Glenarm to Oban 20 May 2024

 


A rather grey start today - but very calm, and quite warm.  After yesterday’s battering, we’ll take it - we’re happy. It’s going to be a long day’s travelling.

We left the berth at Glenarm at 08.10, to not even make it out of the harbour before remembering we had not left the key fobs in the harbourmaster’s letterbox.  We had to turn round come alongside a, post the keys, and then set off a second time.

As I write the sea is dead calm.  Skeins of Guillemots and Razorbills are flying north towards Rathlin, a few Kittiwakes and Gannets are foraging.  A single Harbour Porpoise has made a brief appearance and a big Grey Seal put its head above water with large fish which it swallowed whole.  That’s breakfast sorted!  It’s still only 09.30.  

Now 10.15 and we are just off the Mull of Kintyre.  It’s got brighter and sunny, but there is also a bit of a SE breeze creating a sea that we are running at right angles to, so we are rolling quite a bit.  Hopefully this will ease as we get in the shelter of the Mull.

Mull of Kintyre, benign today, but site of the Chinook helicopter crash on 2nd June 1992 in foggy conditions when 25 passengers (security personnel from Northern Ireland) and 4 crew died. The reasons for the accident are still not fully clear. 

It is now 13.00 and we are nearly past the island of Gigha.  As hoped for, when we got into the shelter of Kintyre, the wind dropped right down and the sea became quite calm, glassy calm for long stretches.  Great conditions for seeing cetaceans, but despite keeping a keen eye out we have only seen Harbour Porpoises - several different groups. 

It has been great to see a couple of Great Northern Divers in their breeding plumage.  In the extremely calm conditions they looked enormous - quite reptilian.  I’m sure in another place we would swear we’d seen the Lough Ness monster.

The Paps of Jura are headless today.

Lunch was served at 13.30.  And very good it was. 
 
14.30 We are half way along the length of Jura and have just seen our first Minke Whale - a really good view although a little distant.  We all saw it as it came up and took a couple of breaths, and then it’s big arched back as it dived deep.  Brilliant.  A little farther north and an Otter swam past , raising it head to have a look at us.

Barnhill, at the very north end of Jura, is where George Orwell lived between 1946 and 1949 and where he finished writing Nineteen Eighty-Four.  It’s now a holiday let I think.

The day could not be better as we approach the entrance to the Gulf of Corryvreckan at the north end of Jura.  Corryvreckan is famous for its tidal induced whirlpool - we will not be passing through it today.


Fladda Lighthouse, with Mull in the background, looking splendid at 16.40.

Tied up in Oban transit marina at 17.50. Nine and a half hours from Glenarm and a wonderful journey. 

The boat bird list for the day is a very respectable 36 species, the highlight being the Great Northern Divers.

Our route:
































































































































































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