Escaping Largs - only to Holy Loch though

The Fife yachts had offered plenty of amusement and admiration before they departed for the next stage of their racing. They were delayed by a day thanks to some unseasonably blowy but seasonally wet weather. We had the pleasure of seeing Chico pottering in and out of the marina area:

A 1932 built vessel with serious history. She was a Dunkirk little ship that is available for charter, have a look at Chico website link for more information on her including her time owned by Sir Malcolm Campbell, the speed record guy. Sadly her hull planking looks a bit queer now, obvious signs of it pulling apart with plenty of caulking in place. The annual maintenance tasks must be daunting, we know how much is needed for a GRP boat let alone an elderly wooden one. What the picture cannot give you is the wonderful noise of the two Gardner diesel engines installed in her. Proper piece of history, we hope the owners can keep her going.

So, once the weather had calmed down, we decided that it was time to escape the charms of Largs and venture further. Not that much further really, just up to Holy Loch:

That boring copy of the track from Marine Traffic is rather outshone by this one from Vessel Finder:

It was so lovely to have some bits of blue sky again and gentler winds for the pretty trip north, not warm enough to be on the flybridge but still rather nice:

The boat was behaving well following the out of the water maintenance work as was the new little push button switch on the flybridge throttle/gear controller. An engine check underway, tea and scones, all was well on board:

The (as usual) pretty empty inner arm of the breakwater at Holy Loch was our destination. We wanted to go there to allow us to meet friends who live locally the next day. The marina had been taken over by a group last year (Tingdene) and the expected proliferation of health and safety measures were visible, one big sign and some seriously refurbished facilities. Apart from that not many changes were obvious but the reports from a couple of on-site companies were not at all positive. If we come back it will be interesting to see what is left!

The afternoon of our arrival was good with a cycle trip into Dunoon enduring one heavy shower on the way, a quick coffee stop and then a food top up in Morrisons before cycling back

We had a lovely day visit from Sheila, Niall and Penny the cavapoo. We wanted a picture of Penny for you and unfortunately the only one we got included a less than flattering image of Sheila in the background too. Sorry Sheila:

She'd had no alcohol or mind altering substances that we were aware of, just one of those bad camera moments.  The showery weather continued and Niall had a lovely soaking collecting Penny's bag from their car. We were impressed with the outdoor shop at the marina, a great range of dog food, treats, accessories. Penny did well with a bag of food. We were tempted to some well priced venison that is locally sourced but our freezer was very full so....

The weather cleared up for the evening and the views to the head of the loch improved a lot:

All pretty good really.