Enjoying Ardfern in the sun, yes, brilliant sun and then the biblical rain

Ardfern was being very kind indeed. Sunny and warm. So, we did a few outside boat jobs, then the bikes came out for a ride to Craignish. As you can see from the map, there is really only one road option. The one shown that heads north west across the peninsular is not really a road for very far. We know, we've walked it a couple of times.

The road down to Craignish was a rather rough / poorly maintained single track with passing places offering. About as good as you would expect in the area. The best news is that there was almost no traffic - perhaps because there is really nowhere to go at the other end of it:

The views are wonderful, this is towards the end of the track, on the "other side" of the land:

and then back looking along Loch Craignish:

This image made us feel a bit seasick, but on dry land. When the camera stitched the panoramic view together it decided that water can lay in gentle curves:

Back in Adrfern, we saw the Princess Royal's yacht being launched and prepared (that is Princess Anne in old money). A nice Rustler 44:

with an unpronounceable name but membership of the Royal Yacht Squadron:

I guess they could not blackball her application.

The evening views from the berth reminded us how if you want to be in a marina, this is one of the prettiest:

On a mooring buoy there was a stately old Fleur de Lys motor yacht looking totally at home in the area:

Ardfern has quite an "up market" bunch of yachts on the pontoons compared to many other places. Also a thriving repair and maintenance facility too.

Sadly, after two weeks of no rain up north, we had this forecast:

so we opted to stay put for another day and do a little inside cleaning and a few jobs.

Maintenance news:

On the dry and sunny day, the crane and anchor winch were treated to some grease and a check over. On the rather wet day, the annual renewal of the drinking water filter was undertaken. This guy filters water to a special galley outlet that we use to make drinks and also to the dishwasher. It was simple enough to spot which was the new filter element during the swap:

They are wildly expensive things but certainly work - they tamed the brown water we had to put into the tank at Kilmelford a few years ago and turned it into something you actually wanted to put in the kettle. It still looked like we were having a shower in a gentle mud solution of course, the other taps are straight from the tank.

On the trip up to Ardfern, the captain noticed that the port side engine room extractor fan was no longer working. They are two feeble little Dayton 240v blowers that, frankly, don't move much air through some long and convoluted ducts. There is no such thing as a quick replacement even if we had a spare on board as the motor casing has been changed and the new units no longer fit into the brackets made in the Nordhavn factory. (See prior blog post for the pain that causes).

So, we just isolated the power supply to the fan to stop it getting hot and causing trouble during future trips - there is one breaker to operate both fans so we cannot turn off just the dead one. Replacement will be a winter job, especially as it involves crawling into the alcove (up high) that it is mounted in and figuring out what would be a suitable future setup. 

Ardminish (Gigha) to Ardfern

Waking up anchored off Ardminish was a delight. Sunny morning, lovely views in all directions, calm weather too. The genset was fired up to recharge the domestic batteries and top up the hot water for showers. To load the generator sufficiently we also did a load of washing and tumble drying - half load on the gensest is around 26 amps and we try to run at that or above.

With a settled forecast and a favourable tide from 10:30, things were set for a gentle trip up to Ardfern, and so it transpired:

The anchor came up cleanly with just a little mud on it - the last time we anchored here it was a huge ball of kelp (seaweed) that needed serious attention from Andrew (the human mountain goat) to clean it up. At the top of the island of Gigha we had to slow down to allow the big CalMac ferry from Kennacraig to cross in front of us:

Apart from that it was a gentle picturesque trip. As you get further north, so the depths on the seabed change quite dramatically in very short distances and these changes upset the flow of the water and cause whirlpool effects where the boat gets turned round, quite viciously sometimes, as the swirling water grabs the boat's keel.  You can see how the depth changes from 100+ metres to 20 very quickly. So, we enjoyed a slightly wobbly path through this area: 

Building on the "travelling in slippers" theme from the last post, here is proof - the crew on watch:

showing how relaxed it can be!

There were a few pot markers but way better ones than the old milk bottles and black oil canisters that you encounter on the south coast:

The route passes the entrace to the infamous Corryvreckan. A place where the tidal flows and the depth changes cause all sorts of disturbance and a "standing wave" - apparently it is the third largest whirlpool in the world. Officially classed as "un-navigable without local knowledge", it is quite a stretch of water. Have a look at  Wikipedia on the gulf. Also worth watching is a video of a lifeboat going through it - you tube video

Somehow the view across to it during our trip was rather tame and boring in comparison:

Approaching Ardfern we gave the engine a little wide open throttle run to clean it out a bit and then called Ardfern yacht centre to ask where to berth. They told us to wait as they had to check that the allocated spot had been vacated by another boat. So, we drifted off the marina for rather too long waiting to hear:

Luckily it was not windy and wet! After many many minutes we were invited onto the visitors pontoon as our berth had not been vacated. Seems that the folks who rent a mooring from the marina like to sneak onto the pontoons and stay there as long as possible. 

Ardfern is a lovely little village, one pub, one village store and a newly built tea room that gets rave reviews for their cake. We feel a visit coming on... The marina folks were super friendly and after a little walk (first time on land for 43 hours) we washed off the salt from our bumpy trip out of Whitehaven.

Whitehaven to Ardminish (Gigha)

A suitable weather window opened up for a further trip north and so we thought that we should take it. After many days of strong(ish) winds it was finally due to subside. The start of the trip would be bumpy heading west to the Mull of Galloway but after that we would turn north and be sheltered by the land. Then the wind was due to die away totally and give us a very plesant run up the Mull of Kintyre which can be very rough in the wrong tide /weather conditions.

The only drawback was the best timing to leave. It had to be around high water at Whitehaven because of the lock and then we try to time things so we had a fair tide around the headlands. Yup, that meant leaving Whitehaven at 9pm. At least it was still twilight then and the lock was on free flow so we extricated ourselves from the berth, backed carefully past the yacht astern of us and headed out to sea.

There were plenty of birds around, this poor picture gives you an idea of how the FLIR sees them as they fly away from the Nordhavn bearing down on them:

As we got further from the land, so the wave pattern built up, on our starboard stern quarter. That is one of the less comfortable angles as the boat has to "corkscrew" over the waves passing underneath us whilist the stabilisers fight to keep her from rolling. It was not helped by a way stronger than forecast wind either:

They had suggested that there would be force 5 gusts (up to 21 knots or about 24 mph) but as you can see it hit over 31 knots which is force 7, a near gale in Beaufort terminology. That gave us a nice bumpy ride out towards the Mull of Galloway and the stabilisers were very busy, hitting full deflection both ways to try and keep us from rolling too much. A couple of times they failed in that and, annoyingly, our Furuno satellite compass decided to lose its heading readings again. This happened a couple of years ago after a battery change by Paul from Maricom. Last summer he sorted out the configuration error that had been introduced and all should have been well......... Our trips during a truncated summer cruising last year were very calm and so we didn't have a chance to check that all was well. Clearly, it is not.

The irritation is that you get beeped at by lots of devices, have to wait for the satellite compass to reset, then re-engage the autopilot and hit a key on several screens around the pilothouse to stop them beeping a warning. At the same time the boat has been through a heavy roll, you can hear things moving around in the cupboards and it is pitch black outside. Not nice. It does wake you up a bit.

As we passed the top of the Isle of Man, things began to calm down. We reached the turning point where we head north west (see our track image):

just before the tide turned against us, and then had a quieter time sheltered by the land from the easterly winds. Looking at the route, one yottie character asked us if we'd had a tough trip as it looks like we just had to tell the autopilot to make two 20 degree turns to starboard. These rag and stick folks do not quite understand how much better it is travelling overnight in a warm pilothouse wearing your slippers compared to being out in the elements huddled in a chilly cockpit (doused with spray earlier on in the trip too). OK, we might not be as macho but we are happy to be feeble, warm and dry.

As we started north, there were no AIS targets at all (for the non boaters, the ships and other AIS equipped boats in the area send out position, speed etc information by radio):

Naturally we kept our eyes open for any P and O ferries that were drifting about with no engine power (see BBC news report) but we managed to avoid playing rescue boat for them.

As we headed towards the Mull of Kintyre (cue the song, if you must) the number of AIS targets around us grew dramatically:

although it didn't seem that busy out there really and we were lucky again, not having to change course to avoid any of the big guys.

Approaching the Mull of Kintyre in perfect weather is always exciting:

and although the place can have very rough seas around it, today we just swept past with a following tide:

As you can just see, Patrick the penguin is still busy cuddling Kylie....  

The "lighthouse" on the Mull is pretty unimpressive considering how dangerous the area can be:

and looks rather insignificant hidden in the hillside. The depth changes in the area are quite dramatic though. We were not that far off the land but in 130 metres of water under our keel:

You can also see how much help we were getting from the tide (10.3 knots over the ground, 6.4 through the water)

Heading up the side of the Mull towards Gigha some clouds popped up but didn't upset the overall splendour of the area:

After dodging a few pot markers in Gigha sound, this little fishing boat was determined to turn towards us no matter which way we went to avoid him:

However, we managed to do so despite his annoying Kamakaze tendencies and we then prowled around Ardminish looking for a good spot to anchor. The number of mooring bouys seems to have been increased since we were here several years ago so we ended up anchoring well off the little reef outside the bay. Still only in 4 metres of water under the keel though.  The expected tidal range was a tiny 0.4 metres, Gigha is an amphidromic point. Don't know what one of those is? Well look at wikipedia for enlightenment. 

The evening finished with a celebratory glass of white for reaching Nicolaland, sitting in the pilothouse enjoying the great views:

The only thing disturbing the tranquility was the last couple of crossings by the CalMac ferry:

which is not the prettiest of things really, unlike the surroundings. We had to share the bay with two other yachts:

and you can see how huge the main village on the island is too. Oh, we should not forget the slipway for the ferry:

the buoy in the foreground marks the little reef which we are anchored outside of.  Despite the occasional ferry, things were incredibly tranquil:

and we were treated to a colourful sunset too:

followed by a great night of sleep, we had plenty to catch up on in beautiful surroundings.

The trip is about 123 nautical miles or 142 land miles. We had an overall help from the tides so we actually travelled less that that (by about 6%) through the water. Think of the diesel savings! Amazingly the mobile phone signal off Gigha was way better then the one in Penarth marina. In fact for most of the trip up from the Mull of Kintyre we had an excellent 4G signal. The 163 reported inhabitants of the island and all the local sheep on the Mull must be so happy that they can surf the internet so quickly compared to the numerous folks clustered around Penarth Marina.

Maintenance news:

Before the trip, the captain did the horrid job of slackening off the stuffing box for the wing engine as it was not dripping water through as it should. Reaching it hidden underneath the sump of the wing engine is a pesky job, Fortunately when we gave the wing engine some exercise approaching Gigha it seemed to have worked. 

The new encapsulated LED navigation bulb that was fitted in Whitehaven worked OK, as it should for the price. We will see how long this one lasts......

Whitehavening

After a good sleep, we kind of kicked into local life quite quickly. Very helpful and friendly marina folks and locals, sad town of course (even more dead shops in the main streets since covid) but a lovely location and surroundings. After a major wash off, the boat looked at home here too:

The place is full of supermarkets so you are spoiled for choice. Tesco, Morrisons, Aldi and Asda all in a few minutes walk. 5 minutes to the train station too although we are still not sure about travelling in an antique 2 carriage slow Northern Rail service to Carlisle when all the little Covid spreaders are on half term holiday. Instead the bikes had an airing, first of all following the well paved cycle track to the north. The initial part follows the railway line along the coast:

with lovely views and a Starbucks en route to top up the fluid and sugar levels which helped the crew's smile: 

It was not as cold as her attire suggests - coming back was mainly downhill so little pedalling was involved to help the body temperature.

We also explored the track in the other direction, following the start of the coast to coast cycle route that the mad Anne completed a while ago. We were not planning to go quite that far, Egremont (around an hour away) was our turning spot, again after a coffee stop. This time at a great independent place, Deja Brew. Very good coffee indeed, thoroughly recommended.

This picture of one of the marker posts is just added in so we appear more energetic than we really were:

Since we were on the berth of a boat that was being relaunched, and as we didn't really want to rush off yet (nicer forecast here than the one for Campbeltown or the Gigha anchorage) we moved berths. A wild ocean voyage of at least 5 minutes. To begin with the boat didn't feel "right". It just did not respond to the helm as it normally would. Then the rather forgetful captain realised that he had unpinned the stabilisers (manual job on our boat) but not energised the system to hold them centered after starting the engine. They got unpinned in case we came across a shallow bit or something substantial as when they are help by hydraulic pressure, they will "give" a little, unlike when the big stainless steel pin is holding them. However, you must remember to turn on the system. Little simple boat moves always lull you into forgetting something important. Maybe a proper checklist is really needed rather than just an elderly brain....

Anyway, system duly fired up, fins centred, boat behaved like a boat again and we popped onto a new berth, much closer to the promenade than before:

We ought to charge for pictures now, we could make a fortune based on the number taken by passers by in one day.

A slightly longer (18 miles or so) cycle trip took us through delightful countryside, on very good bike tracks, to Workington. The town is neither delightful or very good but is way busier than Whitehaven with fewer empty shops. After a coffee stop, we escaped but were intrigued by the quality merchandise on the market stalls:

No comment needed.

In a wild moment, after half term had finished, we braved the train to Carlisle. Lovely ride along the coast and then through the countryside (although it does stop in salubrious places like Maryport and Workington). A very plesant wander around Carlisle, the castle (free thanks to Welsh Heritage membership) and then through the riverside park.

During the walk we bumped into a first for us - a crufts champion. Sevy was named after the golfer by his owners. Alex Little is a famous lady judge on the dog show circuit, specialising in sheepdog breeds. This beautiful boy won best in class at Crufts and many awards abroad as well. He was not at all "special" with us, he just liked cuddles and attention as most dogs do:

The main reason we had stopped and talked to the owners was Angel, a 12 week old pup who was on her first walk out in the park and was enjoying every moment:

She is destined to become a champion we reckon and her owners are planning to show her in the major competitions. Lovely dog, lovely temprement, nice owners too who told us quite a bit about the rather cut throat world of dog shows. Motto being, never leave your dog unattended.......

We continued to enjoy the area with a mix of walks, supermarket raids (big stores will be few and far between when we head north again) and cycle trips. We also did our bit for the bee population, this sad guy was in our outdoor sink and barely moving so on the second day we read up and gave him the emergency sugar /water mix. Amazing restorative properties, after consuming it (as in the picture), the bee managed to fly off again. No idea if that was a temporary thing but we felt good all the same. Little things and all that:

Dale (Milford Haven) to Whitehaven

The tides do like to play havoc with our sleep patterns. Having been up at 3:15am to head to Dale from Cardiff and then being glued to the radar for much of the trip, we really would have liked a nice long sleep. However, the weather was very favourable for us to press on the next day up to Whitehaven. Only the tides and the need to arrive in Whitehaven around high water (they have a lock which is not accessible at all states of the tide as the approach dries) dictated a 5am departure. Yuk.

A slightly disturbed and all too brief night at anchor was ended by a 4:30 alarm clock. We somehow roused ourselves, fired up the donkey, recovered the trusty Rocna anchor and headed off. This time, the weather forecast was wrong. They said that Dale would still be blanketed in fog but it had cleared. Wow. 

The view across to the delightful refineries in Milford Haven from our anchorage, just to prove the fog had finally shifted:

 

The start of the trip involved heavy FLIR use to avoid the expected pot markers, only there were none. It was also pretty calm once round St David's head and pointing north. The fates had conspired to help us it seemed. There was no firing activity in the range in Cardigan Bay, no ships to avoid, no fishing boats zig-zagging in front of us. Almost boring really until one of the two instances of the Furuno Time Zero Touch 2 black box decided to reboot itself. No idea why, it had done this once before, again for no obvious reason. However, it all came back happily so we will just see if there is a software update to apply (which would probably introduce lots of other errors anyway). The last time we checked (early April) everything was up to date.

More positively, the elderly laptop that came from the toddlers with an old version of Windows on it was quite happy running the PC version of the Time Zero software and behaved very well indeed:

Just for interest, this is how the radar saw that spot:

Our timing plan worked very well, we rounded the headland at St Davids in South Wales with the tide, then did the same off Anglesey as per the images above. Getting favourable tides in the areas were they run strongly makes a big difference to the overall passage time for us. We kept our 1550 rpm or thereabouts cruise speed going: 

only this time you can see that the engine was running around 5 degrees cooler than on the last run from Cardiff. That is pretty normal, as the salt water and movement through the water slowly removes the slime and "stuff" that has grown on the hull and keel cooler during the winter time, when we sit in mainly fresh water. Now our cooler will begin to foul up with salt water nasty things that depost calcium layers and so our cruise temperature will up a little bit again. That is until the next lift out when the crew has the fun of scraping it all off once more. Tedious game.

Passing the Isle of Man, there is one huge wind farm that sits between it and the English coast. You can see the massed ranks of the turbines on this radar picture:

Somehow they look quite threatening at night on the radar. By the time we got closer it was just about daylight and they looked a whole lot nicer. Not friendly, but nicer.

Keeping our lighthouse theme going, here is St Bees, just south of Whitehaven:

Having managed to travel all the way from Dale with no need to alter our planned course for anything at all, one little fishing boat around 5 miles from our destination decided to turn onto a collision course so we had to "swerve" (well, as much as you can swerve at 6.4 knots) around him. Although this plotter picture looks close, we were a good half mile ahead of him. Our one collision avoidance action of the entire trip, amazing really:

Appraoching Whitehaven, more or less at high water, we were happy to see the harbour entrance:

and we were called through the sea lock on free flow:

and then onto a nice hammerhead berth that was pre-arranged. 

The trip is around 195 nautical miles (or 224 land miles) and it took us about 29 hours. If your maths works like ours, then you can see that our average speed over the trip of 6.7 knots is above our speed over the ground of 6.4. For once, thanks tides. One of the calmest runs that you would ever wish for in the Irish sea.

Maintenance news:

To add to the fuel expense of the trip, we noticed as day was breaking that the steaming light (the white one that shines forward) had failed. Annoyingly, it is the one that is not simple to replace underway. The port and starboard ones and the stern light can all be reached and the bulb swapped but this one is high up on a radar support and you have to unzip the back of the bimini cover to get to it. So, it had to wait. We then had the fun of taking out this little incandescent bulb:

and replaced it with an encapsulated LED thing that we bought in Northern Ireland some time ago. It will be interesting to see how well it lasts in comparison to the older technology it has replaced. It needs to last about 3 times as long for the economics to work out.