Before we went anywhere, Mum who
was approaching her 80th birthday,
wished to be taken for a sail. My brother
joined us for the day and we were lucky
with a perfect combination of gentle
breeze and warm sunshine. The tide
carried us up the Sound of Luing, we
reached out towards the Garvellachs and
returned through the narrow Cuan Sound.
With several islands within a few hours
sail, Craobh makes a great base forI
n the spring, my partner Aleko had
taken me cruising in his home waters
around the Aegean islands. Now I
wanted to show him the west coast of
Scotland and my Mum suggested we
borrow her boat, which has barely been
used since Dad died a couple of years ago.
Kalessin is a Westerly Konsort, the family
boat that my parents bought nearly 40
years ago when I was still a teenager.
Driving across Scotland to Craobh
Haven in late June, I wasn’t sure whether I
was more nervous about introducing my
new boyfriend to my mother or borrowing
the boat for the first time. But neither was
as scary as having to get in and out of the
marina. If there’s one aspect of sailing that
terrifies me, it’s berthing in a marina. I
rarely have reason to and so never get
practice at going alongside. Aleko thinks
nothing of such manoeuvres but this time
I was the skipper. We’ve sailed thousands
of miles in the 18 months we’ve been
together, but until now, always in his boat.day-sailing as well as longer cruises.
Twenty miles south of Oban, the marina
has good facilities and the staff are friendly
and helpful.Nervous skipper
The first decision I had to make was
whether to go north, south or west. I was
inclined to go south to Jura and Islay as I
usually sail further north. But first we would
head out west of Mull to visit the puffins on
the Treshnish Isles. Aleko’s favourite birds
are the rockhopper penguins we met in
the Falklands so I was sure he would love
Scotland’s colourful puffins.
Luckily for the nervous skipper there was
no wind when we came to leave the
marina, so it was easy to reverse out of
the berth but the downside was a couple
of hours of motoring before we picked up
a breeze. Of the several pretty anchorages
on the Ross of Mull, I chose Ardalanish
because it was closest and progress was
slow beating into a light south-westerly.Genevieve Leaper has
been sailing all her life.
She lives on the east
coast of Scotland and
goes day-sailing in a
17ft plywood trimaran,
borrows her brother’s Dufour Arpège
for cruising on the west coast and
now also sails a Nicholson 32 in the
Aegean with her partner Aleko.Genevieve Leaper returns to the Hebrides to take the helm of her
family yacht and explore ten islands off the west coast of Scotland
Islands in the sun
CRUISING
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