Little did Kylie Minogue know that when she started shaking her little tosh for Agent Provocateur that she would be named after the northern passage around Bute through the Kyle's, or as they are known on Ruffian today 'Kylies Back Passage', however before we could take in the scenery there was fixing to do.

The previous night we had dropped Chris ashore on Thug and managed to break the cotter pin that drives the prop on the outboard. That should be no problem for a ship as well stocked as Ruffian, simply get out the outboard spares, obtain said cotter pin and then fit. Unfortunately the outboard spares are still in the outboard spares shop in Hamble. Necessity being the mother of invention and armed with his new vice Iain quickly fettled a new cotter pin out of a stainless split pin, not ideal, but it'll make do until we find another outboard spares shop.

Kylies Back Passage, as it's name would suggest, was perfectly formed, access only possible in the middle and only after careful preparation and research. The pass through the Burnt Isles really was stunning and reminded Fiona of Corryvreckan with their eerie whirlpools and back eddies. The hills plunged into the loch from a high, the sea was a turquoise blue and all the Gorse was out in bloom. This is what we battled the Celtic sea for. All too quickly however they were over, well that's what happens when you have 2 knots of tide with you and we were shot through the corner into the fishing port of Tignabruaich.

Summer is definitely on it's way and as the morning progressed Iain moved from all his usual winter clothing into shorts. Fiona thought this was quite mad as she was freezing, it was only after we moored that she realised that she's not only forgotten to put on a set of thermals but also her fleecy midlayer. It was little wonder she was cold as she was essentially wearing just underwear under her waterproof trousers.

We had plans to anchor around the corner in Rubha Dubh, however as we approached, in the only spot available to us, was a little motor launch so back to Tignabruaich it was. These really are the places names, we're not making them up, even though they do look like a random assortment of letters. This was a blessing as when we stopped we plugged in the wifi booster aerial given to us by Rosie and Nick as an essential piece of cruising kit and hey presto we dialled into free wifi for the night. What followed was a download fest and a couple of hours work for Fiona.

According to the GRIB files we have one more day of fine weather before the rain sets in, so we are heading off to another anchorage towards Tarbert tomorrow in preparation for going into a safe haven before the weather sets in on Monday. In the meantime however the sun is shining and all is happy on board Ruffian.

Fix'in n a fettl'in. You can't beat metalwork around breakfast.


Exiting Kyle's back passage."


Amazing scenery.


More amazing scenery.


Free wifi. Note the lack of Fiona's midlayer.