Eigg-ed On - A Two Whisky Day

After over two weeks of sublime paddling in hot, settled weather and light easterly quarter winds, it’s about to change. If we had any complaints it would be that it was far too hot at times. It’s been so settled that looking at the forecast has been a bit of a formality. 

The forecast for tomorrow is much the same as it has been for the last couple of weeks but after that the winds are consistently southerly, south-westerly 15kn and up through to early next week. And rain, lots of it!

Camped on Lunga in 2019 we’d been tempted by Coll and Tiree on the horizon to the west and north-west of the Treshnish Isles, a crossing of 13km, but the wind had prevented us getting there. 

This year camped on Lunga again, an easy crossing to Coll was planned for the next day in perfect weather. And it still could have been, but given the windy forecast into the foreseeable future our movements while there would be quite limited and we could potentially be stuck waiting for settled enough weather for the 15km open water crossing back to Ardnamurchan and the mainland.

The washing of bodies and clothes, petrol for the stove and a food stock up planned for Coll and Tiree would have to wait too,. 

So onward then to Kilchoan, the nearest petrol, (we were a bit low) then as we headed west along the  Ardnamurchan coast, shock horror the second headwind of the trip. It soon died away though and by the time we reached the lighthouse on the Point of Ardnamurchan we were bobbing around on glassy seas basking in hot sun. Again.

For the lighthouse nerds. Ardnamurchan lighthouse and keepers cottages were designed and built by Alan Stevenson in 1849, the only light and cottages built in “Egyptian style” in the UK.

With the lighthouse behind us the bow of the kayak crunched into the sand of Sanna Bay and a lovely level patch of machair just above the beach provided yet another fantastic campsite.

With the weather closing in we were anticipating a few days off the water so the aim the next day was to try and get to Eigg, via Muck perhaps, as we knew there were showers, perhaps laundry (we couldn’t remember from 2019) and a shop. Oh and the Eigg Brewery. All of those plus lots of nice walking made Eigg an ideal place to be stuck for a few days. 

It rained a lot during night and wind certainly picked up but not too bad. We had a lazy morning as high tide was about 10, might as well wait until the water was as close to the kayak as possible before dragging it down the beach.

Leaving Sanna at high tide, very windy and wet. 

Off we shot from the beach with just one sail up. Seems a bit windy I thought as we hurtled past the inshore skerries. Aiming for a gap in the outer rocks it was obvious the wind had suddenly picked up. “Do we really want to do this” I said as we viewed the backs of the white caps stretching out to sea. “That’s just what I was thinking” replied Lynne.

Sail down we paddled into a small beach and wondered whether a paddle of less than 2km counted as ‘a day at sea’ therefore deserving of a wee dram. Of course it did. 

Tent up we settled in on another lovely patch of machair appreciating our decision to have a slow morning and late start. Leaving earlier we’d have been out there in open water between Sanna and Muck when the wind picked up.

 

 

 Spot the tent!   

We’d counted 5 cairn-topped hills around us, so after a quick lunch, we set off to walk them all - and hopefully have reception to get updated weather information.

As forecast, by early afternoon the wind dropped a bit, the rain stopped and the sky was a lot brighter. The thought of packing everything up again, dragging the boat to the water, now a long way away at low tide, wasn’t very attractive. The sky brightened further and on emerging from the tent the patches of blue sky to the south clinched it. Eigg-ed on by the flesh pots of Galmisdale we packed and were on the water again by 3:30.

Still far too windy for both sails, but rocketing along under one we headed straight for Eigg 15km away, nervously hoping the break in the weather would last the necessary couple of hours to the boat ramp at Galmisdale. If not we had Muck a few kms downwind to the north-west to run to for shelter. An anxious glance behind us every now and again assured us that although the patches of blue sky had passed the upwind sky was still bright and clear.

Not for long though. Muck disappeared behind a thick band of drizzle from the south or south-west, then Eigg too, another glance behind and we couldn’t see Ardnamurchan either. Visibility dropped to a few kms at best so with no land in sight a glance at the compass every few paddle strokes kept us on course. 

The sea was a mess, a short steep swell from the port quarter, the wind and resultant sea from the starboard quarter and there were other waves in there too that I couldn’t quite make out.

Lynne quipped “It’s just like the west coast of Vancouver Island.” We’d paddled there for days with no land in sight, and I added a few other coastlines we’d ‘enjoyed’ by not being able to see them.

Slowly Eilean Chathastail, the island off Galmisdale emerged from the murk, and by this time the wind had dropped completely so we wallowed slowly towards Eigg in messy slow seas.

Phew, the bow scraped on the concrete boat ramp, we made it. The misty drizzle changed to torrential downpour as we quickly unloaded the boat, assembled the trolley and wheeled it away from the waves surging up the ramp. Now for that wee dram. 

A two whisky day!