Late July 2014, Jura, Colonsay, Iona, Ulva and Mull A stonking sail (see more pictures) from Ardfern brought us to Craighouse on Jura. There are very odd tides here, as there is quite a tidal rate, but very little range. It feels wrong to be tying up to a mooring near high water with only couple of meters of water under the keel, but careful tidal height calculations prove there is no problem. There are 16 visitors moorings at Craighouse because there is lots of kelp so it is difficult to anchor. We stayed 4 nights and the occupation rate on the moorings ranged from 75% to 100%. This is not surprising when you realize that Craighouse is the home of the Jura Distillery (below left and more pictures), has an excellent hotel for dinner and, most importantly for us, has a well stocked shop. Many of the islands seem to have got lottery funding to renovate their village shops, Craighouse, Scalasiag (Colonsay) and Dervaig (Mull) have all been recently done up by the look of them. On the third day at Craighouse we tried to leave. The wind was from the west which meant we should have had an excellent sail down to the southern end of the Sound of Islay, and then up the sound to Loch Tarbert. However the wind was much stronger than anticipated and we could not make nay headway against the wind and waves, so after two hours fighting it, we turned around and were back in Craighouse 45min later. We tried again on the following day when it was a flat calm, so having to motor but at least moving in the right direction. The sound is very pretty with the Islay hills to the west and the Paps of Jura to the east, then as you near the northern end you Loch Tarbert (left) nearly cuts Jura in two and is well sheltered but very remote. We ventured ashore but were plagued by tiny ticks in the tall bracken so quickly retreated. As we picked them off each other with the tick tweezers, we felt like the monkeys you see on television grooming each other. We were still finding them a couple of days later, so ever since have avoided bracken in places with deer. They itch much more than the bites that midges inflict.
We left the following morning and motored around to Loch Cuan (or Chumhainn in gaelic) and spotted a Golden Eagle being mobbed by kestrels - though too far away for photographs. The following Following instructions in a walks book, we wandered up the coast a short way from our anchorage to find some fossil trees (below). They have survived the fossil hunters because they are not actually fossils, but are trees that were covered in lava and then rotted away. The cavity was then filled by a subsequent flow of harder lava, which is what remains after the softer rock was eroded. They are therefore identical to all the surrounding rock and so not worth collecting. In the picture below Judith is sitting on the root ball of one of the more impressive (and recognizable) specimens. Loch Cuan is open to the north west and gave us a fantastic sunset. We nearly always have land between us and the setting sun so we were blessed that we got such a display in the one night we did have a clear view of the horizon (see banner above and more pictures). With the weather about to break we made a dash for Tobermory to do the laundry while it was still good drying weather (the tumble driers there are very ineffective). That done we are now listening to the rain and wondering where to go for the last few weeks of this year's cruise.
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