Escaping Largs - only to Holy Loch though

The Fife yachts had offered plenty of amusement and admiration before they departed for the next stage of their racing. They were delayed by a day thanks to some unseasonably blowy but seasonally wet weather. We had the pleasure of seeing Chico pottering in and out of the marina area:

A 1932 built vessel with serious history. She was a Dunkirk little ship that is available for charter, have a look at Chico website link for more information on her including her time owned by Sir Malcolm Campbell, the speed record guy. Sadly her hull planking looks a bit queer now, obvious signs of it pulling apart with plenty of caulking in place. The annual maintenance tasks must be daunting, we know how much is needed for a GRP boat let alone an elderly wooden one. What the picture cannot give you is the wonderful noise of the two Gardner diesel engines installed in her. Proper piece of history, we hope the owners can keep her going.

So, once the weather had calmed down, we decided that it was time to escape the charms of Largs and venture further. Not that much further really, just up to Holy Loch:

That boring copy of the track from Marine Traffic is rather outshone by this one from Vessel Finder:

It was so lovely to have some bits of blue sky again and gentler winds for the pretty trip north, not warm enough to be on the flybridge but still rather nice:

The boat was behaving well following the out of the water maintenance work as was the new little push button switch on the flybridge throttle/gear controller. An engine check underway, tea and scones, all was well on board:

The (as usual) pretty empty inner arm of the breakwater at Holy Loch was our destination. We wanted to go there to allow us to meet friends who live locally the next day. The marina had been taken over by a group last year (Tingdene) and the expected proliferation of health and safety measures were visible, one big sign and some seriously refurbished facilities. Apart from that not many changes were obvious but the reports from a couple of on-site companies were not at all positive. If we come back it will be interesting to see what is left!

The afternoon of our arrival was good with a cycle trip into Dunoon enduring one heavy shower on the way, a quick coffee stop and then a food top up in Morrisons before cycling back

We had a lovely day visit from Sheila, Niall and Penny the cavapoo. We wanted a picture of Penny for you and unfortunately the only one we got included a less than flattering image of Sheila in the background too. Sorry Sheila:

She'd had no alcohol or mind altering substances that we were aware of, just one of those bad camera moments.  The showery weather continued and Niall had a lovely soaking collecting Penny's bag from their car. We were impressed with the outdoor shop at the marina, a great range of dog food, treats, accessories. Penny did well with a bag of food. We were tempted to some well priced venison that is locally sourced but our freezer was very full so....

The weather cleared up for the evening and the views to the head of the loch improved a lot:

All pretty good really. 

Doing Largs, being sociable and a bit of fixing stuff

Being afloat again was pretty wonderful. Scrubbing the grot off the decks that gets ground in during the time ashore and by the hoist crew on relaunch was less amusing but had to be done.

We walked into Largs a couple of times and were intrigued by this place:

It is the least monastery looking monastery we've ever seen. It looks much more like an old "down on its' luck" hotel building. It is home to some nuns and offers accommodation and a tea room too. Intriguing but not intriguing enough to venture in for coffee.

Largs is an honest old style seaside town and we kind of like it. A nice path along the waterside into town, a good spot for coffee and cake and plenty of interesting visitors wombling about to amuse us. During our stay we had dinner with Lars and Birgit in the marina restaurant and then said bye to them as they headed off to wet their new Rocna anchor again.

We mentioned in an earlier post that it was hard to get a berth there around the lift out. That was because of the "Fifers" regatta going on. The marina was gently filling up with loads of old timber yachts that had been fettled to within an inch of perfection:

What else occupied and amused us? Well, we had a visit from Neil (the owner of Iolair, the berth we were using) and his better half Sarah. They brought along Barney, known as Barney bin Laden. He looks such an innocuous chap:

and indeed was very happy to enjoy lots of cuddles, attention and took great delight in trashing one of Izzy's old toys when on board. We went to the restaurant in the marina, Scotts, for an early supper and Barney was fine until a black dog walked past our table. He was off, a snarling ball of aggression who clearly hadn't figured out that the object of his loathing was a Rottweiler. Luckily a very docile one as the grip on his lead wasn't enough to stop him launching himself across the restaurant to get a grip on the interloper. Neil and Sarah retrieved him and he was as good as gold again, totally ignoring that dog when it walked past on the way out. We see how he got his name.

As the weather was dry(ish) we used the bikes quite a lot for trips into Largs, some shopping and a venture south to Fairlie and then up to Kelburn Castle, only to raid the tea shop though. The Bikemap app suggested a route that avoided the main road. Well, it avoided all roads it seemed and the gravel track ended up at a locked gate. Perhaps they do that to make you pay for the full version of the app? We had to return to the road. Good job we have the G line Brompton bikes that are amazingly capable off road. We would have been carrying the original 16 inch wheel ones that we had before. Interesting place though, have a look at Kelburn weblink for some images of the place and the strangely decorated part of the castle.

Maintenance News:

The misbehaving stern thruster was irritating. It made a nice scream when operated and as it was straight after the relaunch, the guess was trapped air in the tunnel that it runs in. There is a vent pipe with a little valve setup to allow the trapped air to escape but perhaps that was blocked? So, we took the pipe off the bottom of the valve and witnessed one huge burp:

Re-assembled and the thruster tested, all was well. The stern thruster seems to be human-like, way happier after a good burp. We need to take that valve apart sometime to see why it is jammed or just replace it with a ball valve. The pipe finally vents at the top of the transom.