Peel to Ardfern

Bearing in mind the lack of water (depth) in Peel harbour, we elected to leave on the top of the tide which meant taking the 11am bridge swing. A very chilled start to the day in comparison to the 4am departure from Holyhead – we even had time to go and raid the little local Co-op store as it is probably the largest food shop we will see for several days now, all being well.

In glorious sun and very little wind we headed out. A small fishing boat was waiting to come into the harbour and motored around right outside the entrance like a terrier waiting to be let off his leash. Well, the harbourmaster did the proper thing and changed our lights to green so we could escape first. (For the non-boating folks, typically outbound traffic has right of way first to clear the channel and harbour space for the incomers!) The local boat seemed rather put out and had to hide up against a wall for a couple of minutes to give us room, studiously avoiding our gaze as we passed him. Yes, not all the idiot boaters are French….

Here is a view of Peel taken the day beforehand – harbour entrance is on the right but this was at low(ish) water. We loved the place.

Out to sea, things were sunny and very calm, a total contrast to a couple of days earlier when the sun was out but so were some strong NW’ly winds. We settled in for the 130 nautical mile run just enjoying being out there. Not a lot to see as the route doesn’t take you too close to any land until you reach the Mull of Kintyre (and that would happen around midnight) so here are impressions of the “freedom feeling” you get whilst toodling along in your own little world:

The Mull of Galloway was a long way off – even on maximum zoom the camera couldn’t pick out too much but the pic gives you an impression of the mist hanging around it and how calm the sea was too:

As we headed up the so called “North Channel” (the narrower bit between the Mull of Galloway and Northern Ireland) our route took us over the deepest part – 270 plus metres of water under us as you can see from the plotter screen:

It also shows you how little wind there was, despite a SE/ S 4 occasionally 5 forecast (it shows 0.2 knots true). Almost dead calm for this part of the trip. Shortly afterwards, the crew got very excited – spotting our first orca. Sadly it was too far off for photographs but we had a good show for a few minutes. We missed Linda (yes, the Welsh lady who gives Patrick a cwtch) who, we are sure, would have squealed in delight quite loudly. The crew attempted to make up for this deficit all on her own though. This is  a stolen pic from the web but pretty much what we saw:

A few porpoises were sighted (and maybe a couple of dolphins too) but none of them wanted to play – as we said last year, the Welsh dolphins are way friendlier. Perhaps the SNP have recruited all dolphin life in their waters to the devolution cause. We might try changing the boat’s port of registry from Fowey to somewhere in Scotland and see if that helps.

Off the Mull of Kintyre (probably only known to foreign readers through the McCartney song and to some UK readers as a name from the shipping forecast when they are awake at silly times) we had an ideal timing to take the strong nearly spring tides north with us. 9.6 knots over the ground for 6.3 through the water. Sadly, as the night progressed, the fog came in so we didn’t get to enjoy the lovely views of Jura etc. Instead, we kept the radar and navigation lights on, right up until we reached Ardfern. Of course, we pitched up at about 8:30 and as strong winds were forecast, decided to go into the marina rather than anchor off for what was promised to be a blustery wet day ahead. No response on the VHF radio or phone from them. We nosed into the marina and the normal visitor spots were all full so we headed out again and prepared to anchor. Luckily someone came on duty just before 9am and we had a temporary spot whilst waiting for “the berthing master” to get in and see which spaces would be free.

All very relaxed here compared to the 24 hours a day "money before you have tied up" Solent lunacy that we have mentioned before. Must be why we came back to Scotland – based on today, it certainly was not for the weather! Pics of the area to follow once the dreich goes – misty, rainy, lovely right now.

Maintenance news for the tekkies: Well, the errant navigation PC, after one initial moment, behaved itself perfectly for the whole trip. Makes diagnosis really amusing... Nothing to report from the engine room during the trip. The new engine mounts are settling in now and so we will need to get the shaft alignment checked and adjusted soon - you can feel a little vibration that should not be there. Might revisit our favorite guys in Kilmelford for that.