Days 16 and 17

What’s the story in Balamory?  

We are still weather bound in Tobermory unfortunately and will likely be here until Thursday morning.  

The majority of readers will no doubt have been sweltering in the heat for the last few days.  Well we are not in the Western Isles.  It is overcast, rainy and cold in the wind.  The wind speeds are gusting up to 30 mph, Force 7.  That isn’t in itself a problem for us but simultaneously the winds have been creating sea states in the area we want to go to of Rough to Very Rough at times.  By the Douglas scale that is 4 to 6+ meter waves.  Whilst you can sail in this if you are caught out in it, you don’t choose to go out if you don’t have to.  

Today and tomorrow are forecast to be as bad and we are watching a procession of boats arriving here today, as we know some of the smaller marinas are closing this morning and asking boats to go elsewhere.

The good news is the forecast from Thursday looks very favourable for some time to come.

Tobermory’s version of the heatwave

The reason why we’re still here

Day 15

 We departed from Oban at 12.45 pm bound for Tobermory.  It is a straight forward 28 mile run to Tobermoray across the Firth of Loren, the mouth of Loch Linnie and up the Sound of Mull.  You pass through a narrow channel at Sloc A Bhrighide that is lit by 2 light houses at night but navigating in daylight is straight forward.

We started on full sail in a Force 4/5 Southerly and touched 8.2 knots through the water, the quickest yet and close to the maximum boat speed.  However this run is notorious for swirling winds.  As we got into the Sound we were firstly completely becalmed, then the wind shifted around  and around, stopping for a short time on the opposite tack, Northerly!  

The almanac says you can have 2 sailing yachts in this stretch sailing towards each other on the same tack.  This should be impossible but we did experience it albeit briefly.

We arrived in Tobermoray around 6 pm.  The weather is poor and wet, whilst the rest of the country, including the rest of Scotland is in a heatwave.  The lighter nights have been very noticeable in Tobermory,  It was really usable daylight until 11.30 pm tonight, impressive given the grey cloud cover.

Nick takes us past Sloc A Bhrighide

Paul gets friendly with the Fishnish to Lochaline Ferry

Tobermoray at 10.45 pm

Day 14

To leave Crinan and head North you have either go a long way South before turning North. Or you head East out into the Sound of Jura to navigate a tight tidal race called the Dorus Mor.  In Spring Tide this race, with whirlpools and eddys, can run at speeds of 8 knots.  The typical speed of a sailing yacht is 6 to 7 knots, so you can’t get through, and worse can lose steering in the narrow channel with rocks beckoning.  So respect and care is required.  In addition, once you are through there are a number of other obstacles in the Sound itself so going with the tide North is the ideal.

We found ourselves therefore having to leave around 11 am and to get out, we also needed to get the Sea Lock at Crinan to open.  Once open, the recycle time for the lock, can be considerable. So around 9.35am when we saw another yacht enter the lock to go down, we had a race against time to ready our yacht for sea, and to get into the lock before it closed.  We managed the whole turnaround in about 10 minutes from realising we could get locked in, to being in the lock ready to go down.  Impressed?  We were!

We passed through the Dorus Mor just as the tide was slack, it was a bit of an anticlimax as it was pretty smooth.  But that was the way we wanted it.  We then had a leisurely sail up to Oban arriving around 3.45pm for 27 miles run, with the tide most of the way.  

Oban is the gateway to the Western Isles with loads of ferry traffic to avoid it also has a round building called McCaig’s Tower above the town that is unique.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCaig%27s_Tower.  In Oban we decided to have an Indian Curry as we suspect we won’t get a good one    on the islands.  That was the excuse, we might have to substantiate our hypothesis by trying one 😇.

The Dorus Mor if you get it wrong!

Oban Transit Marina 

Oban 

Oban Harbour with McCaig’s Tower on the skyline.

Spice World.  Great food.

You know your in Scotland, when the Irn Bru pile is the biggest in the shop.

Day 13

 Day 13 started with an early alarm at 4.30am.  We needed to be at the Crinan Canal entrance by 8.15/30 for our booked entry time of 8.30.  When we were very close a smaller yacht worked very hard to overtake us to enter into the sea lock harbour entrance.  When we got there we realised why, there was a load of boats all waiting to enter the canal.  So many that we could not safely enter.  So it looked like we were in for a long wait.  The good news however was that the canal authority does things by the book, so we were called on the radio to enter as the number 3 boat exactly at 8.30.  Our “overtaker” was not allowed in 😁.

The canal is in need of a fair bit of refurbishment and there is a lot of work underway.  It was though a great experience going through the locks and very pretty scenery .  A bit odd, doing it in a sailing yacht.  None of us had been in canal locks before, it is a bit daunting as the locks are very high and noisy.  You also have to coordinate the lines carefully, keep the other boats at bay and it is different when going up to going down.

We arrived at the Crinan Basin around 4.30 pm.  Pretty tired but we all agreed this had been a highlight of the trip so far.  Fortunately there is a pub there, but the restaurant was full.  So we had a drink and Paul gave us another of his great creations for dinner.  Tofu noodle stir fry!

Early morning jam at the entrance
    

The Sea Lock entrance.

The Crinan Canal

A bit odd to see the boat on dry land

Going down!

The Crinan Basin

I’ve found the pub!

Day 12

Change of plan for today.  Our original plan was to sail up to the entrance of The Crinan Canal and stay there overnight.  Ready for it to open in the morning.  

Two things have conspired to thwart our plan.  Firstly the weather is very poor.  As the South of England is sweltering in 20+ degrees of heat.  Tarbert is rainy and windy and only 15 deg if that, as the wind chill makes it feel much colder..  The main issue apart from getting wet and cold, is that due to maintenance work, there is no floating pontoon at the canal entrance.  This means we would be on a harbour wall overnight, with winds and tides going up and down, there would be no sleep, as we would have to adjust lines up and down many times through a 12 hour period.  So we have decided to stay in Tarbert and go up early tomorrow leaving around 5 am.  

Lunch today was a Scottish delicacy that neither The Irishman nor The Englishman had tried before.  Scottish Breakfast rolls, Square Sausage and lashings of Irn Bru.  They were both impressed, ate and drank the lot, mind you the rolls were made in Bolton, need to sort that out after independence!

Yesterday we visited the Royal Tarbert Castle that sits above the bay.  Impressive for it’s time, it dates back to the 11th century, we were delighted to find that Robert the Bruce is recorded as walking the very same ramparts.  With the views not really changing from that time, you can take yourself back in time very easily. https://www.tarbertcastle.info/castle-history

Introducing the Real Scottish breakfast

A blustery day

View from Tarbert Castle

Day 11

 As we are still in Tarbert for another day I (The Irishman) decided to go for a run.  I found a trail called the Kintyre Way which is a 100+ miles from Tarbert to the Southern tip of the Mull of Kintyre.  https://thekintyreway.com/

I managed to run 28 miles of it and enjoyed the grassy trail through the trees and bogs.  I came across an Oystercatcher chick on the road, I managed to chase it off the road back towards it’s parents.   I ran past the same spot an hour later on the return and it was still with the parents.

I can highly recommend this route for the scenery and wildlife.

Paul’s run stats

Route run

Fantastic views

Great running conditions

Mum and Dad

Day 10

 

The wind overnight was a bit gusty and came round a full 270 degrees between midnight and 3am.  Around 1am, we were disturbed by our anchor alarm.  It was unclear if we had simply pulled the chain tight off the bottom or our anchor had slipped about a boat length.  As we were now only 20 meters or less (difficult in the pitch dark to tell exactly) from potentially hitting our neighbour.  Anchor Watch was required.until 4 am, when at first light, we could tell that we were in fact not pulling the anchor.  Better safe than sorry!

We left Caladh Harbour around 9am and sailed almost the whole way to Tarbert on Loch Fyne.  Engine hours used, being only .8 of an hour for the whole day and most of that was used motoring into the Marina.  Conditions were perfect, for sailing, flat water and a force 3/4.  The contrast of the sky against the sail was truly beautiful.  The photograph doesn’t really do it justice.  This is our last stop for 2 nights before we enter the Crinan Canal.

The Crinan Canal is only open from Thursdays until Mondays which was a bit of a surprise.  They are doing a lot of maintenance and dredging on the canal presumably before the anticipated summer rush.

A still morning in the anchorage.

Looking down the Western Kyle towards Tighnabruaich

Great day for a sail

Approaching the entrance to Loch Fyne