Bangoring then off to Holy Loch

Whilst in Bangor for our unplanned stop to avoid the gales, we had an extremely good time - as usual. A morning coffee with Ken, Debbie and Annika their daughter, a walk around the Festival of the Sea which happened to be taking place, a chance to watch two biplanes with wing walkers strapped on top of them do some silly things and an excellent dinner chez Ken and Debbie. We also had the fun of meeting their "new" spaniel, Shadow:

We saw another couple of dodgy locals - Keith and Julie - who brought their little Jack Russell dog Bailey along in a novel way:

As always, Bangor felt like home from home. However, we decided to take advantage of the one visible gap in the strong wind forecasts - an overnight run from Bangor looked best as it also allowed us to use the tides in the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland a little better. Optimum departure would be just before midnight. Wonderful.

Heading out just before dark the sky looked a little threatening:

Amazingly, the showers happened around us not over us. The route isn't complicated:

and the trip proved to be similar. Sorry for those of you expecting stories of seaweed hanging off the radar scanners. The coast of Norn Iron can be seen on the radar as can the commercial shipping around, none of which caused us to alter course for a change, even though a trawler headed across our track, stopped in front of us then proceeded to trawl back and forth across it (perhaps on purpose?):

As we moved away from the shelter of Northern Ireland, so the residual waves from the earlier gales were a little chunkier. They only reached a couple of metres at their peak but as they were more or less directly astern of us for the long run to the Isle of Arran, it gave the stabilisers a challenge. We rarely have to adjust the "manual speed" fed into the stabiliser control panel from the typical 12 knots that we use. To get a better ride, we wound this down to 8 when the following waves were at their peak. For the non boating folks, yes we know that we never do 12 knots and that we were still doing less than 8. The stabiliser speed setting effectively regulates how fast the fins respond when the gyroscope senses that we are starting to heel. The faster the speed a boat is travelling at, the less the fins have to move to counteract the heel. If we set them to our actual speed then their response is so fast that you get a very upright but slightly "jerky" ride. 12 knots allows them to counteract the heel a little more slowly and softly. There are other settings that define if you are aiming for maximum stability in rough conditions or a "zero heel"  approach for those folks who cannot manage life away from the vertical.....

It was daylight again as we passed the famous Ailsa Craig rock which just looked a bit dismal and featureless:

Perhaps it needs happy pills like a huge percentage of mankind nowadays? No matter, as we got to the southern end of the Isle of Arran, so the pot markers started appearing again. Luckily all bar one were sensibly sized and coloured. The offending one was two old oil cans (one black, one blue) lashed together. Enough said before a rant kicks off again. Let's go back to an old obsession of ours instead, pictures of Lighthouses. This one is on the little island of Pladda, off the southern coast of Arran:

The early morning lighting and zoom lens makes it look like a photoshop thing planted onto the rock but honestly, it is there! Holy Isle (to distinguish itself from Holy Island) lies off the east coast of Arran and provides good shelter for the anchorage between them. It also sports plenty of pot markers at the entrances and a dinky little lighthouse too:

which you can just about see. The rest of the run up to Holy Loch just involved avoiding the ubiquitous Calmac ferries and pot markers. The main engine had a good burn and we had a good breakfast before berthing. Just love the views from the breakwater berths:

And yes, there was no fog and no rain. Amazing really.

Maintenance News:

None at all. Mainly because nothing needed doing but perhaps also because we were too tired to do it anyway.