Monday 12 August 2013

Gigha v3.0

Well we sailed round Gigha and Cara again last month. The motivation was that Andy, Dave and Graham hadn't done the trip before and Ramsay and I were happy to do it again given the beauty of the area. We met up at Point Sands campsite and used this as a basecamp (Dave's wife Hilary stayed there while we did the trip). I won't do a full narrative  of the trip as it's ground I've covered before but here's some pictures and a little description.
Basecamp at Point Sands.
We set off on Saturday morning in light winds and beautiful sunshine.

The conditions were quite flukey as we crossed the Sound of Gigha heading for the northern end of the island.


Once round the northern tip of Gigha the wind dropped even more, it was baking hot though!


We saw some porpoises on this section but didn't get any pics unfortunately.



 Relaxed sailing in beautiful surroundings.

Nearing the southwestern end of Gigha.
Photo courtesy of David Stubbs.
Photo courtesy of David Stubbs.

Rounding the southern end of Cara.
The Mull of Cara.
Photo courtesy of David Stubbs.
Photo courtesy of David Stubbs.
We landed on the same beach on Cara that Rambo and I had used last time.                          

Photo courtesy of David Stubbs.
There was another boat there but we realised that the people off it wouldn't be staying the night so we pitched our tents on the sand and set up camp.




It was a lovely evening with a moon and the midgies weren't too bad meaning we could sit out.
Photo courtesy of David Stubbs.




 During the night the wind picked up unexpectedly from the northeast. I could hear the waves crashing on the beach from my tent and it was still blowing in the morning. We breakfasted and packed up before preparing to leave.
It was a little tricky getting out of the bay into the headwind but soon we were sailing back towards the mainland in splashy conditions.





The wind was strongest and at it's most gusty just before we got back to Point Sands but I really enjoyed the sailing. Soon we were landing back at our starting point.


All that remained was to pack up the boats and enjoy a picnic lunch in the sun back at basecamp.
My video of the trip is here;