Wednesday 7th June

We decided to set Tarbert as our destination, a long hop but with the option of going into Portpatrick or anchoring at Holy Island, if needed. We left Peel at approx 12:30 - the first flap gate of the day. We had a good sailing breeze for aroud 3 hours and had the tide with us. The wind died, so we had to put the motor on yet again.  Passing Portpatrick at sunset, the water was flat so we decided to motor on.

We had initially decided to pass the Isle of Arran on the east side to avoid the many fishing boats that we had seen on Marine Traffic, but about 4 miles off Ailsa Craig, a very strong north-easterly wind picked up, so we turned towards the west coast of Arran to get some shelter. This was about 03:30. The wind and waves increased considerably so Tony rolled in the staysail to reduce sail area, and for a few hours sailing was rough! Once in the lee of Arran, the sea state calmed a lot and we had a more pleasant sail. 

We finally arrived at Tarbert arournd 13:00.

We have a battery problem, so we will be staying here for a couple of days until we get a replacement.