Jura Loch Tarbet to Arran

We are very tired tonight having had two really long days. The first long day entailed sailing from Loch Tarbet round the Mull of Kintyre to Campbeltown. Today we sailed from Campbeltown to Lochranza on the north west tip of Arran.

The high point of Tuesday was tacking our way through the Sound of Islay with our little Sanders jib up. It was really pretty windy and we sailed so nicely in the strong winds, under clear skies. We got to Campbeltown at midnight after a 7am start!

I got up at 6am in order to get Cervisia moving on the way to Arran. We were blessed with some really good winds and made really quick progress, getting here a couple of hours earlier than I had expected. W caught the bus at about 1pm over to the east side of the island. From there we walked up into the mountains and climbed the classic route South Ridge Direct. It was fantastic. We then had a long walk back to Lochranza along the Arran ridge with views out across thus Mull of Kintyre to Jura and beyond in the setting sun. We could also see the really interesting glaciated valleys of Arran, beautiful craggy granite peaks on the islands and the islands of the Firth of Clyde. The day was finished with a dodgy row back to Cervisia in the dinghy followed by a dinner a Arran scrambled eggs washed down with Arran beer that we have carried in my rucksack for 12 miles over the hills.

We are unsure what will happen to the weather tomorrow. We will head for Brodick on the east of Arran and then decide whether we can climb again or whether we should just sail back to Troon. We'll see in the morning. The wind is howling tonight as cervisia lies on her mooring buoy.