Lochranza, coastal walks, warm gensets

Another sunny calm day enticed us out to walk part of the Arran coastal trail. It was well worth it. At the end of the loch, there is a little golf course that had attracted more than people who wanted to bother little white balls:

We wonder if they replace their divots and clean up the piles of poo. Graham and Pat (the house in Samos folks) suggested that the golfers were on a stag party. The general levels of humour in this blog are dropping dramatically now.  On the way back you climb up to around 60 metres (OK Anne, nothing at all, we know) and you get some good views of the loch. Play spot the Nordhavn again:

On the way there is a good spot for an ice-cream break, The Whins where Reg an elderly English guy crafts stone figures and sells Arran ice-cream. Which to choose? Simple on a warm day:

You can play spot the fuzzy Nordhavn in this picture.

As we walked back to the dinghy, we saw a dog looking most captain like sitting alone in a canoe next to the little slipway:

He seemed quite patient but made no attempt to get hold of a paddle. Returning to the boat, you can see how calm it was from the surface of the water and the slack lines attaching us to the buoy:

Maintenance news:

The genset seemed to be running a bit warmer than usual when it was busy battery charging / making hot water for the showers / running the washing machine during the morning. So, the strainer was cleaned out (not very grubby, no signs of extruded jellyfish in there either) and a new impeller fitted. The raw water flow seemed fine.

Running it later, the temperature stopped rising and stabilised but at a higher level than before. Looks like the new thermostat that was fitted recently is a little "warmer" than the old one. This winter we will remove and clean out the tubestack in the heat exchanger just in case.