Carradale to Bute and a big hike

Waking up in Carradale and gently swinging to the anchor is wonderful. The day started with some sun and gentle breezes again, the views remained as per yesterday. All was good (bar the sickly inverters). So, rather than head around the Mull of Kintyre on what would have been a perfect day to do so, we made some phone calls about Victron issues and troubleshooting and headed back to Port Bannatyne. The good news was that the inverters continued inverting quite happily - we like  a nice 240v supply underway for the fridge / freezer and engine room fans.

Despite all the space around us, the infrequent ferry that goes across to Lochranza on the isle of Arran made us divert a little:

Hardly a problem but it did wake up the helmsman for a while as did the views heading around to Port Bannatyne. We went onto our hammerhead again, trussed the boat up as well as possible considering the length of pontoon and number of cleats. Again, the inverters refused to recognise the 240v input from the shorepower. They haven't just got the hump with the genset it seems. They were duly bypassed and the battery charger used to keep the 24v supply going. It had one drawback - even with no other load on the shorepower, the surge as you switch the battery charger on tended to pop the shorepower breaker on the 16 amp shore supply around two times out of three meaning a walk onto the pontoon to reset it. It was sunny and warm(ish) so not a big deal.

Madness then set in. The following day we walked across the island in glorious sun to Ettrick Bay. En route you get to see the ruined church with an immaculate graveyard attached:

and then you make it to the beach. Wow, Arran in the distance, a few folks and their dogs (and one cat!) enjoying the beach but very quiet and very lovely:

After an average coffee and OK cake in the tearooms there we had to walk back to burn off some of the calories we had imbibed. A proper trip back in time, even the road signs are 1950 / 60's throwbacks:

but very elegant too.

Kames Castle looked impressive in large well kept grounds but the signs at the gatehouse made it abundantly clear that normal mortals were far from welcome there unless they were renting one of the holiday cottages:

We kept walking in case the gamekeeper was out with his shotgun. The views down the hill to the water were good though, you can play spot the Nordhavn again:

 and once more:

After a brief tea stop on board, true madness overtook us and we walked into Rothesay, had coffee and cake at Musiker again and then walked back. The Fitbit addicted crew reported around 26,000 steps. The disinterested captain reported a sore foot (first longer walk in FitFlops this year).

Maintenance news:

The captain did check that the 240v input was reaching the inverters OK, just in case something simple like a fuse or breaker had failed. Life is never that simple (or cheap) it seems. So, a Victron shopping list was compiled and prices sought.