Having left Tarbert Bay feeling refreshed we continued our journey south west with the ebbing tide along Juras east coast. Sticking with plan A our aim is to make it to Craighouse, Juras main settlement and home of the Jura Distillery.
The east coast of Jura is mainly low lying forestry and grassland. Dominating the view for..well the entire trip, are the Paps of Jura.
The Paps of Jura consist of three conical quartzite mountains rising to 2575 feet. The word 'pap' originates from the Old Norse word meaning 'breast'.
Photo by Simon Ford - Myself and Chris - The Paps (tits) Of Jura
The hope is to get up onto the Paps tomorrow evening when we plan to camp at Loch Tarbert.
We take a brief refuge with the birds after being caught by unexpected localised downdrafts coming down off the mountains.
Moving on however with barely a clouds in the sky the winds dissipate.
Myself and Jules leave the remainder of the group briefly to bag another shipping Buoy - Nine Foot Rock, but also out here there may be more chance of spotting some sea life.
To the south eastern horizon stand the mountains of the Isle of Arran, another one for the bucket list, maybe next year.
Approaching the Small Isles just off Craighouse we are once again mobbed by Arctic Turns as well as a few common seals.
Drifting into Craighouse Bay there's actually a lot more going on here than I imagined. The shoreline is dominated by the white buildings of the Jura Distillery and neighbouring Jura Hotel.
Feeling quite shattered having been up since 4:30am, we stretch out on the grass, get the kettle on and make ourselves some lunch. Our plan A would see us camp here and spend a few hours looking around the small settlement, maybe even pop in the distillery for a tour. However...
Simon got talking to a local fisherman as we landed who's words were.."have you seen the forecast for Wednesday?"..."and Thursday...and Friday?". We check a number of forecast sites while we have a little signal. There be a storm coming and it's here to stay a while. Time for plan B...
Lying in my sleeping bag, it's the end of July but it's cold this far north as the rising sun lights up the clear sky rousing me early from my slumber. I manage to catch a few more minutes before Simons alarm sounds a few feet away, it's 0430am. Four hours ago we were solving the worlds problems with a few beers on the beach...I should have gone to bed early.
Breaking out of the fly sheet the cold air awakens my senses. The waters velvet smooth apart from a bit of movement on a bed of seaweed close to shore. A seagull stands patiently next to it..wait is that an otter. My eyes haven't yet adjusted to the morning twilight. I scramble for my camera, where is it??? my boats all packed up. Stumbling down to the beach we notice there's another, maybe 20ft away, possible a youngster. It's happily chewing on a jellyfish and not at all bothered by our presence. Well this doesn't happen very often so I see how close I can get...
Already I'm regretting not packing my SLR camera. It sits there a while searching between the rocks before scurrying off into the undergrowth. What a great start to the day.
Time to get a shift on. I shovel down the first of my rations, pre-packed porridge a handful of raisins and a coffee to wash it down and begin packing away the tent. Seal the hatches, don my wet gear and I'm ready to go. Just past 6am, spot on timing. Lowing the boat onto the water, I'm not even sure if this things going to float with the weight on it.
Final picture, Jura here we come.
The flow on the sound of Jura flows at about 3.5 knots at springs (it was springs) and according to our calculations the ebb flow should have kicked off about an hour ago.
Out on the sound the water was glassy smooth, it doesn't get any better than this.
In all honestly we didn't really know exactly where we would end up or what our exact heading was. Our aim was to simply make it across to Jura on a rough WSW heading, hopefully somewhere near Tarbert Bay, a small inlet on the far side. Martin was in control of our GPS, I believe we averaging about 10km per hr with very, very little effort. We were enjoying the conditions, hoping for some disturbance in the silky water signaling a pod of cetaceans of some sort or another.
As we approached the shore there was a stiff breeze blowing over the Isle. We had arrived at Tarbert Bay in about 2 hours and were looking for somewhere out of the wind to take our first break on the Isle of Jura.
We lazed in the sun for a while, there was no rush. This was important for me. I have done my 24 circumnavigations and long open crossings. This was about exploring the island in its every detail, relaxing and enjoying the company I was with. We were well aware the forecast for Wednesday (today was Monday) was likely going to mean a day spent ashore. At the last check Thursday and Friday were also looking like a no-go but that was changing all the time. For now we would stick with the plan and continue on to Craighouse, home of the Jura Distillery...
