Kerrera to Loch Aline

After two very windy days, we woke up to a calmer but still grey outlook. It was a slow, late start and we discovered that the shorepower had popped. Checked the breakers on the shore supply - all were fine. Not a problem, we can happily run off the new battery setup for several days despite using an electric kettle, the microwave , fridge / freezer etc.

Later we found that the entire island was dead:

Might be a fairly regular thing for them? It wasn't an issue for us as we slowly prepared the boat for a short trip to Loch Aline, another favourite spot. The usual tidal annoyance was even more important today. The Loch Aline entrance has charted depths as low as 2 metres (plus the tidal height of course). To get a sensible (1 metre clearance in this case) we didn't want to go in at low water. Low water was pretty much the time we would arrive if we left Kerrera at midday and cruised at our normal speed, typical. We had to leave around then anyway, berthing typically runs from 12 am to 12am  and we didn't want to cause the lovely Kerrera folks an issue with an incoming boat.

So, we headed off and had a very slow trip on purpose. No pictures for you as it was grey, gloomy and there were a couple of big showers that killed visibility and even made us fire up the radar. Yup, that bad.  Passing the little island of Lismore, this is how the lighthouse at the end of it appeared:

Not exactly clear was it?

We arrived at Loch Aline a bit too early despite the slow trip. It must be the little bit of exercise that we gave the wing engine that pushed us along too fast! Hardly..... The CalMac ferry that goes across to Mull from Loch Aline has a nice long lunch break and then heads over at 14:15. So, we stooged around waiting for it to depart as the channel is very narrow and it was going to be very shallow so we needed it to be clear. You can see the little loop past the entrance on our track:

We crept in once the ferry had departed (late of course) and had a minimum of 0.9 metres under the keel. Watching the depth sounder plummet from 110 metres just off the entrance to 0.9 is certainly character forming. We popped onto a nice big hammerhead, chatted to some yottie folks who came out to help us and then retreated inside to avoid the persistent drizzle. Not one of the nicest day trips we've had. Calm, nice area but rubbish weather.

The harbour folks here are just lovely, nice local community run facility and they seem to add new things and ideas each year. They so deserve to do well.

The forecast for the two following days was not great. We were in for a very windy spell:

Please can you explain how the met office forecast shows light winds as a summary then 40 plus mph wind gusts??? The inshore waters forecast was way more realistic:

In preparation,  we took off the bimini cover to save it getting a flogging and to reduce the noises it and the supporting bars make. Amazingly, this was the first time since leaving Penarth we'd had to hide it away.

Before the wind picked up, we went for a wander into the village and down to the entrance of the loch. The Sound of Mull was looking mean and moody:

whereas the crew just looked ready for both sun and rain - very much a Scottish summer thing:

In the village we inspected the rather good range of products on sale in the local shop and then went big. The Whitehouse restaurant (NB it is a Trump free zone) had a very good reputation, expensive evening meals and we'd been told that it was worth a visit by several folks. Realistically, it has to be good to survive in the middle of nowhere and to attract enough folks from far and wide. Bear in mind that the drive from the Village to the nearest town with large supermarkets and a sensible population takes an hour and that includes a ferry crossing:

An hour underway and then you get to the rather sad Fort William too - not one of the best towns in the Highlands really. 

Back to the White House restaurant topic. We'd booked but there was no need. We were the only lunch time diners. Food? It was superb. Look at weblink for an idea of the menu etc. Happy to report that the duck was sublime and the souffle for dessert was on a par with the main course. We also managed to get back to the boat (20 mins or so walk) before the wind and rain kicked off too. Happy folks despite the weather.

These intrepid rowers arrived in the pouring rain just as the wind picked up too and left in nicer conditions the next morning:

We did wonder where they slept and if they'd had a shower / wash. Fortunately they were far enough away and downwind of us so we could not tell.

The following day we waited for the rain to stop and the wind to calm down a bit before walking into the village again, then back the other way to the head of the loch. You could tell that it has rained a teeny bit by the waterfall running down the hills to the loch:

and again by this video of water flowing under the little bridge that leads to the Ardtornish estate:

The estate has opened up a café there which we felt obliged to test out after the walk (around 50 mins from the Harbour office area). Very glad we did, another good stop off spot. Loch Aline is turning into a foodie kind of place for us, must be time to move on before we need new larger clothes. The only disturbance was this coaster who pitched up at slack water early one morning with lots of noise being transmitted through our hull:

He had swung round to face the entrance and then berthed on the sand mine quay. Lots of prop and thruster noise to wake us up. Annoyingly, the following morning we had the same noise, just a bit later as the ship swung around again to face into the loch. No idea why as nothing had been loaded during the day. Neither movement was a good time to have an alarm call.

Oban excursion, then leaving Ardfern for the equally lovely Kerrera

The weather, although nothing like as hot as the south coast, was still lovely. Unfortunately, we were not going to take advantage of it as the crew had a pretty large "floater" in her eye - the one that had a cataract operation last year. That is a warning sign of possibly very bad things so the crew called the biggest optician in Oban to get a same day check.  Specsavers of course. They were a bit process focussed  and rather unhelpful but did offer a late afternoon time slot.

As there are not hundreds of buses to and from Ardfern every day, we got the next one and then just walked into Lekalake Opticians. The exterior was a bit sad, the interior was way better but the service and support from the new owners, Calum and Helen was truly excellent. Most importantly, all was well with the eye after a thorough check. The bus back was the one that collects the kids after school and we were quietly amazed at how well behaved they were compared to some we've encountered down south. A strange day that ended well.

To kind of celebrate, we decided to visit the Galley of Lorne hotel / restaurant for dinner:

It is the only gig on the village and gets VERY varied feedback and is called the Galley of porn by some. However, Princess Anne has her yacht in Ardfern and has been known to eat there so.... We walked from the bus into the hotel reception and rang the bell, wanting to book a table as advised. Only nobody answered the bell. Still nobody. Tried the bell again, same lack of interest. Then a feckless youth wandered through, saw us said he was nothing to do with the place but said he would get someone. We then managed to get booked.

Arriving later on, we were amazed at how well refurbished the interior of the hotel was. The restaurant area was huge, well decorated but pretty empty. Here is a borrowed image:

The food was OK. The waiter (later we found out he was the owner) had a major BO problem going on which somewhat spoiled things. Then we tried to pay to find that his card payment system had gone down, there was a small queue of people in the bar wanting to pay (World Cup football night had dragged them out) and they wanted to see the match.

The malodourous owner was now sweating profusely which really didn't help fix the problem or improve the atmosphere much. He tried different machines, various reboots, bad words and nothing helped. The captain had a look on-line and of course Worldpay were reporting system performance issues..... This didn't help his mood or odour one bit. We did a bank transfer and escaped before we were overcome with the fumes.

Quite an odd evening to round off an odd day really.

Our last day in Ardfern was spent doing some more serious polishing - an area of the superstructure that hadn't been touched for far too long and needed cutting back so the machine polisher was called into service and the captain's back knew all about that, leaning over the boat deck to do the side of it. Still, we managed a little chunk of the huge expanse we have to do if the weather allows. To quote a well known UK supermarket "every little helps". 

The next boat trip was going to be to Kerrera, the lovely little island off Oban. To get there you need to pass through one of the many tidal gates in the area, this one is called the Dorus Mor. Once again, tide timings dictated an earlyish departure. Here is why timing is important:

The Dorus Mòr is a notorious tidal race located off the west coast of Scotland, between the Craignish peninsula and the island of Garbh Reisa. As the tide funnels through this narrow passage, it creates fierce currents, whirlpools, and standing waves that can reach up to 8 knots during spring tides

Yes, as we only do 8.5 knots or so flat out, pushing an 8 knot tide would be entertaining, never mind the whirlpools and standing waves. For non-boating folks, those wavy lines on the chart means just what you would imagine.

Once through that little gate, which we did at pretty much slack water, we had a rather nice trip up the Sound of Luing. Here is the route:

and once again you can see that Vessel Finder kind of lost us for a big chunk of the trip. The dotted line they use to join things up would have been a real nautical challenge:

Nice enough weather:

with Patrick and Kylie on watch as usual:

As we approached Kerrera, this rather serious superyacht was anchored off the island with an amazingly noisy generator running:

They certainly didn't need the aircon so we did wonder why such a big and noisy genset was in operation! We'd been told that we were going onto the water taxi berth so we headed around the pontoons and saw that it looked pretty full. Gill, the owner of the place came rushing down, called over to us and redirected us to a finger berth on the other side of the marina. She then sprinted over to help with the lines. Quite some service.

We had to back in, between the pontoon and a large yacht with the wind wanting us to snuggle up to the yacht. The yacht's owners had dashed out when Gill arrived and told them that they had a neighbour coming. Then they saw the neighbour was a lardy Nordhavn and were even more worried. There wasn't too much spare space as you can see:

but all went rather well to the relief of our neighbours who later told us about the damage they'd had from visiting craft in the past. Gill helped with the forward line, commented on how well the boat turns and said "that wasn't your first rodeo". Yes, they do handle well, the stern thruster wasn't needed.

We'd arrived just before noon so in the afternoon we had a little walk through the island, checking out the local farm's honesty shop and enjoying the views:

A pity it was overcast, you don't get to see the real beauty of the hills and the many colours:

It was strange that in a nice wet place like the west coast of Scotland, the Kererra folks need to invest in their own water supply:

Folks rely on their own springs or boreholes and have to take responsibility for the purification plant too. Proper off-grid living. 

Whilst on Kerrera, we took the water taxi over to Oban to do some shopping in the big supermarkets - not many more of those as you head further north.  Hudson, the bernadoodle was so cute:

and amused / detained us for a while. 

We also had a lunch in the Waypoint restaurant at the marina, run by Tim and Gill who  own the marina and also have a farm on the island so the ingredients are usually pretty fresh. As you can see from the specials board, they change quite regularly:

On our last Kerrera island day, we had some visitors. Helen, the optician who kindly checked the crew's eyeball last week, came over with Calum her other half and their daughter. Tea, coffee, chat and a guided tour of the boat followed. The 3 year old was very busy with the profusion of cuddly toys we have inherited on board and was most content. We all took the ferry across to Oban later, we wanted to raid the supermarkets before we moved on to the land of small Co-op shops at best. Helen and Calum probably just wanted to escape us.