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..... 

Corpach and environs

One of our first jobs before exploring the area was an annoying one. The bimini cover was taken off as some more sporty winds were forecast. Yes, little changes it seems. The south was cooking hot, we were cooler (great) but way soggier (less great). We got all brave and took the local (once an hour) bus into the delights of Fort William. Not for the scenic splendour of the place, mainly as they have a huge Lidl and Morrisons where we can get a bit more than the recent run of Co-op stores offered. Scurvy hadn't set in though.

It rained pretty hard during the morning and the town was a bit empty, understandably. Unfortunately, the best rated spot for coffee was full so we dragged ourselves up the hill to the climbing centre which offers some good coffee, just very very slowly.  That was OK though, we had no desire to rush out into the rain. A walk along the waterfront (liner free this time) then some supermarket shopping followed before the little bus back.

With the promise of a nicer day ahead, the folding bikes were prepared, charged up and we then enjoyed a good towpath ride, alongside the Caledonian canal to the swing bridge at Gairlochy:

At the swingbridge, we watched a couple of boats leave the lock and head through the open bridge:

The hire boat in front was very well fendered indeed but still looked very battered as it went past. One was heading the other way:

Fewer fenders, equally battered. The "Le Boat" cruisers really looked tired, we know that the facilities they have at the base at Laggan are limited but all the same, it seems that maintenance for the hulls and superstructures is minimal to non-existent. 

We then made a tactical error. The crew saw on the website that the Old Pines hotel and restaurant offered drinks and cakes all day. So, we did the couple of miles inland on a nice B road to find that it was locked up and no signs of life. Then a rather gormless girl opened the locked entrance door, went to check and said there was no catering on offer but kindly allowed the crew to use the loo. Very much small hotel in the middle of nowhere in Scotland behaviour! So, disgruntled, we headed back to the towpath and enjoyed the lovely ride back towards Corpach.

There is a good cycle route from there into Fort William so we took that and hit the out of town retail centre for a few more foody bits. All in all a good day on the bikes. 

Naturally the weather gods wanted to change things around and dished up this lovely forecast for us:

with a relatively calm wind strength expected of "light winds or gentle breeze":

However, look at the bottom of the image and it shows 33mph gusts. Er, Mr Met Office how on earth does that work? 

In reality it was more than 33mph for the full day, not just in gusts. Pretty horrible with some heavy showers too and the wind picked up some nice waves across the loch. The visitor berth bit is on the outside of the breakwater and the harbour folks had to close off the spaces that were broadside on to the waves as unsafe. We had the waves on our stern so plenty of slapping noises as they hit under the bathing platform and washed up onto the breakwater pontoon itself.  All the fenders were deployed and one got picked up by the waves and deposited onto the pontoon during the night. Luckily, no damage done, the rest did their job. We had a nice messy weedy hull to clean off the next day where the waves had splashed all sorts over us and the pontoon:

Not a good day, especially as the buses back from Oban were messed up and stopping short of Corpach. We had a nice walk instead.

Things calmed down nicely again though and we enjoyed a last cycle trip, up the Glen Nevis, admiring the Nevis range of mountains and the lovely scenery in general:

That made things seem way better.

Maintenance News:

As it was a year old the genset had a new raw water impeller as a treat. The old one was generally OK, one blade was starting to die though as you can see:

Luckily no big bits had been shed for the captain to fish out of the cooler.  We also replaced a duck bill valve in the vented loop for the master cabin heads. So nice fishing it out knowing what had been trundling through there. Also because reaching it, hidden behind the freezer on the staircase down to the cabins, means getting through a small vent and reaching at full stretch trying not to drop any parts into the big void underneath. No pressure at all.