We’re island hopping for the next few days/weeks, and plan to tow the tender behind to make going ashore from anchorages easier. That’s if we can get the anchor to hold…we’ve heard that there is a huge amount of kelp growing round here, which points to clean healthy, nutrient rich water, but is not good for most anchors.

Some last minute shopping and brilliant showers in the little harbour office,  and Heydays is ready for the hop round to Jura. We nudge out into a crisp day, with a fresh north westerly, and waste no time in getting the sails up and the motor off. Picking our way through a very rocky coast with lots of submerged rocks is slightly nerve wracking,  but we’ve got brilliant visibility …and instruments!

We leave the distilleries behind and Heydays is storming along on a broad reach.

Today’s sail really is the stuff of dreams.  Wrapped up warm, a fresh breeze, and the off-shore wind (which means a smoothish sea) ….stunning. Hot soup goes down a treat, and the threatened showers stay away.

These are the moments which keep us coming back to the boat, despite the frustrations of owning an older one, with its seemingly never ending niggles which need a fix (and cash).

Craighouse on Jura is a sheltered bay with a hotel, small community, small jetty….and the distillery.  The approach requires threading between rocky reefs, which must have been the stuff of nightmares pre-GPS.

As the bay opens out, we’re happy to see several visitor’s  moorings….saves having to grapple with kelp. We make up a small quartet of boats, and it seems that this is still very early in the season for Scottish sailors.

As the sun goes down over The Paps of Jura and the distillery, we settle into some gin in the last of the warmth in the cockpit, before heading below for a warm cabin and one of John’s single pot bean stews.