Of to Rhu thanks to the weather (something we haven't had to say for a while)

Although we had planned to spend longer on Bute and go further on the little bikes, the weather forecast was not playing ball. We wanted to head back to Rhu, ready to meet up with friends who would be arriving in a couple of days' time but today was the one remaining nice one. If we left a day later as we had intended, then it was going to be wet and windy. Very windy. So, we opted to enjoy the last lovely day and go early. Shame but we might well be back.

A gentle trip "up north" was enjoyed, Polly and Patrick keeping a close eye on how close to the shore we were going, just in case:

We were being chased by the ferry Ali Cat:

and he decided to pass across our stern and cut really close inshore to avoid the "loop" around us which would have lengthened his run to Gourock. We checked that the navy folks hadn't closed off the channel leading to Rhu for any serious warship movements and pressed on. The crew prepared the lines and fenders:

and we then dropped onto the same hammerhead berth we had used for a couple of nights earlier in the year. The pleasant 4 hour trip looks like this:

so not too tricky. A few porpoises to watch, the paddle steamer Waverley passed us and not much commercial traffic at all.

Also berthed in Rhu was one of the other serious passagemaking motor boats, an FPB. called Grey Wolf. We had seen her a couple of years ago in Tobermory, she gets used for some charter work. Have a read of her sale particulars in this weblink. Here is a borrowed image for you:

You will spot the major advantage over our Nordhavn - no polishing is needed on bare aluminium.

As the afternoon was such a warm and sunny one, we exhumed the bikes once more from the lazarette and cycled into Helensburgh, knowing that the chances of doing that the next day were vanishingly close to zero. No matter, it had been a great day. We were just a bit sad when we took the bimini cover off, preparing for some seriously strong winds coming in.