Tarbert to Campbeltown

After a couple of windy days, the sun came out and we felt it was time to begin the slow trek south for the winter. We said our farewells to Robert and Deborah, tidied up the boat after a few days of being like a holiday flat and headed out to begin the slow trip south. The weather was most odd / mixed. These three images were taken all at the same time. First of all The Kintyre Peninsular as admired by Patrick and Kylie:

then the view down Kilbrannan sound:

and then the island of Arran:

You can see how the weather looks rather different as you scan across. We had an uneventful run back to Campbeltown, where we planned to wait for suitable weather to head to Northern Ireland as the next stopping off spot. The ever helpful Callum had put some cones out to keep a spot in Campbeltown for us and as we berthed, the wind picked up to deliver 33 knot gusts that wanted to hold us off the pontoon. The thrusters helped us berth, rarely needed but on this occasion.....

The main engine hour meter was as close to celebrating a Nordhavn 47 as possible:

Before you worry about the number of hours, that is just saying I am run in and ready for more. The engine is a big old John Deere 6068 that has been babied since 2009 with regular oil changes, coolant changes, valve gear adjustments and Stanadyne additive in the fuel etc. It is very very unstressed with a low output (166 HP) for the 6.8 litre displacement and should run happily for many many more hours. There, we have tempted fate.

We had a wander around the local museum that was most interesting. Luckily the chair of the trustees was around and he explained a lot about the building, collection and local economy. We learned a few things about daily life there, how the fishing and then Whisky trade made many folks wealthy and also the current decline in the town.  There were a few unexpected bits about the troubles in Northern Ireland too:

We clearly recall the helicopter crash there during that time which killed many intelligence staff. See Wikipedia link for more information on that and the initial attempt to blame the pilots by the RAF establishment.