Rum to Lochaline 18 July 2022

 

Early morning at our mooring in Loch Scresort on Rum

It was a beautiful morning on Rum.  An early start on the flybridge looking for otters and White-tailed Sea Eagle produced neither (a little disappointingly) but the eerie haunting cries of Red-throated Divers displaying was magic!

With the inverter not doing the job it’s meant to, we started the generator in order to make tea and toast for breakfast.  After a couple of minutes the generator shut itself down - after a bit of investigation we found that a jellyfish had clogged the cooling water intake.  Even after cleaning the filter there was no water - even with the seacock open.  We decided to see if motoring would clear the outer mesh of jellyfish bits, and we will have to check the impeller before starting the generator again.  A job for this evening.

Our route today has taken us round the north of Rum, past Muck, into the Sound of Mull and south to Lochaline (where we were able to pre-book one of the two hammerheads).  The weather was cool to start with, but warmed up by lunchtime, and was very calm to start with, got a bit breezy and then calmed again.  Brilliant day for cetacean watching.

By keeping a constant watch for cetaceans until we got to the Sound of Mull we saw quite a few individual Harbour Porpoises, one Minke Whale, and a group of half a dozen Common Dolphins. The Minke was seen three times before it made a deep dive, while the Common Dolphins came and rode our bow wave for five minutes or more.  It was brilliant.

A Minke Whale surfaces near the boat west of Rum

Half a dozen Common Dolphins rode the bow wave for five minutes or more

Another highlight of the day was passing Ardnamurchan Lighthouse and the most western point of mainland Great Britain.

Ardnamurchan peninsula, with the most westerly point of mainland Great Britain near the right and the lighthouse just to the left of it.

Ardnamurchan Lighthouse - built in 1849 with granite from the Isle of Mull.  It was designed by Alan Stevenson (those Stevensons again - Alan was uncle of Robert Louise Stevenson (of Treasure Island fame)). 

Lunch at the north end of Sound of Mull


The day got hotter as it went along (we’re in day one of a UK heatwave that has necessitated a number of COBRA meetings) and is now really lovely - at 17.00 in Lochaline.

On our way down the Sound of Mull the port engine kept losing power briefly then coming back to normal. Rather disconcerting.  We think it might be fuel starvation - we hope due to a dirty filter.  We’ll change the Recor filter first thing in the morning.

At our berth in Lochaline

Today’s route:








































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