A distillery and the length of Loch Fyne

I apologise in advance for the length of this blog and the lack of recent communication. We have been remote from Internet access for a while. Something which may get worse as we head farther North.
After a very quiet night in Caladh harbour we decided to return to Arran, the NW side this time and visit the distillery at Lochranza. Lochranza, according to the pilot book, also has visitor moorings and a pontoon with water for short stays and dinghy access. Filling the water tank is a constant problem away from marinas.
We enjoyed a good sail, reaching down West Kyle and hardening up to a close reach across Bute Sound to Lochranza, about 15 knots all the way which suits Lacerta perfectly. Our only interruption was the Navy informing us that they were about to carry out an underwater explosive exercise in Ettrick Bay, to leeward of our track. We saw the warship and heard the crump of the explosive but no ill effects!

En route to the distillery, despite the navy!

Arriving in Lochranza on Wednesday evening we set up for coming alongside the pontoon only to discover that it was damaged and out of action. Plan B was onto a mooring and ashore in the dinghy with the jerry cans. We found a tap by the ferry terminal but it was too far to carry more than one load. Minimal washing for a while longer! After checking at local hotels and guest houses Debbie eventually found that we could get showers the next evening at the youth hostel for £2 each.
The distillery visit was excellent. Arran distillery is relatively young, opening in 1995, and has an excellent visitor centre and cafe, where we lunched before an informative and entertaining tour. The spirit safe remained firmly under lock and key but we did sample a dram of 14 year old malt and a glass of Arran Gold whisky liqueur. Guess what we came out of the shop with!

Spirit safe safe from me!

We managed a short walk before our youth hostel showers then back on board for dinner. We contemplated staying another day for some more walking but with forecast rain we opted to sail up Loch Fyne instead. Debbie has been reading Libby Purves story of her family's Round Britain cruise with two small children, "One Summers Grace", and was getting nervous of using the locks in the Crinan Canal following the exploits in the book so we decided to head for Loch Gilp to anchor in Ardrishaig harbour to check it out ready for our trip along the canal in June.

Although wet at times we left Lochranza in a 12 to 15 knot Westerly breeze which held until we entered Loch Fyne then became very variable in strength and direction. Off Tarbert the breeze steadied and strengthened enough for us to put in one reef as we threaded our way around the Scottish Series racing fleets. Further North the breeze faded for a while then returned from the NW and strengthened with 30 knot gusts giving us a hard beat, well reefed, up to Ardrishaig.

Scottish Series racing

After a quiet night in the harbour we headed ashore. Debbie was reassured by the canal staff that all the locks were now manned and a short handed passage through would be straightforward, we'll see!

Dougie Campbell at the Ardrishaig Boat Club allowed us to bring the dinghy on to the club slipway and to use their tap for topping up our water tank so all in all a successful visit.

As the next day's forecast was for more strong winds and rain we opted for a short sail up to Loch Gair, a small, very sheltered, loch on the West side of Loch Fyne. Leaving Ardrishaig in the afternoon the wind was now (temporarily) from the South. We were anchored in Loch Gair with the
boat tidied away before the wind veered to the west and the rain started. Nice to be down below in the dry before the weather turned wet, for a change. Fortunately we had buoyed the anchor as the wind shifted and blew up in the night and our anchor dragged onto an adjacent (empty) mooring. We had dropped on a patch of kelp, which appeared to be holding us initially. With the anchor buoy we extracted ourselves without disturbing the mooring and re anchored on firm mud, well dug in this time, at least it didn't disturb our sleep.

Scotch mist at Loch Gair (otherwise known as rain).

With rain most of Sunday we opted to stay put. Loch Gair is very attractive. We managed a walk ashore to find that the post office, noted in the pilot book, had closed 10 years ago! The hotel looked very run down and was locked up so back on board for dinner.

Ashore at Loch Gair

Our Monday plan was to head up to Inverary, at the head of Loch Fyne, for lunch, looking for likely overnight anchorages on the way. As it turned out we had a brisk sail in bright sunshine with the usual gusts down the hills and anchored, as recommended in the pilot book, North of the pier at the mouth of the river in a quiet spot, so we decided to stay put and go ashore. Loaded with the obligatory jerrycans we headed for the pier and landed, only to find that the shore end of the pier had been barriered off. The pier had been condemned as unsafe! Back to the dinghy we eventually got ashore via the beach and a very dodgy (much more unsafe than the pier) ladder against the harbour wall.

The museum schooner moored alongside the pier was closed and up for sale (half price special offer, £89,500!), alongside her was the Clyde puffer "Vital Spark", subject of the TV series with her skipper, Para Handy. She looked in need of a little TLC.

Would you buy her?

Inverary is described in the pilot book as an 18th century planned town and west coast tourist attraction. We bought ice creams and wandered around the town and wondered, along with the bank holiday tourists, what to do in an 18th century planned town on a bright, chilly, bank holiday Monday. The answer for us was simple, back on board for a drink and dinner!

Inverary.

 

As we hadn't been in a marina since Troon we sailed on Tuesday to Portavadie marina for showers, shore power, water from a hose, laundry, diesel, Camping Gaz and wifi to update the blog! We have most of it but wifi doesn't work on the boat so I am forced to sit in the bar typing while Debbie deals with the washing! Portavadie is a strange place. Built in an old oil rig construction site it is very modern and twee but, with nothing else around it except a ferry terminal to Tarbert, lacking in character. We haven't planned tomorrow yet, we'll see what the weather brings.

 

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