We were doing so well!

Scot Free III
Frank & Anne
Sat 5 Jul 2025 21:00
Only 10 miles to go. Land ahoy!, more boats around to be avoided, the alarms kept us busy. One container ship passed in front, quite close, we had our beady eyes on him until he had passed. In radio contact with each vessel likely to hit us, to check they have indeed seen us.
Beginning to congratulate ourselves on the end of the passage. Seas pretty big again and the wind increasing so decided to drop the mainsail and proceed with the staysail. Easier said than done in those winds. In perfect conditions the sail drops easily but in the strong winds and with all the salt on the track it refused to come down completely and certainly not neatly! The new cars which slide up and down the track were sold as the best - not what we’ve found.
Closer inshore, decided to furl the staysail - impossible, however hard F pulled on the line. F had to go forward and discovered it was jammed, so had to pull down the sail, winch the dingy upright from the deck to allow the hatch to the forward heads to be opened, to stuff the sail down below. A lot of shouting, threats of divorce and general chaos. Spotted that the furling line had almost worn through.
After ropes and lines were all tidied, engine on,motored the final stretch into the bay near the marina and dropped anchor at 8:30 pm.
Relieved not to have had any orca encounters here in “Orca Alley”. The app, Gt Orca Atlantic, has a traffic light system, green indicates sightings and red, physical encounters with dates. The troublesome pod fortunatelymoved north at the beginning of the month, following the tuna, presumably.
1070 miles in 7 days 6 hours. Averaged 7 knots an hour. Now the work begins to fix the failed gear and hose everything down ( including us).
In daylight, the embarssing state of the sail!
Beautiful spot off the beach in front of the castle.