Oban to Barra

Up at 0645 to pattering rain and grey skies. Very carefully made breakfast, still mildly traumatised by yesterday's coffee chaos. Rain had stopped in time for trip to ablutions block. Everything is shiny new here as the site only opened 6 weeks ago after complete rebuild.

Lovely drive down to Oban, along the Lochside and over bridges. Got to Oban at 0940 in time for checkin.  Worried about whether our ship will actually sail. But it arrived 20 mins late and left 8 mins late, not at all full. The observation deck at the bow has splendid views. Weather is grey. We have binos at the ready and L spotted dolphins twice in the Sound of Mull. We passed three yachts with small sails up - fair play to them being out in this weather with a gale blowing in open waters.


We feel lucky CalMac decided to sail early rather than cancel which would have shredded our schedule. In the Sound of Mull the wind was easterly and the sea flat. As we emerged the wind switched to forecast SSW and increased. Once past the shelter of Coll & Tiree and out into the Hebrides Sea we got the F7 and a bigger seaway. I imagine all the vehicle alarms going off - we remembered to disable ours. Isle of Lewis reduced her speed fron 19 to 16 knots - we can tell by looking at the Navionics map. The ship pitches a bit, but doesn't roll despite the seas being beam on; it must be heavily stabilised.

The skies cleared as we landed at Castlebay, though the wind did not abate. As we were two hours earlier than scheduled we drove to the southernmost point, on Vatersay, instead of coming back tomorrow. The gale and misting rain (like being in a cloud) didn't encourage walking so we missed a shipwreck memorial and the Hebridean Way start. We did find the Piece of Cake Honesty Box where the road ran out ... and it was empty 😞. Spectacular drive though, one of many we suspect. Vatersay has a lot of brown cows, all over the road. The roads are very good quality, mostly single track with frequent passing places. Very reminiscent of the TV programme Shetland. 


A 40 min drive back to Barra, round its west side and towards the Northern tip got us to Barra Sands campsite. Not in a protected location down on the east facing beach, but on the saddle of a hill! Ah well, good for drainage. We parked downwind from a big motor home to get some shelter, then they went off presumably for dinner out! The wind was so strong we could not have the roof up - that's a first. But the golden rule is roof up if using the cooker, so N stood and braced it for the 10 mins to cook pasta n sauce. Now we have the ventilation problem for sleeping, the trial solution being to have the downwind front door window open a crack, because the other windows are over our bed. We'll see how misted up we are in the morning - I expect very. But it turned out, not at all. I guess the pressure of the wind, which shook us all night, forced an airflow through the van.

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