Portavadie, road trips and more social time

We mentioned that going to Tarbert allowed us to see the friends who reside in Portavadie. Well, we duly took the ferry over to see them:

The regular little car ferry, the Isle of Cumbrae, had been taken away to fill yet another gap in Calmac's flaky service to another island. So, the poor locals had no car ferry, just a passenger service operated at high speed by a Redbay RIB. Oh yes we thought, that will be a fun ride. Extra bonus, that was for free. It also meant that we didn't have the irritation of the antique car ferry starting up her engines a good 30 minutes before heading off each morning, berthed near us in the harbour. Noisy and a guaranteed early wake-up call. Typically the car ferry returned the night before we wanted to use the service.

After a slow trip on the 50 year old ferry, we met Sheila and Niall, together with Penny the dog. They took us on a road trip to Otter Ferry initially, where we walked to Ballimore House - they offer B and B if you are interested:

Quite a place and a most pleasant walk around their grounds. We did not abuse the Scottish "right to roam" laws though and kept well clear of the house itself. Otter Ferry itself was a place full of memories. Our last visit was in 2013 when we anchored inside the sand bar and had dinner in the pub there so we would use the WiFi to book some flights south. How the world has changed - a great phone signal there now and, if you want to give the nice Mr Elon Musk lots of money, satellite internet via Starlink too. 

After a lovely overnight ashore at Sheila and Niall's house, enjoying their excellent hospitality, we had a short car trip (mainly single track roads of course) and then walked to Kilbride bay where Penny the dog had a great time:

We recognise that ball in the mouth expression so well - very Izzy like. We had a good time too, here are the more photogenic humans:

The captain took one for the team - taking the picture and escaping being in it and spoiling the view, which was rather special too:

Arran in the distance, a little cloud hanging over the hilly bits, just perfect. Afterwards we visited the community run cafe in Tighnabruaich. The village seemed way more alive than when we visited in 2013 and anchored off the Royal hotel. More little shop units were open, the main street was busier too. 

We enjoyed a great time (as always) with Sheila and Niall.   Penny as well. It was a bit sad to leave them and get the ferry over to Tarbert again. However, this was tempered as Iolair was still around and the yottie folks had arrived on their posh Malo too. A rather civilised dinner in the yacht cockpit was enjoyed, even if Robert looks a tad grumpy in this picture (you should see the other one we took!!)

Catching up with the delightful Deborah and Robert, saying bye to the Iolair crew over a coffee, raiding the local Coop and generally chilling was rather good. Barney the dog was reported as trying to return to our boat, not his own after walks as he wanted the "fun boat" - where he gets to destroy toys. We kindly gave Sarah one so Barney could leave their saloon as a murder scene too:

Sorry Sarah....

Here is how another Nordhavn 47 looks as they headed off:

You can see that Neil takes his "checking the area for other traffic" responsibility most seriously. Plenty of waving too from the Skipper and Sarah (but not Barney bin Laden) as they departed:

The weather was no way as bad as they had forecast  - naturally. It got a bit unpleasant towards the weekend but the original forecast was way off yet again. Never mind, it made us spend a week in Tarbert and we had lots of quality time with some lovely people. All good.

Maintenance news:

The lucky genset had a brief run, the aircon compressor had one too, being used to put some load on the genset. Then the genset was treated to fresh oil and a filter swap. Dead simple as jobs go but satisfying and needed

Off to Tarbert and meeting folks

Where next? One of those decisions that we often face as itinerant floaters, pottering around with no fixed plans. Usually the weather and tides play a significant part in that decision as they did on this occasion. We were promised nearly a week of windy and soggy stuff with a couple of particularly nasty days too. What to do - well, the lure of Tarbert was strong. We could see the friends who live in Portavadie, Neil and Sarah were already there in Iolair another Nordhavn 47 and the yottie friends from Troon in their swish Malo were out and about, also threatening to turn up in Tarbert. Had to be done.

Naturally the tide times were all wrong for a trip north but as they are not too strong in the Kilbrannan sound, we just headed off, leaving Campbeltown astern on a nice sunny day:

For the first time ever, we saw a naval vessel on the NATO fuelling pier. Amazing. It was HMS Bangor, a baby minehunter and one that was resurrected from planned scrappage when the Navy realised that minehunting capability in deeper waters might still be handy:

She is the last of her class to survive in service and had just been through a refit. We are always staggered at how many people seem to work at the NATO fuel base when these is so little ship activity there. (We say work, maybe we should say "turn up in their cars"). 

It was a gentle sunny flybridge trip enjoying the views and dolphins until the top of Arran when the wind picked up and we retired inside for lunch. The yottie friends from Troon were also underway and said they could see us. We are pretty distinctive whereas a white yacht with white sails is a touch harder to identify when there are a couple more about. However, we saw them on AIS and knew in which direction to wave:

The pretty route feels strange - you start close to the Kintyre Peninsular, then graze the west side of the island of Arran near Lochranza, then hug the peninsular once more:

Just before the big "hang a left" into Loch Fyne, we had our closest encounter with the friend's yacht and as they were the only one sailing in that direction, spotting the right white flappy things was easy:

As we approached Tarbert, the lovely old paddle steamer Waverley passed us:

Actually that is wrong. She was astern of us, was the give-way vessel, but just aimed for us as she headed towards the harbour too. Being nice people and knowing that she handles like a pig on ice, we eased up on the rpm and let her go ahead of us. She wriggled her way onto the dilapidated pier and disgorged loads of day trippers into the village. Not quite as bad as our usual liner curse as they all left very soon afterwards to head back towards Glasgow:

The berth we'd been allocated was, naturally, occupied. We find that a lot in Tarbert, folks kind of pick what they fancy it seems. Five hours of rather lovely scenery and all in all a chilled time.

Lots of work was going on in Tarbert to prepare for a new boat lift facility. No use for us as it is only for 25 tons, not lardy things like Nordhavns. The noise as big chunks of rock were tipped from trucks and then moved into place was pretty impressive, especially for folks moored nearby. Thankfully we were not. Health and safety wasn't priority #1 either - no safety boat out and about and these guys just stood in the water directing operations:

Nobody was in real danger of getting swept away though.  It seemed "sensible safe" rather than H&S compliant safe that would have cost way more.

Neil and Sarah on Iolar, with Barney bin Laden the Border Terrorist dog were most welcoming and we enjoyed dinner together in a local Italian inspired place that many moons ago was an acclaimed seafood restaurant. The next morning we dragged ourselves around the harbour and up to the ruins of the castle, with sone good views of double Nordhavn 47 trouble:

From higher up you get a nice vista over the harbour but miss out on our boat thanks to the trees:

Looking out to Loch Fyne makes you remember just how beautiful the area is and why we love coming here:

Neil and Sarah joined us on board for coffee, Barney had a great time shredding two of Izzy's old toys (sorry Izzy) that now reside in the bin, sans stuffing. His desire to go for other dogs is so strong that he tried to rush this toy dog wearing glasses in the opticians shop in the village. The glass door stopped him:

He learned however, the following day he walked past with that "I never did anything silly here" expression.