Sailing through the Scottish Sounds! Chapter 5 I Rùm to Oban

In last episode we started the sail back from St. Kilda to Norway. I decided to take the route through the Scottish highlands. To get through Scotland I also have to go through the locks of the Caledonian canal which takes me back into the North Sea on Scotland's east coast to reach back to Norway. Now sit back and enjoy this ride through some of Scotland's most beautiful inland sailing visiting Tobermory before reaching Oban after another dramatic Janako experience. Let's go! So that's the main sail up. Beautiful place. Now let's head inshore Scotland. We're sailing through the sound between Eigg, I don't know if Eigg and muck this way, other side. And I'm wearing my shorts for the first time on this trip. And it's amazing just to calmly slide through the Scottish beautiful landscape with no worries. It's so different from offshore sailing. So it's kind of the best of two worlds, offshore sailing and inshore sailing. It's an amazing sail ship passing us, look at that. It's the Lady of Abanel, beautiful. And sailing vessel Susa coming up here. Nice to meet you too, happy sailing! Nice to talk to you, to the VHF. Huge Hercules military airplane just passed us very low. We love it. So we're sailing downwind now, it's not too much wind but we're doing four or five knots and we are closing into the Arvna Merchant Lighthouse, I think that's the name of it. And that's kind of the point we have to round to get into Tobermory, the little village. And I just really have to say again how beautiful this Scottish coast is. This is far beyond belief, wow! The 35 meter granite tower of Arvna Merchant Lighthouse soars 55 meters above the ocean and sits on the most western point of the British mainland. It was built in 1849 using granite from the Isle of Mull. And just as I passed it on this beautiful day some well-known ocean heroes came by just as fast as they disappeared. Those RMLI guys are tough, those cool boats. One just passed me now and all respect to those guys. Thank you for being out there and keeping us crazy sailors safe when we don't know how to do it ourselves. Perfect! So more fruit to keep the gut balance in order. Before we enter I'm trying to figure out about Tobermory. I'm reading the Kentire to Arvna Merchant, this sailing direction in Anchorage. It's the Clyde Cruising Club, fantastic books. And there's a lot of information about Tobermory here. So it's good to be a little bit familiar with it before you enter. And we're going around the corner here now, that's Tobermory right there. So that's the most northern point of the Isle of Mull which is all of this. And we will just pass a pretty cool lighthouse in the front here. And there's a regatta going on outside Tobermory. So we have to be careful not to intervene too much. So let's be careful. Yes indeed, let's also be safe. That's exactly what the sponsor of this video NordVPN is providing. Safety for your online presence. 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It's packed with boats because of the regatta so just gonna see if there's a mooring buoy or if I have to drop my own anchor or something. I don't know, let's see. I say that's a success. Run to Tobermory. What a beautiful city. I'm gonna launch my little dinghy now and get to shore and see what's up. I'm hungry, I need a beer and I need some food. Wow, let's go. Tobermory is the capital of Isle of Mull in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. Around 1000 people live here today. The main street is built along the water shoreline and all the houses are painted in different colors. This makes the beautiful little village stand out visually. Opposite the village lies the green-covered Calve Island inhabited by a few houses and cabins. The island somewhat protects the Tobermory Anchorage Bay but not in northerly winds. As I walked around the wind started picking up from yes north which started building some swells throughout the evening. So I went to shore to check out the Tobermory and what a beautiful city. And now I'm back on board Tessie and it's a lot of waves here and I'm trying to enjoy my little San Miguel beer but it's it's it's a lot of movement but anyway cheers see you tomorrow. Right, good morning from Tobermory. What an amazing place. I just went on shore to have a shower. I was starting to smell funny things so it was about time and yeah we're going to Oban and it will be downwind so I'm preparing the gennaker again to to put up the fight again with the gennaker. I hope we can can do it the right way. No hiccups this time and I think we'll have a lovely sail down to Oban and then it's Fort Williams and then it's the Caledonian Channel waiting for me on Saturday and today is Thursday. So let's prepare the gennaker. We prepared to slide into the Scottish Highlands through the sound of Mull leading to Oban. In some increasing winds we left Tobermory. I had a slight feeling I would get a bit more than I bargained for this day. Yes so as expected it's reported 12 knots of wind all today but now it's 20 knots. It's just a little bit more than I think it's comfortable sailing with the gennaker. Then it's the long time out for considering and thinking if this is smart or not. Being an adventurer it's usually the same outcome. But I'm gonna try anyway let's see. That's cool wow I'm the only schmuck out there sailing with gennaker and 20 knots of wind. It started out pretty good as I felt the control of the boat having the wind slightly in from port being aft. Eventually the wind increased and Tessie started wobbling more and more from side to side. Some icky noises from the rig occurred being under heavy pressure. It was worth a try to see how the boat copes in inshore conditions in this kind of wind. But at last that bad gut feeling hits you. It's pretty crazy I think I'm gonna try to throw it in again. 22 knots of wind now it's just getting stupid. It's always that last piece up there. I think we're good that was that was a little too much. But you know that's that's the way you learn. Instead of always thinking us too much we don't do it. You know it's smart in some ways to not do it and you will spare yourself from your gear. But then on the other side you don't learn anything. So this was a great experience. This is the way you build self-confidence. Oh okay let's calm down a bit. Well I would like to catch that boat though but I could not help pretending to be a viking chasing his opponent in the most perfect environments possible. Sailing through the Scottish sounds in the wake of my ancestors. Winds were still increasing, waves building. I was on the top of my game. We have the current against us we're doing four knots over ground and six over through the water. So it's about to turn now it's on the top top speed so that means that it has to come down pretty soon. Rope mess on deck is dangerous. You can tangle yourself and fall and hit yourself. While sailing down the sound of Mull the rain set in. That's the nice thing with having the wheel good clothes on then you can handle everything on deck. Rain, water, sea spray, waves, everything. So always gear up. So we're off the course as the fjord turned now and the wind died a little bit out. 13 knots. That's why we can fly this guy again. Perfect. That's the main advantage of having a furler. You can just have it ready and just let go of the line and it's out. Instead of having it in a sock that's a little bit more work. Another parry triller. This guy is coming over here and we have a CPI closest point of arrival of 50 meters. Oh now it's turning. Oh nice. Thank you so much Mr. Parry. The wind suddenly turned from here to here so we need to jibe the gennaker. Furl it in, shift the sheet over to the other side of the boat and unfurl it. Okay. We continued chasing down the sound. I was slowly starting to overtake the boat that has been in front of me all day. I know it's not a competition but it's fun to have a target to push towards. Yep so that's 20 knots of wind again. It's incredible from 8 to 20 knots on three minutes at these currents. We're on a really strong belt now. It's really cool. Wow. And soon we're out of it. Just a belt. Poor little guy. He's a little fighter. He's gonna wear it off. I'm sure. We suddenly had 26 knots of wind. So I'm pulling in the gennaker. This is the beautiful Lismore lighthouse sitting on the little home of Eilean Mustein. Marking the entrance to Lok Linnhe. I was surprised to see the colorful and very well maintained garden on the backside of the tower. One of the more picturesque lighthouses I've seen for sure. After a long and entertaining day we could finally see the shape of Oben. So what do you think about that lighthouse? Wow that was beautiful. It's so cool that they maintain them like that. But now we are closing into Oben. Just over here. And I passed that guy. No offense. I took down the sails, tidied up the boat and prepared for another landfall. Welcome to Oben. The city lies well sheltered protected by the Isle of Carrera. Oben is inhabited by around 8 000 people and acts as a popular target for many tourists traveling around Scotland. It also provides great marina facilities for yachtsmen. If the marina is fully occupied you can book a mooring buoy over at Carrera Marina on Isle of Carrera just opposite the city. With its beautiful island nature surroundings you are sure to find your calm and peace after a long day of sailing. Just what I needed this fine evening. So that's Oben marina. It's an awful lot quieter than Tobermory with all the jumping. There is protected and completely flat. So I think again it's bear time. It's no way around it. And enjoy the silence and calmness and celebrate life. Cheers. Okay so follow me on next chapter 6. Sailing through the beautiful Loch Linné. Leading to the incredible man-made Caledonian canal. Stretching all the way through the mountains and famous lochs of Scotland. Letting us back out to sea at Inverness. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for news and updates. Thank you so much for all your support on Patreon and Paypal. Also get your NBJS merchandise following the links in the video description. If you'd like an NBJS birdie for your boat send me an email to post at nbjs.no. And a huge thanks to Aaron Dolan for providing his beautiful music to his pipe that will be used in my future videos. See you in chapter 6. Eric