The last car in town – and out of it

Andrew and Linda needed to head back ready for something called work (what??) on August 5^th so based on the longer term forecast, we decided to hang around in Dunstaffnage for a few days and explore by car. Small issue, you have to get one first and Oban is not over-endowed with hire cars as we found out last year. An on-line booking with Sixt got a response the following day to say “no wheels left”. Hopeless process.  A call to the local ex-Fiat dealer revealed that there was one rental car left in the one horse town – so an automatic Ford Focus it was… 

First of all, we had a critical taste test over breakfast. We had bought some Lemon Curd in Aldi ready for our guests’ arrival (yes, again strange, but they seem to like lemon curd on toast for breakfast – perhaps it is a Welsh thing?) As the pot rapidly emptied they became concerned about a global shortage and bought some of Mr Tesco’s “Finest”. So, we held the great breakfast blind taste test:

Andrew’s face says it all – this was taken most seriously:

Bad news Mr Tesco – Linda says that your Finest is beaten by Aldi. Another blow to their share price perhaps?

After collecting the (aged but tidy) rental car we did a little exploring. Lynn of Morven and the castle looked good from the shore:

In Mallaig they were repairing an old wooden fishing boat on the slipway. Amazing to see that it is still worthwhile keeping them going:

But it was great to see the traditional boatbuilding skills in use like caulking between the planks:

It reminded the captain of his youth (yes, once he was young and had hair) watching the guys (and his relatives) working on wooden boats at boatyards on the Norfolk Broads.

Morar was a favourite spot. The beach area was simply lovely with a few people camping, lots of happy dogs and chilled folk:

Andrew got all brave and tested the water temperature – chilly.  Surprisingly it was fresh water too, probably until the tide comes in next. We chatted to a group who had a troop of BIG dogs and puppies that were enjoying themselves too. Just loved the comment from an 11 year old boy “When are we going camping at Morar dad because that is my happy place?” Wow, a happy 11 year old with no internet connectivity or phone signal. Times must be changing. Linda and the crew seemed to enjoy themselves in a blown about sort of way. Andrew looked on:

Apparently we are going to be in trouble for publishing this picture. You can probably judge who it was that made the threat.

The same person had a small moment the next morning. We had to change berths in the marina and we moved off just as Linda (whoops, gave it away there) was partaking of the forward facilities. The bow thruster is mounted directly beneath this and when it started up unexpectedly, Linda thought she was in deep bodily trouble. Enough said.

The second trip saw us visiting Ben Cruachan hydro power station (a big cavern deep in the mountain, look at Visitor centre website), Inverary and sampling Crinan, the sea lock entrance to the Crinan Canal. We had been warned that we would probably struggle going through there, despite the published maximum dimensions which are way bigger than our Nordhavn. Seeing some of the turns and narrow canal sections, we will not be traversing the canal unless it is in someone else’s boat…

The sea lock:

And the mooring basin:

And the view across to Corryvreckan / Dorus Mor:

The final car trip was by the cable car that runs up the Nevis range:

The cloud had lifted and we enjoyed a trip up to the top and then a walk around with spectacular views across the mountains and back to Corpach and Loch Linnhe:

As you can see, it was nice and warm up there so Linda broke out her Lands End bobble hat, causing a bit of a stampede for them and hence a major fashion mistake by the Berghaus triplets:

All in all well worth having the car even if it was a slow one that struggled with the hills a little.

Andrew and Linda enjoyed a full baby Scotrail train to Glasgow and then a heavily disrupted further trip south en route to Weymouth on Saturday arriving very late indeed. We enjoyed some shopping, rental car return and then rain – lots of it. Normal Scottish service was being resumed….

Maintenance news:

Yup, there is some.  A while ago, John (the man with those knees) had an unfortunate moment that involved a post shower foot drying escapade and the toilet seat in the forward heads. The full story would embarrass him too much (and cause Tina to bend his ear a touch) and so we will summarise it by saying the end result was a rather broken toilet seat. The captain had tried an emergency repair with some epoxy adhesive that lasted a while. However, a replacement was needed.

Of course, it isn’t a standard size. It is slightly smaller than a domestic unit but way way bigger than the typical marine toilet fitted to most boats. The second piece of happy news was that the seat fixings require access to the back of the toilet pan and that is both bolted to a plinth and then silicone sealed in place. Removing the copious amounts of sealant and then re-doing it so it looked good were not appealing jobs.

Andrew, his internet link and ingenuity came to the rescue. He found a suitable seat on-line, modified it to use blind fixings and then brought it all the way from Weymouth to Oban by train. Truly service above and beyond the call of duty (or maybe because they wanted a pristine seat for their stay on board?) We know that train toilets are not the nicest things in the world, but bringing your own seat along has to be a first.

After paying the Scottish seat import duty at Glasgow (we think he was ripped off, that tax comes in after a yes vote to independence), Andrew then fitted the rather swish replacement during our Caledonian canal time. No pictures – not a terribly savoury topic. John (the knees) is visiting in September and so we will train him carefully in the love and care of toilet seats before allowing him loose on the high tech soft close device now resplendent in the forward heads…..

The captain and Andrew changed the genset oil as it had run about 130 hours since the April change. The book says 200 hours but oil is cheap(ish) and the genset has lots of start / stop stuff. The locks in the Caly canal took their toll on the fenders of course and although they all survived, the post side set got nicely scuffed and will need replacing next year. We had considered doing that whilst on the Hamble river in April but resisted / forgot. So glad we did!

We also cleaned up the engine room blower that keeps the bottom of the dry exhaust trunking cool. David, (Stephen the trolley shopper and shooting man’s friend) had mentioned that air conditioning cleaner should help get the accumulated grot off the fan blades. We improvised with rag, wire and electrical contact cleaner spray and it seemed to work. Should the fan explode during our next trip, we will let you know.