Campbeltown to Ardfern

Tide times. Such wonderful opportunities they afford us. Since the tides run strongly around the Mull of Kintyre (yes, we know that you are humming the Paul McCartney song in your heads) you have to go with them. An ideal departure time was something silly like 2:30am but we opted not to do that. We gave ourselves another hour before the alarm was due to go. Naturally, you wake up a bit beforehand anyway. A quick prep of the boat for departure, off the berth and out into the loch just as the sun started to rise. This is the view of Island Devaar as we headed out to sea:

In reality, it looked even better, just a glorious start to the day. Shame about the timing after an early start the day before as well,  but at least we were up to witness the sunrise over the water. The route we took was the inshore one as it was very calm. That passes between the Mull of Kintyre and Sanda island. If you are quick, you could buy yourselves a little island to retire to / contemplate the winter storms from / wonder why you've done it:

We were not tempted, although it looked good in the early morning sun. We mentioned how the tides run strongly around the Mull, well, here is some proof:

Yes, 4 knots of help. Now you see why we had to leave Campbeltown early, 6 hours later it would have been working against us. The area to the south of the Mull is always a bit chopped up / confused as the tide rushes over the depth changes in the sea bed. You can see how it changes from the depth contour lines on this chart: 

Once around the Mull things are a bit quieter. The sun was out and the sea was flat. Stabilisers were centered for much of the trip and the view out was gorgeous, blue sky and the Kintyre peninsula / Gigha / Jura / Islay etc. Perfect motorboating weather:

Last time we headed up here, there were lots of dire warnings about bird flu and we saw several dead birds on the water which was most upsetting. This year we saw many more gannets, for some strange reason they seemed to like flying line astern in a formation of 4 birds. Mum, dad and the kids? Or a friendly couple? Apparently they can go hunting in groups but we saw mainly foursomes this time. 

We were happily pottering along enjoying the weather (the south coast was getting a pasting from heavy rain!) and the scenery and wildlife. Few other boats disturbed the view but then Captain Rae (the ex BA flyboy and Frightening fighter pilot who also owns a Nordhavn 47) asked if we were lost. Marinetraffic was repoting our destination as Troon. Strange, as the AIS destination we were transmitting had been left blank since we got to Troon and had been cruising around inside the Mull. It looked like their system was just holding our last broadcast destination. so to keep the concerned Captain Rae happy, we updated it:

We don't like causing unnecessary stress to the elderly you know..... As you head further north, it gets pretty deep in places:

Not much chance of anchoring here in 196 metres of water. You can also see the nice 5.3 knots wind speed. It was so calm. The route once around the Mull is simple enough, just a couple of rocky areas to avoid and one nasty lump just before you get to Ardfern:

Entering loch Craignish (Ardfern is at the top of it) we had another first this year, a proper flybridge trip with gentle hills and blue water all around:

The distorted flybridge wind deflector isn't like that in real life by the way. Ardfern Yacht Centre put us onto the visitor pontoon and we opted to go for the northern end of it, which would be more sheltered in the windier stuff forecast for the next day. Plenty of space and such a beautiful spot, surrounded by green hills with gentle patterns in them, bird noises from the little island nearby and friendly staff here too. The trip had been perfect, one that you remember on miserable days (of which we've had plenty recently). Just under 12 hours from engine on to off and about 85 nautical miles. The only sadness was that Sheila and Niall, who were hoping to join us here, had Norovirus and were not at all well. 

A beautiful day had to be rounded off with a gin on the flybridge, watching the world go by (or to be fair, mainly stay still) around us:

The evening sun was lovely too, giving a different light to the area:

and it just got calmer and calmer too:

Yes, one of those memorable days. we were careful not to overdo the gin so we could still recall things.

After a good catch up on sleep we think we discovered why the two trains were mysteriously cancelled as we tried to get back from Gourock to James Watt dock - we got this email:

So now we know. Funny how they never report cancellations as due to semi-industrial / work to rule action.

Maintenance News

The humans needed maintenance after two early starts, but the big Lugger was fine. We did swap out the polishing fuel filter though as it had already been cleaning up several litres of the stuff and the flow rate had dropped a bit. Annoyingly, you can't fit a vacuum gauge on top of it as there isn't enough space under the little shelf . The dual Racor setup for the main engine primary filters have a lovely Dent gauge fitted in the system that is way better than the  original Racor offering. However, the polishing filter needs one attached to the T handle on top of the filter body and there is no clearance for it. Shame really..