Frangi, now resplendent with her new crew for leg 2 (Bob, Carol, Clive, Dave, David, Jane, Paul the skipper - oh and our new boat mascot "Voodoo Rab", a doll of uncertain sexual orientation wearing Scottish dress - kindly provided by Jane), set off from Largs at lunchtime on Sunday for leg 2 of our " Around Britain with the wind on the nose" adventure tour.
Slightly bleary from an evening in the bar in the
Largs yacht club (crew bonding, or that was our excuse) & singing along
(well some of us!) to the local band, we had a good sail down to Pladda off the
south of Arran with the new crew getting to know the boat. We spotted a basking
shark- the first we've seen since Cornwall and Dave and I got out the "Coastal Birds of
Britain" book... but still haven't fathomed out why a woodpecker features
in a book on seabirds.
We had decided to eschew the Crinan canal in favour of the more westerly route
round the Mull of Kintyre and up to Islay (or was it the call of the eight distilleries in Port
Ellen)? As we were early for our tidal gate round the Mull of Kintyre, we
anchored at Pladda for an early supper. By the time we set sail again, of
course the wind was dropping, and.. yes, you guessed.. on the nose. Volvo Penta
assisted for the rest of the trip up to Islay and Paul inserted the first pin 
into Voodoo Rab. We anchored at 4am off Port Ellen, moving Frangi to a tiny harbour in Port Ellen after a snooze.
We were welcomed by the most enormous seal floating on his back - guess he
wondered if we were a fishing boat.
Time to go and explore the eight distilleries! More later.
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