As a nice big depression was scooting in from the Atlantic, we decided to move to somewhere with a little more to offer than Portavadie. 3 days there in the rain and wind would have been nice but..
Rant of the day - the Portavadie marina proudly advertises free WIFI access in all its literature, website etc. We thought that we should update the blog for our avid if somewhat sad readers and do some tedious admin stuff. No data via the phone here. So, we asked the charming helpful girls in the office for the WIFI password. "You can buy access to the marina system or go to the lodge restaurant where there is free WIFI if you buy a coffee or something". A whole new definition of the word free.
Being chilled, we didn't say too much but wandered over, ordered the coffee and got the WIFI code. Except it didn't work. The very charming helpful waitress said "I'm very sorry, lots of people have problems with it, I will reboot the router and see if that helps". Clearly, she had learned a lot about wireless routers as a waitress there....
Of course, it didn't help - she said "I hope they change it soon, lots of people complain". So we ended up with no "free" WIFI that cost us £4.80 for two coffees. Saving grace; it was nice coffee albeit small.
Patrick wasn't amused though.....
The trip around the Kyles to Port Bannatyne was typical Scotland. Typical scenery (lovely), volumes of other boat traffic (one motor cruiser, about 10 yachts) and weather (changing from sunshine to threatening lack clouds and back again within 30 minutes).
Port Bannatyne is quite amazing. Family built and run, it is a small marina which we had to wriggle our way into. Literally. No manoeuvering space here. The welcome was amazing and well worth the wriggling. The local boat owners helped us tie up. Liz in the office gave us everything we needed to know about the island and said that Norman and Julie could park their motorhome in the car park here for free when they visited, use the facilities but sorry there was no electricity hook up available for them!! Kind of makes many camp sites seem overpriced and hostile.
It took us over an hour to move from the office back to the boat again. We were approached and questioned by the local marine engineer who knew another Nordhavn 47 owner, a university professor from Glasgow who offered more local knowledge and his views on the universe, other boat owners on the pontoon who wanted to chat and learn about "the big boat" (and Patrick who was peering out of the window) and then finally a Nordhavn dreamer.
Nordhavn dreamers - now that is a story on it's own. There is a Yahoo group dedicated to people who aspire to owning one and they use it to learn about trawler yachts and Nordhavn life in general. For a damp day:
http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/NordhavnDreamers
They even have their own logo - seriously focussed people!
This guy said that he had seen pictures of us taken in Falmouth and Bangor en route. See, you folks are not the only stalkers out there....
Norman and Julie called to say that they would pop over to Bute in their brand new motorhome to say hi and then, unexpectedly, arrived during the evening. Wine and stories of the lying bastard salesman from hell who made the motorhome procurement process a nightmare kept us busy until the small hours.... More of that later.
