Tarbert to Ardrossan

It was still soggy but time to move on. A soggy Sunday lunchtime had been happily spent watching a rather good grand prix race rather then hiking to the very remote hotel in the rain. A soggy Monday was spent cleaning up in the engine room. the big Lugger and floor area were treated to a "good gunking" and general clean out. Another annual fun task. After about 4 hours in there, you don't notice the Gunk smell any more which helps finish the job. It also probably means it is time to come out and breathe fresh air for a while.

After the day of hard labour, and with a nice residual whiff of Gunk that the shower just failed to completely remove, we decided that it was going to be a bit blowy for an overnight anchorage (the wind direction was going to change by nearly 180 degrees overnight, making selection of a sheltered spot a bit difficult. Instead, we opted to hit the delights (there are few) of Ardrossan. We'd never been there before but it has a big Asda store in staggering distance from the moorings and a train service to Glasgow about 4 minutes walk away.

The trip was very smooth but a bit misty and wet. No pictures of grey islands like Bute, Arran and Cumbrae against a grey sea for you as they don't do justice to the majestic scenery around here. A couple of porpoises lazily headed past but didn't come to say hello. We are used to being snubbed by Scottish sea life though (and the odd harbour person) so no surprise there. Look forward to being back in Welsh waters!

We still get amazed at how deep the water is though, even close in to the islands. Here we had 100 metres under us (the plotter depth is adjusted to show water below our keel) and if you look carefully there is over 150m nearby:

The 6 knots of wind only made little ripples on the surface of the sea. Way less than the forecast which was way less than the 6/7 that has become "normal" up here this year :

No dolphins,  just a couple of porpoises who felt obliged to ignore us totally.  We will resist our usual SNP comments here.... After a gentle but grey run,  we pottered into the harbour, through the narrow entrance to Clyde Marina (30 foot wide) and onto a huge hammerhead berth. As expected, not the loveliest of settings but for our plan (shopping, polishing if dry, train to Glasgow) a good spot. There is also the Webasto dealer for Scotland and Cumbria here and we will get them to look at the heater fuel pressure / delivery as it still seems to be unhappy,  noisier than before and burning too rich. If you remember our earlier moan, the Osmotech folks who were meant to check this in April didn't have any kit to do so..... So much for "dealer training and special tools". However, the Boatcare guys seem to have a good reputation so we will pop in and see!