CBC Charter Weekend Trip on Ezra

Five members of the club sailed with the Pilot Cutter Ezra over the last weekend in April, and had a wonderful sail. Clive Brown, Iain Saunders, John McArthur, Ju Randall and I stepped on board at 2pm on Friday, and after the skipper's briefing, set off down the loch, with the crew learning the ways of hoisting and trimming the gaff rigged mainsail, the jib and the staysail, as we went along. Getting used to all the ropes looking identical was our first headache, as they were all made of the same kind of polyester and looked like hemp. Everything that can be authentic on Ezra is, the entire construction of the boat being in wood. The tiller, we discovered, can be quite heavy to handle, however a simple handy-billy made that much easier. As the boat has no backstays two stays had to be moved aft each time we gybed, to keep the mast supported on the windward side.

A pleasant breeze set us off down the loch and we reached Carsaig Bay before turning the boat round and heading for the lagoon, to take up Escapade's mooring for the night.

In the morning some of us went to Kilvaree, and rejoined the others by one o'clock, just in time to catch the Dorus Mor and Corryvreckan tide to take us to the west of Jura, and down to West Loch Tarbert for the night.

As it transpired that everyone on the boat had gone through the Corryvreckan many times before, but that Ju and I had not, Ju was given the helm and steered Ezra under sail through this notorious stretch of water. To our surprise it was less 'busy' than the Dorus, with fewer overfalls and no visible whirlpool in these flood tide and easterly wind conditions.

Entry to West Loch Tarbert was given to me to helm, as I had never been there before. We went to the wide inner loch and anchored for a very calm night. Sam our skipper is a great host, and served up delicious food for dinner each night, prepared in advance, apparently, by Ingrid.

On Sunday morning we were up bright and early, and weighed anchor in a stiff easterly breeze. Breakfast of bacon and/or lorne sausage rolls was served en route. The plan was to sail round the south tip of Colonsay, then up its west coast to the wide bay at the north, and drop the hook there for lunch, then on to the Bay of Pigs for the night. This was not to be, however, as Ezra doesn't point up to wind very well, and tacking to and fro would have taken forever to get back into that bay. So with the easterly wind freshening we simply headed up towards the Ross of Mull, and spotted a pair of eagles (golden) or at least one, and a buzzard, over the cliffs there. Then we beat back and forwards a few times, before Sam checked his calculations and decided if we wanted to make the Bay of Pigs for anchoring overnight before the tide turned against us, we should start the engine and motorsail under main only directly towards the Corryvreckan, straight into the teeth of the easterly. In lowering the jib and staysail the crew managed to snag a halyard on the end of a spreader. Sam put on his climbing kit and was up the mast in no time, freeing the halyard with a quick flick of the wrist. That wasn't the only thing that went wrong however!

We hadn't been motorsailing long when a terse order came up from below to throttle back. Sam had gone down a moment before to turn the stern gland a couple of times, and had spotted a considerable water leak from the heat exchanger on the engine. Iain, Clive and I were the only ones on deck at the time, so we spent our time trying vainly to get the boat to come back through the wind and point in the desired direction under mainsail alone, while Sam, assisted by John and Clive, identified the problem as a sheared bolt, found means to plug the hole temporarily, and got the engine started again in less than half an hour. Clive's whittling skills came in very handy, fashioning a tapered plug to fit the hole in the exchanger, which was then secured in place by a large quantity of twine!

Monitoring the freshly pumped bilge on a regular basis, we motorsailed towards the Corryvreckan again, passed the Calmac ferry Lord of the Isles en route to Colonsay, and I had the honour of taking Ezra through the Corryvreckan, and keeping her pointed sufficiently north on exit not to be swept southwards by the fierce current. The tide through the gap was amazing at its peak, as it raised boat speed from 5 to 11 knots! The skipper produced drams for all to celebrate, and we proceeded to get through the Dorus against the beginnings of the flood.

We tied up alongside the pontoon a little after 9.15pm, and tucked in to a delicious meal of spaghetti bolognese, cooked by Sam en route. The final evening saw Iain leave us early, but the rest of us enjoyed a musical session with the guitar which Sam had thoughtfully provided.

A boat with no winches is a daunting prospect until you learn the techniques of rope-handling which make it possible - tugman's hitches were a wonderful discovery, from my point of view, because I could see lots of uses I can make of that hitch on our boat. Likewise the techniques of sweating the halyards and sheets, using the fall of the boat and one's own body weight as well as muscle power, sometimes instead of it, these were great lessons in traditional seamanship. I for one really felt the benefit of all the physical exertion involved, it was like a thorough workout at the gym, only better, because you could see the effects in a better-tuned rig!

Everyone agreed it had been a great weekend's sailing, all the better because we all knew each other a bit beforehand. Signing the guest book we promised to tell other club members, and others, what a great experience sailing on Ezra is, and recommending that others try it also.

Liz MacInally (03/05/07)
CBC

More photos here