One huge voyage then into the smoke

So, yet again a wet and blowy forecast. Thursday was promised to be more 40mph gusts and heavy showers. This "summer" keeps on delivering. As Rhu is not an ideal place in weather like that, we opted to head over to James Watt Dock in Greenock. Not because it is a beautiful area. Not because the views from there are stunning. Not because the local town and populace are interesting. No, a way more prosaic rationale - well sheltered and easy access to the train to Glasgow.

A massive 4 nautical mile or so trip was ahead of us so we carefully plotted the course, checked the tide times, battened down everything on board and - well maybe not. However, after getting the boat kind of ready to go, the captain made a fateful comment to the crew, "let's see if the donkey wants to start". Well, it didn't! The electronic throttle / gear control system fired up OK on the first turn of the key but when we went to start it, nothing, just a little clunk. What?? A good look at the starter battery voltage which was fine but fluctuating a bit suggested that the newish batteries were all OK. Watching the voltage when we tried to run the engine over was a different issue - it dropped almost off the scale. Paralleling in the main battery bank the engine started and ran very happily. It looked like the starter battery isolation switch, which had been turned on and off a lot more recently with the battery swap, was playing up and causing a high resistance in the circuit.

The main engine has two alternators, one huge 175 amp 24v thing that powers the domestic and thruster / windlass battery bank and one smaller guy that simply keeps the start batteries going and powers the engine systems when underway. The simple solution for us was to run the boat with the main bank paralleled in - some folks do this all the time. However, we needed to disconnect the smaller engine start battery alternator so it didn't try to take over from the big sister and try to power the entire boat when the engine is running. That would have overloaded it and fried the poor little thing quite quickly. With the wiring connections to that removed and the drive belt off as spinning it  round was pointless, all was well

Annoying little diversion but not really too much of a problem. We left Rhu in grey overcast conditions, kind of getting used to that now! No naval craft to avoid, no RIBs full of men dressed in black waving large guns protecting submarines. Just some boring work boats. The huge route is below:

Arriving into James Watt Dock in light rain of course, we felt honoured as Graeme the manager came out to say hi and show us the allocated spot. Serious service indeed. We were quite shocked to find that we hadn't been here since before covid times.

The miserable weather didn't tempt us to do much or go anywhere that afternoon but the captain did a bit more troubleshooting on the engine power issue. Sure enough, turning the start battery isolation switch on and off a few more times made the voltage drop when trying to engage the starter motor even higher. Things point to a failing isolation switch: 

so a new one was ordered on-line for delivery to Greenock. Although we can happily run the boat using the main alternator and battery bank (several people do that all the time)  having the bits that we think would fix the original issue makes sense. The many isolation switches in the lazarette are all the same  so if the very worst thing happened and the parallel switch failed.... Having options is good.

The showery and blowy Thursday came as predicted so we walked to the sad Cartsdyke (lovely name) station:

We will not share pictures of the road leading up to it, that would put you off ever visiting the area. Suffice to say it has some closed up buildings, a huge taxi garage and workshop with dead and decaying cars scattered around, a bit of wasteland and lots of broken glass.

After the half hour train run into Glasgow central station (a way nicer and more interesting building) we wandered around the city centre then took subway on one of the brand new trains to Kelvinhall. Why? Were we going to the museum there for an injection of culture? Nope, we were going to No 16 Byers road for what we hoped would be another truly excellent lunch. We'd been a couple of times before but that was pre-covid and things change a lot in restaurant world. Well, we are delighted to report that No 16 is still excellent. Have a look at their website link. Small place:

in an area full of Asian cuisine fast(ish) food places. A real oasis of great flavours and friendly service too. 

The following day we cycled into Greenock to raid the big supermarkets, two trips and ironically it rained at the same spot each time. Not too hard but enough to be annoying. Summer? Er? Once we leave the area inside the Mull of Kintyre, such things are a rarity. Although we don't eat out that often, another favourite place had to be tested. So, we took the train to Gourock, braving the walk to Cartsdyke station again. OK, now you get to enjoy it with us, Here is the tidy end of the road with the taxi garage::

The other end of the building has the dead car / parts store. Then as you approach the station there are a couple of nice areas like this. We doubt that the little boat in there is ever going to see the water again. We've seen a couple of burned out cars there in the past so setting fire to a little GRP boat should be easy enough for the local pyromaniacs:

As we said, not something that you really wanted to see, sorry. Waiting on the station platform, two young guys (late teens) walked down onto it, said hello (we were amazed) then proceeded to play fight, kicking and pushing each other about (not surprised at all). A younger couple of lads arrived who watched disapprovingly. The role reversal scene was very amusing but not one we could safely video for you.

Dinner was a huge and very tasty Indian at the Taj Mahal in Gourock. Yes, an uninspired name for the place but the food used to speak for itself. We'd been driven there by Ann and Martin before and reckoned that place did the best ever naan bread. Well, nothing has changed. We staggered back to the train station, suitably full of food but hurried to get the next train. We need not have bothered:

The previous train had also been cancelled so the three platforms at Gourock all had a train sitting in them. The excuse of delayed train crew was an interesting one as there had been no disruption on the line to incoming or connecting trains. Just like in Wales they seem to use a random excuse generator. Funnily enough, the cancelled train then got some crew and left the station totally empty,  We guess it was to make space for an incoming service. The wildlife on our train was as you would expect. As well as two young girls who decided that trying to kick in the door to the toilet compartment was fun, there were some lads with the usual ripe language. However, when a father and his young daughter got on one of them reminded the rest to "mind the swearing". Interesting behaviour.

Back at James Watt Dock marina we were treated to the first still evening in ages with the iconic (and listed) crane showing the industrial heritage of the site:

Maintenance news:

We topped up the steering system hydraulic fluid a little (nice job with a syringe) and then re-pressurised the system. The poor Brompton bikes so needed a clean but didn't get one. We are saving that treat.