The small Hunter 707 waits for her runners
to return from Jura's mountains.

Scottish weather is a thing to itself. We had started the race in bright sunshine with perfect racing conditions. We now found ourselves off Jura in rain. Cloud obscured the peaks and the efforts of teasing Stormcruiser along throughout the night had taken its toll on all on board. Except perhaps Craig and Brian. Their part in proceedings is clear. Run as fast as you can, if you are not running then eat and if you are not eating, sleep!

Ian helms into Craighouse past
the 'small islands'
The Paps of Jura are the second mountain stage and the boats make for Craighouse to unload their runners. The entrance to Craighouse is protected by a string of small islands, 'granite' as the crew refers to all land. The anchorage itself is very weed strewn and contains some odd shallows. There was no way Stormcruiser would go close inshore, Scott would just have to paddle the long haul to the race marshalls checkpoint next to the Jura distillery.

After the long sail down Brian and Craig looked eager to get ashore and do their stuff. Ian asked Craig how his knee was and got the reply 'ask me again after the run'. The dinghy got pumped up again and Scott got ready to take the runners ashore. This time Stormcruiser dropped the dinghy and sent it away without incident. It was at this point that I saw the Jura distillery, the skippers comments regarding my suggestion that we book in for a quick tour are not printable.
Craig and Brian glimpse Jura
as we draw close to Craighouse.
After the runners departure and Scotts return to Stormcruiser our thoughts turn to food. Cheese on Toast never tasted so good.

Ian and the crew start to calculate the variables that will see us round the Mull of Kintyre later tonight. A lot depends on the boys having a good run on the Paps. The faster they are back the better our chances of rounding the Mull and catching the winds to Arran. The forecast is dodgy, the wind direction is shifting and the windspeed is dropping.
Tiredness seems to be catching up with all of us. I think Mike is worst off, he seems to have had very little sleep since driving up on Thursday. Sometimes the longer you go without sleep the harder it is to get a good few hours of solid sleep.

On Jura the low cloud gave us no view of the mountains, the rain eases and finally stops. The cloudbase doesn't lift so we are left with a dull day. Scott estimates that the runners will be ashore for four and a bit hours. The dinghy is put over the side and off Scott paddles to await their return.
Our runners estimated time comes and goes. Five hours. Six hours. At the boat we are starting to become worried. The binoculars come out and every movement along the road into Craighouse is scrutinised. Things are made more frustrating with Scott ashore and us in the boat unable to communicate with him. Finally the two figures we are waiting for appear and run down to the checkpoint.

Alba Venturer with the Ocean
Youth Team aboard.

As they are pulled back aboard we discover that in the cloud that obscured the Paps they had got lost and done an extra Pap. Once on the summits they had encountered freeezing temperatures, rain and hail. They had put on every extra bit of spare clothing and just made one mistake which cost them hours. We are all glad they are back and are both OK. Ian starts to smile and Stormcruiser is under sail once again.

The rain comes back with a vengeance. Mike and Scott take a breather and we chase south again to the Mull of Kintyre. Ian and myself sit in the cockpit, wrapped up against the weather. There are a few other boats to the front and we cheer ourselves up by passing one and then another. Our runners have left the huge pan of pasta and dived into their sleeping bags, food can wait.

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The team is pleased to be sponsored by Aztec Camping and have also received support from Victorinox, Recta and Maglite.