Dunoon, Mount Stuart and Port Bannatyne (Isle of Bute)

Despite a hint of rain in the forecast, we braved things for the walk around the waterfront to Dunoon. Of course, it rained a little en route - still not old enough to be wise. The good thing was that the showers stopped before the waterproofing in our jackets gave way.

There is only so much fun that you can have in Dunoon. The extent of "so much" is, we think, related to your age and if you have lived in solitary confinement for most of your life. Be that as it may, Dunoon was a nice walk, lunch (same place we visited with the toddlers) and a haircut for Andrew that got a little criticism from Linda. Luckily, he wore a cap most of the time:

He also does a good mean and moody "far away" look.

We then made another huge sea voyage, around to Port Bannatyne on Bute. This small and very friendly marina had hosted us a couple of years ago and said they had space again - of course the space was a little cosy for us but we wriggled onto the free hammerhead. A much nicer spot than the grim offerings in Rothesay. As the sun was out, a walk into the metropolis (Rothesay) was in order. En route, the crew had to admire (?) the many jellyfish in the bay:

Yes, there were lots of Lion's mane in there, just waiting to strangle our genset again. Little did they realise that we had shorepower this time so their attempts would be futile. The Port Bannatyne sailing club has a most palatial waterside hut but somehow we don't think that the members of the Royal Ulster club (see our posts from Bangor earlier this year) will be too jealous:

In the sun, with only a little wind, it was just a perfect afternoon in perfect scenery. This inspired Linda to get all artistic with her posh new iPhone 6 in its low visibility luminous green case:

She seemed to be pointing at the sad buildings on the edge of town rather than the lovely water views behind her though. Wonder if it was a selfie? Perhaps this is the image she was hunting for:

The classic converted MFV is a "cruise ship" that offers holidays around the area - might be an interesting way to explore if she has been well scrubbed out before they added the guest cabins...

Andrew had the fun of visiting the famous Victorian loo in Rothesay. The captain put a couple of surreptitious pictures of this in the blog a couple of years ago. Andrew was a little more blasé about taking a photo and so here it is. Girls, look away now:

A repeat visit to Mount Stuart house was a must. For those who like stunning, quirky, over the top old houses, look at house website . The outside is nowhere as impressive as the amazing interior but despite that:

The gardens are pretty good too:

They get the bees seal of approval anyway. Mount Stuart is still the best house that we've ever visited.  Go there....