The Nordhavn Europe Whisky run

Walking around Kerrera you do get some great views over to the island of Mull which the phone camera then destroys:

Such a shame really but lugging the older bulkier SLR camera around seems hard work now. We really need to get better at doing that. 

We took the little ferry over to the mainland and wandered around Oban watching the various Calmac ferries heading in and out, the trip boats taking land-bourne visitors around the harbour and to the back of Kerrera for wildlife spotting plus the odd yacht. Here is a pretty typical view:

Why were we in Kerrera? Well, we were going to join 6 other Nordhavn boats for this:

Here is the marketing blurb from the American folks:

We tend to avoid such events, where owners of a certain something (boats, cars, motorcycles etc etc) get together and assume they will like each other and have things outside of the gathering in common. However, this was different. We knew and liked some folks who were attending and knew that it would be a fun time. We went over to Oban to meet up with Neil, the new owner of the N47 Malaspina that you've seen and read about before. She is now called Iolair of Erraid and you've heard about her and seen her out of the water in Largs. Neil couldn't bring his boat up to Kerrera so he was going to slum it in our forecabin for the event.

One attendee was moored in the Oban Transit marina, we spotted Blue Magic as we were waiting for the ferry back to Kerrera:

She used to be moored mid-river in the Hamble, and was called Moby Dick. One of the very first Nordhavn passage making yachts, a 46. Another 47, Albatross owned by the infamous Captain Rae arrived too:

On the opposite side of the long pontoon we were moored to, was B2, a 64. She looked and is pretty enormous and impressive. Owned by a lovely couple from Guernsey that we'd not met before:

Astern of us was Suilven, a pristine 43. We knew the original owner, Colin and met the new one, Cliff who is a busy You Tuber:

You might just spot us behind Suilven.

We had a good evening, catching up with people we knew, the Nordhavn Europe team and meeting new owners. The Marina restaurant did a mean line in lamb, mint and chilli burgers (other things were available) that we much enjoyed. Afterwards we, together with Neil, retired to Albatross to drink Captain Rae's rather good red wine and admire the contents of a goodie bag that each boat was given. The specially branded single malt was untouched and has remained so.

The following day the flotilla was heading to Tobermory for a distillery tour and group dinner, but we were unable to do so. Instead we watched them depart. Here is Albatross preparing:

with the crew under the command and watchful eye of the (in)famous Capt Rae:

Yes, it had been raining, he does not wander around in seriously stained T shirts. Well, not that often anyway. He had additional expert crew too, Neil Russell from Nordhavn Europe:

who was on fender duty as they wriggled out of a tight spot. Albatross and B2 were heading off together:

with a perspective that means their bums look about  the same size. The reality is a tad different. The 6 boats heading to Tobermory looked impressive:

and rather imperious too:

As the sole Nordhavn left in Kerrera we suddenly felt larger again.  Neil (Mr Iolair) stayed with us for the day and we walked to the farm shop, run by the same folks who own the marina. We only bought an ice-cream though, or to be more precise, Neil did. You get to see the impressive big ferry on the way:

No chance of getting a long wheelbase van on there! Our final day was taken up with a ferry trip across to Oban for some shopping. To work up an appetite, we walked up the hill to the folly, only the locals don't like calling it a folly it seems. McCaigs tower is one of those strange things that wealthy folks liked to build as a monument to themselves. Have a look at Wikipedia link to learn more about the odd history of this landmark.

Despite having made a few visits to the town over the years, we'd never staggered up the hill. Here is the entrance:

but as it started drizzling whilst we were up there, no nice panoramic views over the bay were possible. Well worth dragging ourselves up there though. Here it is seen from the pier, waiting for the ferry back to Kerrera:

Maintenance News:

Apart from the usual engine checks, we did nothing. Too busy being sociable and having fun. Apologies to the boat and the tekkie folks who like pictures of dismembered engines etc.

Corpach to Kerrera and being sociable

For once, tide times were kindly. We needed to get through the Corran narrows heading south before the tide turned against us too much, preferably just before it turned so the ride would be as calm and whirlpool free as possible. Wow, we could leave at 10am! Such a treat. We were sorry to leave this view though, from our aft cockpit:

Another coaster arrived to disturb the peace before we departed:

and one yacht headed into the Corpach sea lock, heading into the Caledonian Canal, filling the lock chamber with some nice exhaust smoke:

Good job they were alone in there. Either that engine needs a good hard run or some serious surgery. Maybe both. 

We had a nice tidal help through the narrows (11 knots) then headed down Loch Linnhe and tucked inside the smaller islands towards Oban and Kerrera. There are several shallow areas between the islands and the mainland and that makes the auto routing function in Time Zero (our PC navigation package) go crazy and add loads of waypoints to keep within the pre-set safety depth:

Each number is a waypoint, trying to build a route and keep 6 metres of water under our keel. We tend to use the automatic route as a "suggestion" and then heavily amend it or totally ignore it. The system is smart but doesn't know about important things like where overfalls are likely to happen, firing ranges, places peppered with pot markers etc etc. A lot like an AI internet search really.  It always feels strange when after travelling for under a minute, the depth drops from over 100 metres to this:

We didn't manage to go aground, with or without the help of auto routing. Here is the little lighthouse on the mainland at Port Appin:

Officially it is known as Sgeir Bhuidhe lighthouse but as we can't even begin to pronounce that....

The views across to Lismore were lovely, less so in a picture but this brings back happy memories for us as we were enjoying a flybridge trip all the way, bar 15 mins of a light rain shower around the Corran Narrows. All very good indeed:

We had to thread our way through the shallow areas and had the typical "yacht under power who thought they had the right of way" encounter. The rules of the road are clear, if they are motoring and not constrained by their draft, they are effectively a motor boat and have to behave that way. Only they don't all seem to understand that. This one wanted to push us into a very shallow area, then gave a wave as we passed him after a course alternation that should have been his to do. Such is life. Looking back, it seemed like the autopilot was holding a pretty straight course, you can tell that the stabilisers were not on - or indeed needed for any of the journey:

We arrived in Oban bay perfectly timed to avoid all the ferries. called Kerrera and had our berth confirmed as on the water taxi pontoon. We duly backed onto it and had a late lunch, in time to watch Colin and Carole arrive with the mighty ship Albatross:

We hit the Waypoint restaurant together for dinner and retired to Albatross to test their red wine stocks and give their two dogs some attention:

Sorry Izzy, but she was so cute and loves cuddles.

Maintenance News:

There are four bolts that hold the genset frame onto the base of the noise reducing cocoon. The captain found that the nut and washer from one were laying under the genset - they had vibrated loose and totally unscrewed - there was a lot of thread spare so this must have been happening over quite some time.

Refitting it is amusing. The gap between the base of the cocoon and the boat structure it is fitted to, is just the height of the anti-vibration  mounts. They are a teeny bit over the thickness of the captain's palm thickness. That means squeezing your hand under there, feeding the washers back on, then trying to refit the nut whilst the washer wants to fall off. A dob of thread locker was added this time to try and prevent going through the same fun again. We'd wanted to fit a nyloc nut but funnily enough, didn't have any 9/16th AF in stock. The joys of an American boat with American main engine, the same Japanese base motors for the genset and wing but marinised by Americans. We have an odd mix of metric and AF hardware on board.

As a precaution, the rest of the bolts were tightened up. The captain then had a shower - under the genset is not an area that gets cleaned at all.....