Trooning then up to Largs

Being in Troon at the same time as Robert and Deborah was a treat. Especially as Deborah gave the crew a lift back from the local Morrisons supermarket with our provisions. That saved so much arm ache. We happily joined them for dinner on their yacht, then wandered around Troon the following day in what can only be described as "chilly" conditions. Still, it was a good wander around the seafront and promenade and that was an excuse for coffee and soup (yes, soup in mid-June) on the way back. We fed and watered Robert and Deborah, then prepared the boat for a little run up to Largs ready for our lift out. 

Leaving the berth was fun, we were stern on to quite a strong breeze and we had to spin the boat round by 180 degrees to depart, in a fairway not much wider than the boat is long. The captain decided that on this occasion, the thrusters would be called upon for help. At least it was lovely and sunny, so you get a little lifeboat image as it is traditional, if a little out of focus this time for some reason:

The gentle aroma of timber had grown over the weekend, several more truckloads had arrived: 

We headed up to Largs, with a pretty strong breeze on the nose so initially we reduced speed a bit to avoid throwing up spray in the short steep little waves. The further we got, the better the shelter and so we could go back to our usual manically fast 6.4 knots or so. We passed our first little castle:

and on approach to Largs were told that the berth we had been allocated was still occupied (it should not have been) and we were given an alternative. We think the owner of a little Bavaria yacht was blind or just unobservant - as we were approaching he just headed out, turning into the middle of the channel. Alex caught this on the marina webcam:

Things were a lot closer than they look in that webcam image! We hit reverse, the yacht suddenly saw us and cleared out of the way:

The trip took nearly three hours, normally it would be less but we were running a bit slower for the first little bit and  pushing into the wind and tide for the whole time which of course drops our speed a bit too:

It was lovely to see the islands, a Calmac ferry and very little traffic. Welcome back to Scotland indeed.

The afternoon involved digging out the little bikes which had been unused in Norn Iron thanks to the weather and the crew's trip back to England. There is a lovely cycle / walking path to Largs which we took advantage of. Then we were proper tourists - sitting on the seafront with a coffee and doughnut, although the crew seemed reluctant to admit to this, wanting the captain to take pictures of the view across to Great Cumbrae island instead.:

This is why the captain didn't want to take the picture. In reality it was lovely, but flattened by a phone camera and taken into the sun, very very boring and ordinary:

The following day we had another bike trip - initially into Largs town then back to the marina and south to Fairlie. We won't bother to go there again. The pencil is a strange monument: 

and here is why:

The day looked up when we had a visit from Neil, the man who developed and produced the new electrical meters in our distribution panel that we fitted and reported on last year. His Nordhavn 40, Iolair was visible from our berth:

and it was great to be able to meet in person, instead of just by phone or video call. The rest of the day was spent doing a little bit of prep work for the impending lift out and hard labour. Enough said. We did enjoy the lovely sunset too though: