Wednesday we made for Oban as planned although it was to be a short stop only. Having now some time pressure to move south we decided that despite arriving fairly late on Wednesday that we would need to leave really early to catch the tide at 7am through the Sound of Luing which is a notorious spot to pass....... And with it fast approaching spring tides we would not be able to make progress at all unless we timed things correctly.
In the end the underwear crisis was averted only by hand washing as the marina was full again and people had formed an orderly queue for both the 2 washing machines and the 2 driers, so we looked liked a Chinese laundry for the evening (with rows of undies along the guardwires) and the sun shone and the wind blew and clean, dry underwear for both of us resulted.. Whilst in Oban we caught up with the intrepid crew of Blue Moon who since we had last met them navigated the entire length of the Caledonian Canal to Inverness and back and themselves were heading south for tall ships week in Belfast and then home.

The next morning dawned (dark and rainy) and we reluctantly dragged ourselves from the warm bed to don full oilies and catch the tide.......... Which didn't disappoint. When we arrived at Fladda which marks the northern entrance to the Sound of Luing we encountered strong favourable tide.......... No really strong favourable tide, 6.5 knots in fact which added to our boat speed gave us over 12 knots. The waters boiled and swirled around us for a good 20 minutes and we enjoyed yet another wild and free ride.

Now the crew of Blue Moon were not the only old friends encountered ..... as we headed south towards Craighouse on Jura (trying to keep away from the submarine playing in the area) we heard someone call us on the radio......... someone had spotted us, it was Barbadee (a fellow Aberystwyth boat) mutual friends had told them to keep their eyes peeled for us and I think they were as shocked as we were to actually see each other, small world eh? We chatted for a little while on the VHF and then they headed north for Oban and we continued the journey south to Jura........ spotting a porpoise on route, quietly making it's way north.

Now they say that things happen in three's; well when we picked up a mooring buoy in the beautiful bay at Craighouse we found ourselves next to a Maxi 84 called Bunyip. Now what was strange about this was that Stu's Mum and Dad had owned that same boat between 1994 and 1997 (it had been their first cruising boat and they had always wondered what had happened to it) Well we resolved then to speak to the owners and find out all about where she lived and what they had done to her since Phil and Barbara had owned her......... we didn't have to wait long as when they returned back from a trip ashore they spotted that we were also a Maxi (but missing the distinctive blue stripe by the windows) and so proceeded to come across and say hello and ask about our boat....... We told them about Bunyip having been in the family, they were fascinated and invited us aboard for drinks and nibbles and to see for ourselves. Many stories were told and mysteries unfolded as the sun set and the light faded. They were truly lovely people and Phil and Barbara will be pleased to know that she has such a good home and doting owners.We exchanged E mail addresses, phone numbers etc and resolved to get in touch. They are based in Carrickfergus (Northern Ireland and so offered to help us with anything we needed whilst travelling that way home)

Jura is one of the larger islands, it has 3 tall distinctive mountains called the Paps of Jura (round and breast like) and stunning, sandy beaches but it has only 200 inhabitants and the mainland can only be accessed via a short ferry ride to Islay first. They do however have a large distillery which convinced Stu (without much persuasion - well a large free dram at 10am to be precise!) to part with some money in exchange for a bottle of 16 year old single malt (yes Phill you can try it when we get home!)