Oban, Kerrera and down to Ardfern

Whilst avoiding the rain and wind, we took the little local bus (which was always fashionably late of course) into Oban and raided the supermarkets, the Oban chocolate company and one excellent fish and chip shop. Yes, the Oban fish and chip shop (website link is here ) is pretty good, commended by no other than Rick Stein himself. We had a great lunch there.

Planning to head a bit further south we saw two very settled days and thought of going back around the Mull of Kintyre early. Then, a chance check on the Kerrera website revealed that we could have one night there. It was quickly booked as was a table in the Waypoint restaurant, have a look at this weblink 

The building and innards are nothing special:

but there are great views across to Oban. We visited a couple of years ago and were blown away by the quality of the food and the friendly service, so being able to go again was a huge bonus.

To quote Keith who ate there whilst we were in Dunstaffnage,  "Kerrera chocolate whiskey panna cotta was ball tingling". Enough said. Maybe they had chilli in it?

We left Dunstaffnage to take the little bit of tide south with us for the short run into Oban bay and the stop at Kerrera. Lovely day again, once more on the flybridge enjoying the views (just not the huge ugly fish farm you have to pass).  Our timing was perfect, we didn't have to wait for any departing or arriving ferries in the narrow north channel:

The weather was more than kind, another flybridge trip:

Here is the little light tower at the entrance to Oban Bay:

and the town itself:

Yes, those two pictures were taken only a couple of minutes apart - plenty of cloud over the mainland but a sunny Kerrera island beckoned. We had a short wander on the island, contemplated buying some venison and juniper burgers from the little farm shop but resisted then headed back on board. 

There were some interesting craft anchored / moored in the bay:

especially Florette:

who is already over 100 years old.

Some of the views across the island are lovely, if a bit spoiled by the camera totally flattening the perspective:

In the boatyard area, we had a real "blast from the past" moment, seeing a Broom 37 on the hardstanding. We had and loved one of them for many years:

Dinner was in the rather good Waypoint restaurant - the waitress told us about the specials and mentioned that there were only two fillet steaks left. Well, the crew jumped in for one so the captain had to follow. A really good evening, great food, friendly folks. The owner, Tim recognised us from a couple of years ago and came up for a chat. He has just bought a yacht and is taking part in the West Highland week races. They had sailed (mainly drifted!) to Craobh then got collected by fast RIB to come back for the night and help out in the restaurant / marina. The couple who own the place really work hard and deserve to succeed. 

Our trundle south continued the next day, leaving Kerrera around noon to take the start of the tide south with us. Again a nice sunny day so a flybridge job all the way. We are beginning to expect this - dangerous optimism we know. Moored off Kerrera are a couple of old naval craft, looking a little worse for wear:

Why the little blue trip boat decided to show it to the visitors on board was a bit beyond us, perhaps it was to show off the seals basking on the rock (hard to make out in this picture)

Cricklade, another old naval tender, looked a bit smarter:

As you head south, you pass the Kerrera ferry - this strange little outboard motor powered thing which on Saturday was not running for whatever reason. The passenger ferry run by the marina to Oban was ultra-busy ferrying day trippers and locals around:

You do wonder why (apart from initial cost) Calmac and the government would commission something propelled by petrol outboards with the kind of duty cycle that ferry gets. There again, they commissioned the ill fated Glen Sannox and her sister..... If you aren't familiar with that mess, read this Wikipedia article weblink and try not to get too upset at how public money was and is being spent.

Further down the island, you get some nasty rocks marked by this little guy:

and then you reach the end / southern tip of Kerrera, as did the little trip boat who took a couple of detours to show the passengers a seal and porpoise that were languidly surfacing and diving. Still no dolphins since the Irish sea though:

Here is the route, you pick up some swell from the Atlantic as you lose the shelter from the Isle of Mull:

We actually used the stabilisers for a while, their first exercise in ages as the crew objected to the roll that was magnified because we were sitting up top. Heading down the sound of Luing we hit 11.6 knots speed over the ground (through the water was 6.2) A nice shove to help us along and through the whirlpool areas where we got spun around nicely. As we headed to the Dorus Mor we could see one of the fleets of the West Highland Week yacht racers in the far distance. This poor picture gives you a hint as to why we didn't want to get involved in threading our way through them:

Not many of them were (understandably)  bothering to use AIS for the race as marinetraffic showed:

The final run up Loch Craignish was lovely, wind behind us, sun out, a couple of yachts drifting slowly in the light airs. The main engine got a wide open throttle run to help clear out all the oily and sooty bits then we stopped at Ardfern, a favourite pretty location. Sitting on the flybridge in the sun, watching the antics of boats arriving and departing, drinking tea (yes, just tea) and generally absorbing the atmosphere. Great day and a lovely evening too: 

Maintenance news:

Nothing exciting to report, we gave the main engine about a half litre of oil as a top up though, that should see us through to the winter oil change. The Lugger / Deere really does not burn much at all. 1/2 litre in 110 hours  (around 1000 litres of fuel burned) is well within specification. According to the Deere information, we need to worry if we start burning around a litre of oil per 380 litres of fuel used.