Kerrera to Ardfern

A civilised departure time, no rain and very little wind. What could possibly go wrong? We started out on the flybridge, enjoying the lovely views of the mainland and Kerrera as we threaded our way between them. There are a couple of these old MoD ships on mooring buoys just off Kerrera and we wonder just what they get used for now, if anything. This one was the tidiest:

If you fancy one, there is a nice example for sale on Rightboat at the moment. Quite cheap too. Might be a tad rusty of course and we have no idea how you'd get on sourcing parts for the elderly but lovely Lister Blackstone diesel in the engine room.

We duly headed down towards the narrow, shallow route between the islands of Fladda and Luing just as the rain started. Trying to move inside, cover up the flybridge instruments etc whilst making sure we stayed in the deeper wet bit was amusing - timing of the rain shower was not great. Here is the little island of Fladda from the pilothouse:

and the little tower on the tiny island opposite it:

We managed to avoid the rocky bits but once you are through there, the whirlpools take over big time. The boat gets thrown around quite a lot and you get some great acceleration at times. We were doing 1475 rpm, power for around 6.2 knots when we saw this:

It actually went up to 12.1 knots for a brief time.  We were, in Nordhavn terms, flying. As we headed down the sound of Luing, we were being followed by Capt Rae in Albatross who had popped out from an anchorage in Loch Spelve, also taking advantage of the fair tide. He was heading further south so our tracks diverged as we approached the Corryvreckan area:

We thought it would be nice to get a picture of the mighty Albatross as she was passing the infamous Corryvreckan with the equally infamous Capt Rae at the controls. Only she was too distant for even the zoom lens on the proper camera to picture properly:

She doesn't look as mighty in this picture but it does give you an idea of the scale of the scenery in Scotland and why cruising here is very special indeed.

Here is the route we took, it isn't detailed enough to show the many wriggles caused by the whirlpools in the Sound of Luing:

Naturally, as we approached Ardfern, it started to rain again. We called the Yacht Harbour and they asked us to "stand-by".  Sure enough some folks who were supposed to leave had not so they needed to drag a yacht along the visitor pontoon to make space for us. By then it was really raining. We were so happy, especially as the yachts should have left by mid-day and this was well afterwards. So, we berthed, cuddled up to another yacht as requested only for it, and the one that had to be dragged out of the way, leave soon afterwards. On the South coast of England they would have been chased out / charged extra etc etc. All so much more relaxed and so much nicer here.

We had decided on a berth not anchoring as it was our anniversary and we were going to eat out. The only gig in town, the Galley of Lorne was visited once more. A young lad on his first day was the waiter and he ended up prefacing most visits to the table with "I'm sorry but". Despite that, it was all OK.

We had a full day there and managed a nice waterside walk, down to the Craignish moorings area:

It is a very lovely area. The cinnamon and cranberry scones in the Ardfern shop / cafe aren't bad either.