Day 43 – Monday 25th May
Reading Time: Four minutes
We left Portree early on Thursday morning to make the 57 nautical mile journey to Ullapool. There was a strong wind warning issued and Windy was predicting winds gusting around gale force. The wonderful thing was that the wind was going to be from the southern quadrant and that means a fast sail. We averaged 5.7 knots and arrived mid afternoon to a very warm welcome by Tim and Dan.
After a couple of pints of beer and a fish supper with wine we slept well, ready to wake up refreshed to take part in the Luggerfest.
This was the second ever Luggerfest. Wisely, due to the huge success of the event, they decided to make it a regular bi-annual boat festival. I like bi-annual events!
I’ll mess up the thanks by missing out lots of people but Charlotte, Dan, Tim and Alasdair (not me) were all running around like wizards keeping everyone happy. I swear Charlotte was in two places at the same time! It also must be mentioned that the Ullapool Harbour Trust have virtually donated the harbour facilities to the Luggerfest. The whole community mucks in, and the town has a real fun festival atmosphere.
Sumara was moored next to Sally, the second Vertue to be built. Sally thrashed us in the first “rally” but luckily Adrian said the wind on the other days favoured flying and that’s exactly what he did.
Lobie, another Laurent Giles design was moored nearby. It is the boat we chartered for Tim and Alex’s wedding!
Such is the draw of the festival that one boat, Maggie Helen, came from as far afield as Brittany. No mean feat for a boat with no engine and two weeks of northerly winds before they eventually turned in her favour.
There was definitely no racing, however there were daily “rallies” around the buoys which uniquely had a very similar five-minute start routine to a normal “race”.
Clan Gordon picked up the prize for rallying around the buoys the fastest. The boat was restored by Alasdair Grant in 2021-23
On Sunday there was a parade of sail with all the boats randomly sailing around, possibly wondering what they were meant to be doing! That didn’t matter as the luggers are beautiful boats to watch, they don’t need to be organised in lines.
Ashore there were talks, lots of them. We missed most as we were out sailing but we did listen to Tim’s excellent rallying call for support for their project to build an 80 foot Zulu, Muirneag, which would be based in Ullapool and Stornoway for sail training.
Sumara even won a prize! Well, we shared the Concours d’elegance with Cuirnneag. We won a Ullapool Harbour Trust hat so if you are anchored in the Loch and someone rows up in an official hat and asks for mooring fees, then it could be me.
Poor Cornubia, a most beautiful pilot cutter missed all the fun but arrived safely on Tuesday morning. She used to be called Hirta and was once owned by Tom Cunliff. The boat was keel up rebuilt in 2008 and looks stunning.
I’ll stay in Ullapool for the week hoping to replace my general service battery but it may not happen due to delivery delays. I have other jobs to do.
Getting the sat phone to download grib files and ice charts is simply too stressfull. Technology has moved on and left me behind. We will just venture forth and see what we get clobbered with!
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