I spent a surprisingly peaceful night on the anchor, despite a small amount of rolling. When the alarm woke me I didn't want to get up, but time and tide wait for no man!

Getting the anchor up, even at slack water, was harder work (for the winch!) than usual: a lot of heavy weed came up on it, and a very large pebble (or small boulder, depending on how much to drink I've had when I tell the story!). Most of that had to wait til I was out of the inlet to be prodded off with the boat hook, as I didn't want to let the auto helm handle the tidal swirls. I tried setting the headsail, but there just wasn't enough wind to keep it full, let alone move me along, so yet another passage under power to Port Ellen.

The small marina is friendly - a local helped take my lines - and the ground floor of a nearby house provides showers and laundry. So I spent the rest of the day cleaning up myself and my clothes - very welcome. A slight drawback is the ever present drone of the machinery in the ferry port - not sure if it went on all night, or was drowned out by the wind, but was definitely there again early this morning. I was less successful finding somewhere ashore to eat out - both venues fully booked, so I settled for take away fish and chips from the Sea Salt Bistro. I wouldn't recommend it - soggy batter and dried out fish, which must be quite a challenge to achieve!

It blew pretty hard overnight - good decision to come into the marina, and to put up the cockpit tent!

Then on Thursday, a bus trip to Bowmore. Pleasant small town to walk around, but yet another distillery that is booked weeks ahead for tours. I skipped the shop - HMRC will be raiding me before long. Back to Port Ellen, and provision shopping in the CoOp followed by watering and plotting tomorrow's passage. Table booked at the Islay Hotel bar for tonight - at the precise time of 8:25pm.

All being well, this is my last port in Scotland this year ... but I'll definitely be back. Beautiful, friendly, spoilt for choice of destinations.

Log of this passage