Bangor to Craobh Haven

Leaving Bangor is hard. Such a friendly place (locals, marina staff, even David the mooring assistance man). The trip up north beckoned though and as the wind calmed down, we felt obliged to go. Timing it is interesting. You really want to take the tide with you around the Mull of Kintyre where it runs quite strongly and as we would be travelling with spring tides that made it even more important. Then, there is a tidal gate at the Dorus Mor where you really want to be going through when it is fairly slack but turning to run with you. That is many hours cruising from the Mull of course. Then you want to do the usual departure and arrival in daylight.

That worked out as a late evening departure from Bangor. Where to go? Well, we fancied a couple of days in Kilmelford, where the folks had been so kind to us 3 years ago when we had to leave the boat to travel south unexpectedly. A little reminder of the area:

Their moorings were full though! Horror. Apparently not all of them have been checked yet this year so space was tight. David the owner sounded very apologetic on the phone. So, we planned Craobh Haven instead for a couple of nights so we could do some walking.

Departing a little before the optimum time for tidal help, but whilst we could see, we headed north. Of course, there are not too many really dark hours in these latitudes at this time of the year. As it was almost a full moon with no cloud that made the "dark" hours lighter too. A great trip was ahead, except that the fog decided to set in around the Mull of Kintyre and stay with us as dawn arrived. At least the tide was kind, zipping (it is all relative after all) us north at 9 knots.

The pesky fog finally cleared enough to take a few pictures just as we were approaching Gigha:

And for those who like to orientate themselves:

Then it was simply stunning. Calm, sunny, spectacular again:

The run up the Sound of Jura towards Corryvreckan is always special. Glorious scenery on both sides (fog permitting of course) and that feeling that you are approaching "proper Scotland" somehow:

Even if this is looking backwards to the less hilly bit. As it was nice and calm (and pretty much slack water time) Corryvreckan looked tame:

Patrick was a bit scared after reading the pilotbook information on the infamous race and whirlpools though - he grabbed the follow up lever and insisted on steering:

(For the non-boating folks, this little lever lets you move the rudder around by fingertip control, using the autopilot hydraulic pump - much less effort than twirling the steering wheel about.)

Unfortunately the proliferation of fish farms hasn't stopped. They still make such a beautiful and, of course, fish friendly addition to the landscape:

We pottered into Craobh to find lots of empty space. In fact we were encouraged to stay for the whole summer! Amazingly the sad broken pontoon that we were on a couple of years ago has become a new nice pontoon. The electrics were still grim though - only one of the four plugs could be used, the others were nicely corroded and refused the amorous advances of our shorepower connector quite firmly.

The view from the pilothouse was suitable though - Due North a lovely Nordhavn 63 was ahead of us:

Numbers:

Well, the trip is 97 nautical miles and took around 17 hours at 1450rpm. We could have cut the journey time and used the tides a bit more successfully if we'd left Bangor in the dark but there are a few buoy markers around in the Lough so we opted to burn a bit more fuel and take a little longer. Wildlife - plenty of interesting birdlife and one dolphin that the crew spotted as we came out of the foggy bit. Being a Scottish dolphin, he didn't come to play though. The Welsh ones are still our favourites.

No maintenance news to report. We gave the little Lugger wing engine its normal run towards the end of the journey and it seemed pretty happy too, just like us.