Tighnabruaich to Otter Ferry

Although it was hard, we decided to leave the lovely anchorage off Tighnabruaich and explore a little further whilst we had calm settled weather.  It was ideal for the “occasional” anchorages in Loch Fyne that would not be useable in windy weather. We thought that we would be cast off early when a workboat came to maintain the permanent mooring buoys near us in the morning. He dragged one up, checked it them seemed intent on dropping it much closer to us than before, probably over our anchor. Finally one of the crew figured out that wasn’t a smart thing to do, waved and they pottered off.

Another flybridge trip, turning into Loch Fyne there is a sad little lonely lighthouse:

The sea then decided to be a bit choppier - luckily the waves were just the right wavelength for the Nordhavn and so no pitching or rolling even with the stabilisers off. Made lunch so much simpler.

Passing Tarbert and the many fish farms, we now know what it means when you pick up a pack of salmon with “product of Loch Fyne” on it. Lots of fish cages, marker buoys and floating stuff that generally irritates yachtsmen. We wouldn’t want to be bred under such conditions – the fish don’t even get the fun of exploring the loch and seeing the sights like us.

The anchorage at Otter Ferry was very pretty. Tucked behind a spit that covers at high water and  just off the beach that has a small pub/restaurant. The locals try to attract visiting boats by paying for and maintaining a landing pontoon that you can use for the dinghy and they have raised enough cash to build a Bothy (very Scottish!) that will have showers, toilets etc for visiting boats. Bearing in mind that the local inhabitants all put together would not bother a double decker bus, that is quite amazing.

Here is the anchorage:

At low water there was an interesting heart shaped sandbank too!

That evening, we went ashore for dinner. Rare for us as we tend to eat on board and enjoy the views. The main driver wasn’t a great trip advisor rating for the pub, more that we needed WIFI to book some flights back south so we could visit parents. The local phone signal was useless of course.

Dinner was OK, nothing special but good home cooking. The service was lovely. Really friendly people who told us where else to visit, about train times, the resident dogs (who knew not to beg for food so just looked sad and hard done by instead) and what their recommendation was from the menu. A very relaxed evening (bar looking for flights and rental cars on the laptop) that reminded us of our nights out in Scotland when we used to live in Edinburgh and travel around. Non pretentious, friendly service – go to Otter Ferry and test it out.