Campbeltown to Lochranza

Having enjoyed some wonderful weather in Campbletown, Roland's brief company, a Redbay RIB trip and a generally good time, we departed on a very very calm day. The original intention to head around the Mull and "vaguely up north" got binned when we saw the unsettled forecasts ahead. Not windy but a bit soggy. We decided that as we had visitors coming we ought to stay a bit closer to some civilisation just in case the deluges got a bit much.

So, we has a gentle flybridge trip up to Lochranza on the Isle of Arran as below:

Sitting up top, admiring the sticky up bits of Arran (which Anne had some mad desire to climb) and the general lack of other boats was good. This poor picture of the flybridge screen shows you the true wind speed of 1.1 knots! Wow:

Lochranza is either an anchor into lots of kelp and poor holding or pick up the one big (80 Ton) buoy that is mainly intended for the use of the "Alba" fleet of sail training yachts. We stalked them on AIS and decided that none were heading to Lochranza and so if the buoy was free we could use it. So it turned out to be, the gods were smiling on us in many ways, The crew executed an excellent rope through buoy thing with plenty of yotties watching and willing a disaster.

To go ashore, we unveiled the "rubber flubber" rollup Avon dinghy with the tiny Tohatsu outboard for the first time in ages and ventured ashore. The ruined castle sits in a suitably commanding position by the water:

with nice views back up the loch:

One old yacht was very poorly named, it looked more like a lack of dignity for her now:

Another renovation opportunity? In contrast to the friendly smiles and greetings from the locals that we passed, this house made things pretty clear:

For the foreign readers, the SNP are the Scottish Nationalist Party who want an independent Scotland. No idea how they would fund themselves but that doesn't seem important in the general rush around the world to having "self government". No desire to bring up the Brexit mess here though...

The evening gave us great views up the loch of the moored boats and the ferry Catriona which goes across to the Kintyre peninsular:

A truly beautiful spot in calm conditions, the boat seemed happy there too:

And we got to enjoy a stunning sunset to enjoy as well:

All in all one of those days that you recall fondly when sitting with the rain hammering down and the wind trying to break your mooring lines. Might be next week?