Ardfern time and off to Kilmelford

After the most beautiful evening in Ardfern, we were prepared for a blowy day. Sure enough, the forecast wind came in but at least it stayed dry. The yacht on the more exposed hammerhead berth near us was pitching nicely into the waves coming down the loch. We had, on purpose, moored at the top end of the visitor area thinking that would be the best protected out of all the visiting boat spots. We were so right!

One of the historial "must go to" places was Lucy's cafe come bistro, just along the road from the yacht centre. Our memories of excellent coffee, cake etc were fresh in the mind but Lucy's is closed (like most of the hospitality places in the UK it seems) on Monday and Tuesdays. So, we walked to the little shop hoping to find some fresh(ish) produce and decided to just press on a bit further. Good that we did. Lucy's was open, only in the guise of a pop up operation run by a vegan caterer. The wildly named Catchacarrot Vegan Pop up Cafe was in place and open:

It had to be tried out. Since it was kind of lunchtime, a rather good soup and roll was followed by carrot cake (kind of appropriate) and coffee. Oat milk only of course. We were very impressed and rolled back to the boat replenished, replete and happy. 

A day of maintenance followed on. The Captain decided that he needed to look at the engine battery voltage drop issue so that was first on the list, now that we had a replacement isolator switch. Getting to the panel and the batteries means removing the ladder down into the lazarette so that was job 1. The plan was to check the batteries themselves first and then attack the switch panel which looked rather tricky to remove (8 screws, some silicone but a big panel with lots of isolators on it and what must be heavy thick cables for the DC current  running to those switches that would surely make pulling the panel forwards a challenge.  

The gods were smiling - one of the terminals on the engine start batteries was pretty loose. The other three (24 v system so two batteries in series) were not too snug either. A hopeful captain was pretty sure they were loose enough to cause the voltage drop we saw when trying to start the main engine (ie trying to draw lots of power from the batteries). Sure enough, the main engine fired up happily and all was well - no need to tackle the scarily tricky looking switch panel. Result. The little alternator belt was refitted and the wiring to it reattached. All good. However, our opinion of Jim the guy who lugged the big batteries into place and connected them up has taken a dent, No matter, we now have one of these:in our spare parts kit. 

The rest of the day was washing off the accumulated grot and bird poo - poor boat had been neglected and was in dire need of some TLC. After that, Lucy's (only as Lucy's not a vegan pop-up) beckoned. The morning shower and clean up was delayed as some muppets were pressure washing the pontoons. They disconnected our shore power without bothering to tap on the boat and tell us as a courtesy and more importantly to check and see if there was any significant load at the time. Bad. Then they took forever to complete the bit of pontoon - coffee breaks and vaping and phone calls seemed more important than working. When finished they did replug the power but left our 32A to 16A adaptor connection behind the power pedestal all ready to fall or get kicked into the water. Brilliant. They'd also done only half a job of cleaning the mess they made from our hull, fenders and ropes. Cowboys - we think they were hired in rather than Ardfern staff as without exception everyone there has always been professional and friendly.

Slightly delayed we made it to Lucy's only to be disappointed by the coffee (which had been superb two years ago) and the way reduced cake selection:

The gloomy sky in this picture reflected out sadness at the changes - even though we went on a sunny day (this is a stock picture from the internet, the place was very busy on our visit).  Suitably depressed we went to the little shop:

bought some fresh(ish) food and retired. Madness then kicked in as we launched the RIB, washed off a few black streaks from the port side of the hull:

and then cleaned up the very manky tubes of the RIB before putting it back to bed.

The timing for our departure to Kilmelford was dictated by the Dorus Mor. A true tidal gate with fun filled little whirlpools and some nasty sea conditions if the wind is blowing against the fast running stream. This little chartlet shows the area:

and the observant will see the comments about 6 knot tides rising to 8 knots at spring tide times. Yes, we cruise at around 6.4.... Time it right or go backwards. The many sets of double wavy lines give you a hint of how bumpy/confused the water gets with strong eddies causing little whirlpool effects that like to grab 40 tons of boat and spin her around like a toy. So, we timed it for more or less slack water, which meant leaving Ardfern just after lunchtime. It was pretty calm and we managed most of the trip on the flybridge which was so nice for a change. The trip is a simple one bar the Dorus Mor and a few rocks, here is how Marinetraffic recorded our little run:

Interestingly, the folks at Vessel Finder seem to have fewer shore stations picking up and relaying AIS position data as they showed our track this way:

Plenty of the route missing and a couple of nice overland hops too. Still, their chart has way better colours and detail of the land areas! The little three and a half hour trip is through lovely scenery:

except for the horrid fish farm near Craobh haven:

Enough said.

David, the owner at Kilmelford Yacht Haven gave us the details of a mooring buoy we could use which we found without too much trouble. The trouble started for the crew when trying to lift the chain strop attached to it so we could fasten our lines to this fixed chain. Very very heavy chain (designed to hold 50 tons of boat in a good blow) and a load of it. The crew made lots of squeaks and groans when recovering it. You are supposed to pull the chain on board and secure it but because our bow is way way higher than most other boats (and certainly higher than anything else of our size) that is mission impossible. Instead we secured ourselves to the loop at the end of the chain using two lines (just in case one decided to rub through). Gentle winds were forecast so little chance of that but you never know.

The first job (after the crew recovered some strength), was to launch the RIB and head ashore to where Sheila and Niall together with Penny the doglet were waiting. We so needed to collect them as they had also brought dinner. A quick chat to David the yacht haven owner  (he kindly offered to give us a lift into Oban for a supermarket raid on Sunday too) then back on board for celebratory fizz, food and a wonderfully calm and tranquil evening. Just perfect. Penny seemed to agree:

Maintenance news:

We mentioned the engine start battery fix earlier in the post. Apart from that everything seemed to be working OK so no more spannering / topping up / head scratching was needed. That will, of course, come soon.