Why not? Well the weather up here has been pretty grim for most of the summer. No heatwaves, melting roads and buckled railway lines so there is an upside of course. We used our extended stay here to do a bit more boat polishing between showers - finishing off the hull and some more superstructure. We were fed one evening by David and Caroline at their house. We went into Belfast (not to see the fighting girls, we add hastily) and helped the local economy by stocking up the larder and freezer. Sadly, we have to report yet again that the local Bangor clocks are still mainly broken. Time does stand still here.
It was time to move on, just the weather didn't want us to - lots of blowy stuff forecast. The big decision was where to head for - east or west of the Mull of Kintyre? To help you, the Mull is at the end of the bit with Campbeltown on it!
Since we'd spent far longer than planned in Bangor (knee inspired), we figured that going "well up north" wasn't on for this year - time and the weather were against us. So, heading east into the relatively sheltered waters around the isles of Arran and Bute became the plan. See how flexible / chilled we retired folks are?
Flexible and chilled were not our first thoughts when the alarm went off at 4:15am. Still, if you want to catch the tides.... One benefit was leaving a very quiet and calm Bangor and being greeted with a lovely sunrise, only the ugly Celebrity cruiseliner spoiled the view:
As it headed up to Belfast, a Stena ferry joined the act:
Still, it means you get two nice sunrise views to enjoy.
We had to divert around a tug and drilling rig that were heading up the coast and for once, we could overtake a commercial ship - our 6.5 knots over the ground felt fast compared to their 2.4. Wow. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, the Mull of Kintyre area was not too bumpy and as it looked a bit grey, no pictures here. The Ailsa Craig was equally a grey mound in the distance so no pictures either. However, Davaar island at the entrance to Campbeltown loch was impressive:
even if the picture isn't quite horizontal. Sorry, must have been excitement or tiredness from the 4:15am start. Here is the little lighthouse on the island to add to our ever expanding but totally pointless lighthouse picture collection:
Kind of cute as lighthouses go though.
When you approach the town, you can see that the timber business is still important here:
Although the 3 distilleries are more interesting perhaps. The pontoon moorings were extended recently and so there was space for us - we even had this lovely converted MFV come and berth opposite:
Pity that the captain wasn't as nice as his boat. Two of us went out to help with the mooring lines and all he could do was bark out orders. The "thank you" phrase clearly isn't in his vocabulary or doesn't get exercised that often if it is. Think the nice boat deserves a nicer captain.
Later on he fuelled up from the fishing quay opposite. It reminded us of our fuel spot in St Sampsons (Guernsey) when we also have a road tanker delivery:
Two significant differences though - in St Sampsons the quayside and pontoon are old and decrepit and the fuel is way cheaper. For the latter, we put up with the former of course.
Campbeltown loch is a lovely area, spoilt only by the warship fuelling jetty which we have decided not to picture as it is too ugly. Interestingly, the fuel base looked as though it gets used once in the proverbial blue moon. The pipework was going nice and rusty and the only real sign that it was a military refuelling establishment was a "Heightened awareness" sign outside about the risk levels. There was still only a piece of chain across the jetty entrance and no nice men waving guns around to protect the storage area. There were at least 7 people working (or perhaps sleeping) there based on the car park. No idea what they do, clearly it isn't painting!
A walk around the Loch is well worthwhile:
Maintenance news:
It was time to treat the big Lugger to a new air filter. Here is the old one and they are a big and relatively expensive canister device. This is a Northern Lights / Lugger specific part with special air inlet sound deadening - sadly you cannot pick up a nice cheap John Deere part from a tractor dealer although one did try hard to find a suitable filter for us once:
The filter had about 400 hours use (change time is 600 or 1 year). The dust around the intake had built up in about 40 hours running since the casing was last cleaned. No idea where all that stuff comes from or why it is always grey. Perhaps not knowing is a good thing.
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