Loch Gair to Great Cumbrae

Today was our final day of our expedition; we set off from Loch Gair at 8.45 a time which we are finally accustomed to setting off at. Katie and Emily had to keep look out as the weather was not on our side and we had to dodge buoys and shallow water. Some people didn’t appreciate having to take turns as the wind seemed to splash most of the sea into our face; although it wasn’t sunny the sunglasses seemed to be popular accessories as we discovered their second use of keeping water out of our eyes. After a round of hot chocolates and sausage butties to keep us going it finally stopped raining and we put up the sails. We headed south to the bottom of the West Kyle where the total all time mileage of Tenacity reached over 5000 miles, an impressive achievement. After reaching this milestone, we changed direction and headed north towards the Burnt Islands at the top of the Kyles of Bute; this is where all of our newly acquired skills came together as it is reasonably difficult to navigate around the shallow waters and islands. Emma and Charlotte were rather pleased with their ‘amazing’ navigational skills in this period.

For the majority of the day the boat seemed to be tipped on its side, a rather fun experience when half the crew are rolling around the cockpit after falling off the built in benches. The splashes also seemed to reach us when the cockpit cover was up, as Lydia was unimpressed to discover when a buckets worth of sea water left her drenched and the rest of the crew remained reasonably dry, this was taking one for the team as Katie called it or simply sitting in the wrong place.

We are now anchored in a bay on the side of Great Cumbrae Island, close to Largs so that we can nip across tomorrow morning. (It should only take us 30 minutes according to Colin – but bearing in mind that it always takes us longer!)

After eating a lovely chicken korma, we are now anticipating our delicious dessert of chocolate fondue and tropical fruit. Despite the freezing temperatures of the Scottish sea, we are still managing to eat amazingly good food, much to our surprise.

Adios for now.

Love all xxx

Read more about Sail Training on board Tenacity of Bolton at http://www.tenacityofbolton.org/