Craobh to Island of Gigha

06:15 am. Harsh for aged people. Still, it had to be done. The plot was to leave and take the tide  down to the island of Gigha. The wind should be dropping from the " 4 to 5 gusting 6" that was in the shipping forecast by the time we made it so that anchoring overnight would be fine. Then, the following day we had until around 23:00 to get to Bangor in Northern Ireland before the wind and rain set in.

We duly headed off and enjoyed a sunny(ish) trip past Corryvreckan and down to Gigha. In Ardminish bay they have a new pontoon installed. It was totally empty. So, we nosed over towards it but when the depth sounder said that we only had 0.8 metres to spare and we were still about 100 metres away, we turned around and anchored. Yes, the first salt water bath for the new Rocna which duly dug itself in perfectly. As we let out more chain, so the boat drifted back a little and the depth under our keel plummeted to 1.0 metres. Er?? Well, the newest chart we have is on the PC and sure enough, it showed a shallow patch pretty much where we were. The older version in the Furuno plotter didn't have this on it and as we anchored from the flybridge, we were using the plotter....

So, anchor up, move a little, another splash then anchor snubber on and relax.

We were good and even put out the anchor ball on the pulpit too. Our timing had been good - en route we had some 28 knot gusts but they died away just before we anchored and it was pretty calm as you can see. We are not sure if Andrew was peering out of the aft cockpit trying to judge the distance to land and the tide to see if he should swim to freedom. He didn't attempt it though.

We went ashore by RIB and found, in tiny print, on the end of the pontoon, on a notice board, facing the land, a depth chart. Really really useful positioning (not on any website or mentioned on the phone of course). Such a shame, they should be trying to encourage folks to use their nice new pontoon facility. They lost the £20 mooring fee that we would have gladly paid them. Anyway, here it is for other boating folks information:

We were anchored well off the ferry slipway. Depending upon the direction of the tide, the ferry would either pass ahead or astern of us when pottering over to the mainland. Pity that it wasn't prettier though:

Utilitarian is perhaps a better descriptive word. Ashore, we liked the little beach and surrounding area:

The sand is very very white by the way. The timber is thanks to a nice spring tide.

The one island shop was raided and a few purchases made by Andrew and Linda. The one fuel pump on the island had been damaged in the recent storm (see our Dunstaffnage post) and still was not working - after over two weeks. Luckily the island is pretty small so the locals' cars don't need topping up too often. Strange existence.

The church was simple but lovely, some great stained glass in there:

However, the local restaurant had a strange outside sink arrangement:

The plumbing for the water supply was kind of Heath Robinson too, but effective:

We didn't see anyone coming outside to wash the dishes though. Perhaps it was a slow day in the restaurant.

Finally, a little culinary diversion. In the shop in Ardfern (the one that doesn't like debit cards), Andrew bought some bread that was described as "Artisan". Well, this was the most artisan / poserish / self important / up itself loaf that we have ever seen. Get this as the label:

We have to be honest, we were not convinced upon tasting the bread that it was Himalayan pink mountain salt. We think it was the normal white variety. However, the choice in the shop was this or white sliced wonderloaf. Such is life.

Kilmelford to Craobh (another ocean voyage) and some exercise

Just to prove that the weather up here can be kind, here is our evening view in Kilmelford:

The colours were better than that - the Samsung tablet isn't great at colour rendition under low light conditions.

First of all, a little coaster update. The picture of the cute coaster that was loading timber in Loch Aline which we posted recently:

prompted an interesting update on her from Ken, one of the people mad enough to read this stuff. Here is the information:

The little coaster that you mentioned in your recent blog (loading Logs) started life either as MV Edgar Dorman or MV David Dorman.

They were built in Wilhelmshaven, Germany for the shipping company that I worked for at that time.
They were known as the Dorman Sisters.

They have a carrying capacity of 940 Tonnes ( or did have when they were built).

I was at the launch of them .
Nice little ships.

Reading up on them this one was originally the David Dorman, then got called the Deer Sound and now has the unfortunate name of ISIS. Poor ship. Still, her route from Loch Aline suggests that she is not running arms to Syria:

Or perhaps Workington has become a hot-bed of insurgency?

Back to our activities (which are way less interesting of course). We toddled off from Kilmelford after a great couple of days there and managed to stay on the flybridge for the entire, huge, stressful run to Craobh marina.

There we backed into a huge finger berth and managed to look a little lost on it:

After lunch and a quick chat to Sue, the main lady in Craobh, we went to explore the rest of the now slightly depleted Nordhavn fleet here. Due North, the 63 looked as pristine and imposing as ever. Free Spirit the 40 probably needs a bit of a clean up though. From our berth, she looked like most other flybridge 40s:

Closer up she needs a bit of a wash though. We think that she hadn't been out for a while and of course it has been very rainy here recently:

We suggested to Andrew that he might like a project - his 43 is pristine of course. Funnily enough he was not keen. Perhaps the shellfish growing on a fender put him off as he is not keen on seafood at all:

Having decided that keeping our boat sort of clean was hard enough, we ventured off for a little hike across the hill and down to Ardfern. Only 2.5 miles one way but there is a lot of uphill stuff to manage and then (amazingly) a similar amount of down to get you back to sea level again. The path is pretty enough though with some "nature" to admire:

(Perhaps "admire" is a euphemism for "stop and catch breath on the climb?)  We also liked this less natural car that someone had crafted and attached to the rocks. The why question spring to mind again:

We were told that we should go to Lunga House for dinner but that bookings were essential. Having seen the outside, we imagined the prices on the menu and ate on board of course:

Would hate to dip into the Nordhavn 64 fund to pay for dinner.

Over in Ardfern, it was clear that some folks had a similarly low cost approach to sailing:

Not sure how well it would tack or what the RCD rating is for it. (For non boaters, see Recreational craft directive. If you have bothered to read all that European stuff, we are a category "A" boat by the way. Means we should be OK out to sea in conditions that would scare the crew senseless so it isn't much help really!)

After an excellent tea and cake stop we plodded back laden with a few bits of shipping from the Ardfern stores (who amazed us by wanting to charge £1 for a debit card transaction as well as a credit card.) Actually, little about there amazes us really. You just get into a new sense of normal!

Having bought Sue a rather good looking piece of brownie from the most excellent "Crafty Kitchen" (where Linda also managed to leave her posh iPhone) we had to deliver it to the marina office. She seemed pleased about this. Sue - if your husband reads this, we are sorry for letting him know that you had cake that afternoon.

The decision to head off on the following day was made as a big depression was heading over. We had  a 36 hour window in which to travel and being stuck in Craobh whilst the depression moved through was not tempting really. Hence, alarms were set for 06:15.....