Loch Aline to Loch Aline to Dunstaffnage (confusing innit!)

So, Loch Aline's charms were lessened but not destroyed by the fact that the community cafe is closed on a Monday. We were contemplating heading to Kerrera to get the well overdue main engine damper swap completed but found that there was no space for us on the island. A great shame as we fancied trying some of their home reared meat again but so be it. We also contemplated staying in Loch Aline and testing out the famous White House restaurant which is under new ownership (and being seriously refurbished - we watched the guys renewing the slates on the roof). However, the moorings here were already booked. Wow, must be some hint of a proper summer coming!

First of all, we waved bye to the most hospitable and friendly crew of Mac Sea as they headed for Salen and a crew swap:

We acted as a photo boat knowing how hard it is to get pictures of your own craft underway.

The "heading south" decision meant that we really wanted to raid the supermarkets in Oban before venturing further as there is little (no Co-op even) until you get to Campbeltown inside the Mull of Kintyre or over to Norn Iron. As the "transit marina" in Oban looked manic on Marinetraffic we opted to brave the previously chaotic Dunstaffnage place. Mad? Well, maybe but the lure of Tesco, M&S, Aldi etc was hard to resist. We called them, they rang back and gave us a hammerhead berth for a couple of nights.  We have been here before with them, when the place was under earlier management so we were unconvinced tha twe would find an empty slot but so be it.....

The biggest challenge was that the tide times were against us. Low water was around mid-day so we needed to wait a while after that to leave the loch. It gets pretty shallow. So, we headed up to the top of the loch and anchored up:

 

Plenty of room until some idiot in a yacht decided to join us and anchor right nearby. Why oh why when there is so much space??? No matter, we had a chilled lunch, did a bit of boring admin stuff (still a good EE 4G signal) and relaxed. Then  it was deemed deep enough to head off at a time to make sure we avoided the little ferry that shuttles over to the island of Mull. The route is simple:

Saying bye to Loch Aline:

We headed down the Sound of Mull and then across to Dunstaffnage. A few yachts to avoid and a nice bumpy area passing south of Lismore Island thanks to the tide and wind being against each other. Yes, it was still blowy, the story of this season so far....

When we arrived in Dunstaffnage, we were amazed and happy to find the allocated berth free. This is a first. Maybe the new management are making a difference? That evening we witnessed the offspring of the rich, privileged and famous arriving for their little sailing trip. Yes, the Gordonstoun school kids were off on a bunch of yachts, some of which were cheapo Bavaria things. We guess that the kids found them a little bit primitive and poorly built compared to daddy's superyacht. Here in the evening gloom are a few of the fleet:

with a  few special offspring in view. Actually they didn't behave that "specially" - they just sat on deck glued to their smartphones like kids from any other social background seem to. Maybe the smartphone is the ultimate social leveller?

The following day we exhumed the Brompton bikes, pumped up the tyres and cycled along the "national cycle route" into Oban. 

The blue route is the cycle track, the grey one is along the main road which was not tempting. The blue "track" is well paved but has some wonderfully steep bits that they warn you about on signs at the start of the trail. The Bromptons just sniffed at them on the second level of motor assistance (out of three). In Oban we fortified ourselves with coffee and cake from the Oban Chocolate Company (had to be done) then we raided Tesco for fresh food. Everything is relative of course, the "best before" dates were way closer than you would be used to in larger or more southern towns but way better then the little Co-op stores that we have frequented recently.

The ride back was fine, with one hill needing the full "level 3" assistance. We do love the electric Bromptons!

As Kerrera was busy we opted to use the impressive Ardfern engineer man to do the damper swap for us. The very helpful lady arranged a berth for us, asked us questions on behalf of the engineer (a proper old school time served guy that we met earlier in the year) and so we planned to head back there. However, first of all we had the opportunity to catch up with Keith and Ingrid (more Norn Iron folks) who have been unlucky enough to appear in this blog before. Keith had a new to him yacht which we hadn't seen yet and they were going to spend time in the transit marina in Oban so... We walked the cycle track into town, joined them for tea and cake on board and a big catch up and then wandered to Mr Tesco for the final few bits. We have failed to mention the important crew member they have on board. Bailey is a very well behaved / trained cutie:

if a bit tired sometimes. All in all a most sociable day.

Maintenance news:

One benefit of Dunstaffnage was the oil disposal opportunity which we took advantage of. The captain also had been running our backup autopilot and pump on the last couple of trips and it was clear that the settings were not coping with nasty whirlpool bits as well as the main one had. So, the settings got compared and then tinkered with. For the tekkies, we have the original Simrad AP25 pilots fitted when the boat was built - two of them with their own hydraulic pumps. They still work really well. You simply re-plug the control heads in the pilothouse / flybridge via one multiplug connector to swap between them.