Day 8: Loch Ailort to Mallaig - Disaster strikes!

The wind had built overnight, and the next morning the Good Ship was bouncing around on her anchor chain like an unbridled horse. The Skipper took the dinghy ashore to collect seamen Farago, Kniveton and Graham for the trip up to Mallaig, but on the trip back from the beach it became apparnet that not all was right with the rigging. The forestay was slack, as were the runners on the opposite side of the mast. A quick inspection revealed that the bobstay fitting (that pulls down on the bowsprit to balance the rigging loads) had snapped on one side and was hanging on by a thread on the other. The trip to Mallaig would need to be made without the Yankee (the largest sail), although with a following wind this was not too much of a problem. More of an issue was whether or not we could get it fixed in Mallaig. The Skipper called his dad who would rendevous with us in Mallaig to see what could be done.

Heading down Loch Ailort, the wind continued to build, with the South Westerly Force 6-7 forecast building up a lumpy sea from the south and the sky a menacing grey all around. As we headed into the Sound of Sleat, the Good Ship surfed from wave to wave, the stereo blasting out the Beach Boys for effect. It was a sleigh ride, with huge waves and the wind screaming in the rigging. Big grins all round. As we approached Mallaig, we had to turn around into the wind to lower the main, and going from sailing with the wind to sailing against it, the battering we got at this point was pretty much as the Skipper had predicted it to be. Still, Seaman Farago heroically fought the mainsail into submission, and we picked up the leading lights for the entrance to Mallaig with little difficulty.

We picked up a mooring in the Harbour, whilst the rain lashed down unremittingly. Simon and Laura were heading back south, and the Skipper's brother was coming aboard, along with Ma and Pa who had driven up to help with repairs. The broken bobstay fitting weighed heavily on the Skipper's mind, it was below the waterline so any fix would require either lifting the boat out or finding somewhere to 'dry out' (deliberately run aground on a falling tide) in order to remove the fitting. One thing was certain, without a proper repair, the rest of the trip was in jeopardy...