Dear Joan,

After reading a number of articles in the Bulletin on the joys of cruising in western Scotland, I set off to do just that in August. My aim was to take part in the rally at Creran on 22 August. Accordingly l set sail from Lochranza on the Isle of Arran in my 17ft Skipper on Tuesday 18 August and ran the 20 miles up to Loch Fyne to Ardrishaig before a squally S 5-6, the forecast being S/SW 7.

A journal through the Crinan Canal followed, and I left Crinan just after noon on 21 August with a light breeze and sunny sky. I reached Little Horseshoe Cove on Kerrera, just south of Oban, at sunset; and what a sunset. Still very little wind but a dreadful, evil sky, like something out of hell. The SW monsoon was about to break. I was holed up there for a week, with mainly gale force SW winds and practically continuous rain. Out of about 80 daylight hours I spent there, it rained for at least 70 of them, and some of it was torrential. Although I could have continued to run north when it eased on the Tuesday, I was more concerned with getting back directly against the wind.

There was a temporary backing of the wind to the west on the 28th (official forecast NW6) so I set off back to Crinan, which I reached safely after encountering some very heavy seas south of Kerrera. My hope that the ‘twirly’ bits through Sound of Luing would he relatively free from nasty seas whilst sheltered by the off-lying island with the wind in the west proved correct, but I was soon blown up Loch Crinan directly before it and had difficulty stopping as I entered the sea lock at Crinan at a good 4 knots under bare poles.

From the evening of 29 August to the early hours of 1 September I was tied up in the basin at Ardrishaig under rain and gale conditions. The morning forecast on the 1st said W 5-7 becoming cyclonic, becoming N 7, so I decided to set off down Loch Fyne.

After a hair-raising sail down Loch Fyne and across the top of Kilbrannan Sound, I arrived home safely at Lochranza, where the monsoon finally blew itself out on 17 September after five weeks. During this period only 10 yachts visited Lochranza, a number equalled in one day in better weather.

Since then the weather has been splendid and I have been sailing practically every day in the second half of September. I suppose the moral of this is, if you pick a bad period first time, don’t be afraid to try again.

One last point — if you do come prepared to sail in bad weather, bring a drysuit. At times on my two journeys south, conditions in the cockpit were such that I could not tell if it was pouring with rain or not raining at all, but the drysuit did just that; it kept me dry except for the bit I use to sit on. After 50 years I have come to the conclusion that a damp bottom is an integral part of sailing a small boat. Even a drysuit is not proof against it unless you are prepared to stand up all the time. Has anyone got a practical answer to this problem?