Rothesay to
Tighnabruaich
After a little sleep catch up (following the overnight
journey from Bangor) and clean up too, the decision was not to stay in Rothesay
but to take advantage of the settled weather forecast for the next few days and
visit some of the less sheltered anchorages in the area.
So, our time in Kames Bay was brief but pleasant!
We had a glorious trip through the Kyles of Bute, sitting on
the flybridge in just a T-shirt thanks to the light winds. A first this year
and hopefully not the last?
Leaving Kames Bay – the entrance to Loch Striven which the
pilot books describe as “not especially beautiful or worth a visit”. Poor old
Striven… Didn’t look that bad to us:
One lone yacht joined us travelling down the East Kyle:
Passing Colintraive ferry (which had one car on it for the
12:30 crossing!)
And then the narrow channel (about 50’ wide, we have over
16’ beam and no, John, that is not since we ate the cheese straws) passing the
Burnt Islands where the tide can run at up to 5 knots. We timed things for low
water(ish) so only had 0.5 knots to contend with which wanted to push us south
onto the rocks of course. Wouldn’t want to go through there with a spring tide
in full flow!
The area off Tighnabruaich has lots of local moorings and as
it shelves sharply, you have to find a spot close to the shore to anchor.
Arriving just after low water helped us pick a suitable place with enough swinging
room. Beautiful anchorage, just beautiful with the sun out across the hills:
For the purists, we hadn’t fitted the anchor snubber
yet, we were waiting for the tide to turn to check the position and holding was
fine first! It did get used later on. OK? Sorry to be such a bad example
For the non-boating folks, if you just use the anchor
chain running through the roller at the bow taking all the weight of the boat,
you get lots of interesting noises as it rumbles its way across the roller when
the boat swings or moves. Inside, it sounds like the second coming and is quite
capable of keeping you awake all night with worry “Are we dragging the anchor?”
The rope and hook arrangement known as a snubber has several
benefits. It stops that noise, puts the pull on the chain lower down which
helps the anchor stay set in the seabed and it helps absorb snatching movements
from wind or waves. We didn’t have any of that trouble that you us can see from
the picture, very calm! The snubber is shown fitted on the home page picture of
the boat, when we were anchored off Old Harry in Studland Bay, Poole.
The one downside to this spot – lots of jellyfish so no
temptation to go swimming for the crew (the Captain thinks the water
temperature and fact that the water is a touch salty also put her off but the
jellyfish were a good excuse…)
Lovely, lovely trip to reunite us with Scotland.
