourist signboard, at one time (the end of the 19th century or the beginning of the
20th century, we can't remember which) there were 10 Master Mariners living in these cottages

Thursday 4 August dawned bright and generally sunny and it was time for another run ashore.

Seafood shed

We’d been told that fresh seafood was available at the village shop but this is no longer the case.  However, the shop does sell excellent, locally produced sourdough bread, so we bought a loaf and were directed across the road to a shed for our seafood.  The shed was firmly closed so Nicky rang the number on the door.  The call went through to answerphone but the fisherman rang back a few minutes later.  Unfortunately, he was ill and unable to go fishing and so had nothing to sell.  Maybe next time…..

Back to the Jura Distillery – open this time!

We headed to the distillery.  When we arrived the visitors’ centre was already quite full with a party of about 20 visitors from a mini cruise boat that had arrived in the bay late the previous evening, but there was space for us to join and listen to the explanations.

Renovations – the old stills waiting to be scrapped

It turned out that only the visitors’ centre was open as the distillery was undergoing major renovation work, hugely held up by Covid and its subsequent ramifications.  Outside the building were the tops of 3 stills, awaiting disposal.  The stills had been replaced in toto and there was clearly significant other work going on, not least a full redecoration.

Jura Distillery tasting room

We tasted a couple of the whiskies on offer and marvelled at the wide selection and high price of some.  £300 for a bottle anyone?  [Ed: despite everything apparently many of the higher priced whiskies have a good market]  Having purchased one of the more reasonably priced whiskies, one we had tried, we made our way to the newest distillery in Craighouse, Deer Island Rum Distillery.

Deer Island Rum Distillery

We’d not known about the rum distillery before our walk around Craighouse the previous evening and afterwards in the Jura Hotel bar we had also found out about Jura’s Lussa Bay Gin, another island spirits company start-up.  Like the Jura Brewery (and probably Lussa Bay Gin), Deer Island Rum does not yet produce alcohol on Jura.  Instead the distilled alcohol is imported from mainland Scotland and the spices are added and the liquor aged in barrels in the warehouse we visited.  The company hasn’t been going too long but the rum is excellent, very spiced and perfect to drink neat on ice or with a splash of soda water.  We were able to taste a sample, both neat and with their preferred mixer, a grapefruit tonic.  We were also given a taster of their coffee liqueur and a sample of the rum-soaked raisins which are a by-product of the spicing process.  All were excellent, but the rum was the winner by a country mile.

Sunny views along the shore of the bay and of the beach enclosed by the pier

Traditional rowing boats

Local fishing boats

As we wandered back to the dinghy the sun came out, lighting up the scenery yet again, so we took full advantage and snapped more photos.

Two distilleries before 11am…. what’s not to like!

Then it was back to BV to prepare for a ‘huge’ voyage, 15nm up the coast to Lussa Bay, close to the gin distillery and a convenient stop for the evening, well-positioned to take advantage of the next day’s tide north through the top of the Sound of Jura.  The question was, having visited 2 distilleries on Jura, did we need to ‘do’ the third?

Craighouse Bay, Jura, Scotland

Ardminish Bay Gigha Scotland

Red Bay looking even greener in the sunshine as we prepared to set off again

We didn’t spend much time awake in Red Bay.  Having arrived after a night passage and since we were planning on moving on with the next tide, we basically just got our heads down for a few hours.

There was a good breeze blowing out of Red Bay as we set off again

Leaving Red Bay with Georgina steering BV

We left Red Bay revelling in champagne sailing conditions.  The sun was out and the hills glowed green with the sea a deep blue.  We had over 20 knots of wind across the deck so we dropped a couple of reefs in the main, unrolled most, but not all of the genoa and shot off out of the bay.

The Mull of Kintyre ahead

We should have learned from our arrival at Red Bay.  As we got further out of the bay the wind increasingly dropped off and we unrolled the genny and shook out first one and then the other reef until we had full sail set, but the sailing was still good with about 16 knots of wind from the west. 

Through the tidal gate and sailing north past the Mull of Kintyre

Having crossed the Traffic Separation Scheme and cleared the main run of the North Channel, tidal flow was less of an issue.  Passing the Mull of Kintyre we continued to revel in good downwind sailing conditions as well as enjoying the fabulous highland scenery.  However, by 1700 hrs the wind had dropped off to under 7 knots so we switched on the engine, only to have the wind return with a vengeance an hour later blasting us the final 12 nm or so into Ardminish Bay, Gigha with around 22 knots.

Anchored in Ardminish Bay

There are moorings in Ardminish Bay as well as space to anchor, though a lot of the southern end of the bay is very shoal.  We anchored close south of the moorings and as we settled down to enjoy our first evening in Scottish waters the wind began to drop again and we could see a seal, albeit some distance away, lounging on a rock.

Ardminish Bay

Ardminish Bay, Gigha, Scotland

Red Bay Northern Ireland

Approaching Red Bay

We hadn’t really planned to stop in Red Bay but we had known that we would need to stop somewhere along the Antrim coast as the tide was going to turn against us before we could complete our passage through North Channel to Gigha.  Red Bay was as far north as we could get and, in fact, as we made our approach past Garron Point (the southern headland of the bay’s entrance), the tide was already sluicing against us at 2knots.

Garron Point

After seemingly spending a lot of time in the same bit of sea, we made it through the entrance and the tide dropped off a bit, but not a huge amount.  The tide here flows a long way into the bay, curves around and comes out along the southern shore so we were fighting the tide in almost to the point at which we anchored.

Garron Point is high, dark and quite forbidding and indeed much of the land around the bay is high.  In the southwest corner there is an open valley, significantly greener than much of the surrounding land but southwesterly winds blow strongly from here…..as we found, despite there having been little wind at sea.

At anchor in Red Bay

We dropped anchor in the southwest corner, to the south of the fish farm and not so close inshore that we infringed on the no anchoring area, a marine protection zone for eelgrass.  Having taken a few pictures we got our heads down for a couple of hours.  The plan was to be up and en route again as soon as the tide turned again in our favour.

The Mull of Kintyre in the distance (R).  The gap between Northern Ireland and the Mull was our next
tidal gate to pass through

Red Bay, Northern Ireland

Skerries Ireland

Dun Laorghaire

Monday 1 August dawned sunny and still.  The wind was forecast to fill infrom the southwest later in the day and whilst we could have stayed at Dun Laorghaire Marina, we decided to make a prompt start and head up the coast a bit.  But before that we wanted to fill up our fuel tanks, knowing full well that if we didn’t take advantage now we might struggle to find somewhere convenient to refill.

Motoring away from Dun Laorghaire

148litres of diesel (60litres into 3 jerry cans and the rest into the main tanks) heavier and €216 lighter (ouch!) we motored away from Dun Laorghaire across glassy seas. 

Passing Baily lighthouse at the northeast corner of Dublin Bay

Glassy sea for most of the passage

The AIS GPS aerial in its new location held together with tape after being cut in 2!

Shortly after leaving Dun Laorghaire it was clear that the AIS was no longer working properly and that the GPS aerial had failed again.  This time I decided to bite the bullet and cut the antenna in half to access the inner workings and, specifically, the connections.  A little soldering and a chocolate block connector later I had a much more consistent readout on the AIS test kit.  So I stuck the housing together again with self-amalgamating tape and secured the antenna to a different section of the pushpit rail (so that the cable was under minimum tension and the aerial was maximally protected from accidental knocks) and waited to see what happened.  Amazingly, it carried on working normally………..and continued to do so until we were well into Scottish waters.

Approaching Skerries

We decided to go a little way up the coast to Skerries, a small village 15-20nm further north, to anchor and await the wind.  Skerries is a small village on Red Island, a lump of land permanently joined to the mainland by an isthmus [Ed: so not an island then!].  Both the northwest and southeast sides of the isthmus feature sandy beaches and the bay on the northwest side provides good shelter from winds from the ESE through S to the NW and the holding is excellent (on sand).  We anchored just outside the many moorings in about 7m and enjoyed a lazy lunch and afternoon watching the world (and some showers) go by.  One of the excitements was the launch of the local inshore lifeboat to assist/work with a Coastguard helicopter a few miles up the coast.  The other great excitement was the gradual building SW wind.  Perfect for the next leg of our voyage north.

Skerries, Ireland

Dun Laoghaire Ireland

View north across Dun Laoghaire Marina

Entrance to Dun Laorghaire Marina from berth AV4

We had arrived in Dun Laoghaire to sort out a couple of technical issues whilst the wind turned northerly and unfavourable for our passage up the Irish Sea, so the priority on the morning of Sunday 31 July was for me to get into the machinery space to see if I could identify the problem with the DuoGen.  Nicky meanwhile, went off to the marina office to pay, find out about the marina laundry and get directions to the nearest supermarket and hardware store. 

The DuoGen’s charge controller which appears to have developed an internal fault 

Whilst Nicky was running our laundry through machines various and buying up (and carrying back) most of the stock of Dun Laoghaire’s huge Tesco, I spent an unhappy morning bent double changing the fuse in the DuoGen’s charge controller (only for the new one to blow) and then tracing the wiring to find the fault.  In the end I concluded that the controller had developed an internal fault, one that I was unlikely to be able to solve in the time available, if at all, so I changed out the fancy, all-singing, all-dancing MPPT  [Ed: all-fuse-blowing] controller for an older model that we still had on board.  Happily, this one still seemed to be working, well, as much as I could tell with relatively little wind to turn the wind-driven generator.  On the plus-side, the internal fuses did not immediately blow when the rectifier was connected up which has to be good!

Crowds out enjoying the Sunday sunshine.  The walk out along East Pier is very popular

I also carried out a little work on the GPS aerial for the AIS in the hope of making the connections more robust again.  It transmitted OK in the marina but the movement back at sea will be the big test as to whether or not I have made a difference.  

The People’s Park

Chores completed we took a stroll out around the city.  I didn’t take as many photos as I had intended but we enjoyed a walk out along the front, past the East Pier, and on towards the People’s Park.  

Railway terminus café in the People’s Park

Like the East Pier, the park was busy with people enjoying the sunshine.  As we strolled back to the marina we commented on the number of yacht clubs.  We passed 3 on our walk (the Royal Irish YC, the Royal St George YC and the National YC) and there is one other a little further west (the Dun Laoghaire Motor YC).

Dun Laorghaire Marina is huge and there is plenty of space for manoeuvring in the pontoon runs

With our jobs complete and the wind forecast to go southwesterly during the next day, our plan was to take on fuel during the morning and then to head off northwards with the aim of catching the tide through the North Channel (between Northern Ireland and Scotland) en route to Gigha.

The view across the marina from our berth

Dun Laoghaire, Ireland