Happy Christmas!

Well, Dear Reader(s), it's that time again.

With the boat snug (?) on the Firth of Clyde we can look forward to a cozy Christmas  ... just me, my beloved crew and first mate and, of course, Bonzo.

Bonzo was much better whilst on probation and hasn't been responsible for any very serious injuries to the public since the Summer, apart, of course, from the Council Dog Warden and his assistant*, and, to be fair to the wretched canine, it is their job anyway, isn't it?

Bonzo is especially excited at Christmas, I think he enjoys the opportunities that emanate from two postal deliveries each day, even if only for another week or so.

Happy Christmas.

* aka "The Assistant Council Dog Warden".

Next Year Beckons

I know how anxious you will all be, Dear Readers (Yes, both of you), to hear of next year’s plans.

As I am, once more in (part-time) gainful employment, the sailing season is reduced to a mere 3 or 4 months  .. but anyway:

Mid March 2013 (possibly 17^th)

depart from Troon to continue our exploration of the Western Isles, with a view to leaving the boat (probably) in Arisaig in mid April (perhaps 15^th) and returning home (to feed the dogs*).

 Arisaig is a very nice place, and easily accessible from Glasgow by train.

June (possibly 22^nd)

leave Arisaig heading north (approximately) with a view to arriving in the Orkney Islands !** after a 2 or 3 weeks.

 Stones on Orkney

July, August and September

Sail to and explore:

            The Isles of Orkney

            Fair Isle

            Shetland Isles

 Puffins in the Shetland Islands

 Then back via Orkney and the Pentland Firth, Wick, Inverness, The Caledonian Canal, Fort William and back down to Troon.

Somewhere on the Caledonian Canal

We will fly home once or twice (probably from Kirkwall on Orkney) during the trip (to feed the dogs, etc.)

So, Dear Reader(s) if you are interested in dog-free yachting in Scotland next year, please let us know!

Join us for a gentle Easter Cruise in the Western Isles around Easter

            ..or

Arisaig to Orkney in late June

            ..or

Orkney and Shetland in July / August

            ..or

North East Scotland and back down the Caledonian Canal in August / September.

           

* more about these later.

!   ** implies excitement.

Tarbert, Troon and home

We like Tarbert (population  1338).

We had a very good time cruising with Footloose, enjoying amongst many things

excellent company, good food,  intrepid mountain climbing, one slightly dangerous flubber trip, sailing and lovely scenery.

Footloose sailing

Friday:

We decided that it was time to go home ... well … back to Troon anyway.

We sailed from Tarbert to Troon. 

Whenever it was too windy we reefed and this had the effect of immediately making it not windy enough; we therefore un-reefed and ... you’ve guessed it.  

So we sailed back to Troon merrily pulling the sail up and down.

Troon, when we arrived was much the same as usual (and possibly nearly as exciting as Haywards Heath* )

We were directed to our “Winter Berth” only to find, at the last  moment, a mooring line stretched across it.  Luckily my brilliant co-skipper spotted this obstacle in the nick of time and saved the day.

Saturday:

We emptied “Albatross” into our trusty Skoda.

Sunday:

Home again.

 Home again.

Next year:

The Orkneys and Shetlands including Fair Isle in the company of Footloose!

* Saint Hayward's Heath is justly proud of its ground-breaking website.

Cuckfield to Portavadie to Troon to Lamlash to somewhere unpronounceable* at the top of the Kyles of Bute to East Loch Tarbert.

The plot so far … is entirely unimportant.

The new plot:

Our intrepid sailing couple slip silently away (before dawn) in an attempt to leave without waking Bonzo who, chained up in the garden, snores fitfully.

They drive to Portavadie (in Scotland).  This is a very very long way.

Next day, one of our intrepid team sails solo to Troon** (by sea), whilst the other drives (single-handed) to Troon (by road, obviously).

Troon was calm. The street dancers had gone home, the bars were silent. Not a roulette wheel spun. 
No dogs barked.

Next day:

Lamlash.

What more can I say?

We went there (by boat).

Soon Peter and Sara also arrived.

Peter and Sara arriving.

Tuesday:

We climbed the mountain.  Holy Island Mountain
.

Evidence of successful mountain climbing.

There was good view.

A good view.

Holy Island is a Buddhist Island and therefore entirely free of dogs. 

Holy Island has Sheep and Goats (these are not difficult to tell apart***). 

It also has some elaborate Buddhist art.

.

Green Tara

After checking out Holy Island, our intrepid foursome flubbered back to their boats.

It may be interesting, at this point, to realise that, such were the weather conditions that afternoon, the ferry had been cancelled and that only wet or silly people were at sea.    Jean avoided getting wetter on the journey back by (gracefully) lying down in the water before climbing into the flubber.

Wednesday:

We sailed to somewhere unpronounceable* at the top of the Kyles of Bute.

We all agreed that it was a “cracking good sail”.

(Import to note that, although it obviously wasn’t a race, Albatross arrived first.)

Our anchorage was surrounded by rocks.

Footloose cleverly avoiding a rock.

After supping together on Morrisons Chicken Pie, we slept.

Thursday:

To Tarbert  (East Loch Tarbert).

We motored most of the way, they sailed. 

Footloose sailing

It was windy (F5-F7)  and raining.

We got there first. 

It wasn’t a race.

Next week:

Find  out then.

*An Caladh

** Troon, City of Adventure.  See above or below.

***  The more discerning reader (John, Linda etc) may here sense the possibility of a joke.

Yachting, Mars, Curiosity and the role of dogs in the exploration of Space

It is important (to dogs) that the past and future roles of the Canine Species in the exploration of Mars (and Space in general) are never forgotten.

The first intelligent life form (I use the word "intelligent" loosely) to travel into Space was, of course, a dog.
A Russian cosmobitch called "Laika".
This specially-trained 3 year old stray,  hurtled into Space in Sputnik II on 3rd November 1957 and died very quickly.
Unfortunately, Sputnik II had the ability to go into orbit but lacked the ability to come out of it again.

Laika did however, had a special stamp published in her honour

Laika the Space Dog

Now, Dear Readers, you will be asking "what has this to do with Yachting in Scotland ?"

No idea, almost certainly nothing.  But for Bonzo, and dogs everywhere, it is of great significance in this exciting week when Curiosity landed on Mars.  

Why, some may ask did they send a complex, nuclear powered, six wheeled, titanium clad, semi-intelligent robot when they  could have sent a dog?    After all (and this is the key point of this posting)  if they'd sent a dog, there would have been life on Mars, albeit quite briefly.

Curiosity talking to a couple of Martians

Next week, back to Sailing in Troon and something on Haute Cuisine for Yotties.

Something about dogs and mobile devices.

We thought that Bonzo should have a smart phone (an oxymoron?).

After  considerable research we opted for the new 3G iBone from Canine Warehouse.

The iBone, of course, has a bite sensitive screen and comes in a variety of  canine fragrances.

We considered getting him the new iDog instead but  felt this was somewhat upmarket for a hound like our Bonzo.

Canine networking is vital for the modern dog.

The most popular are  “lick” and “sniff” but we opted for “woofer” for  Bonzo as he’s generally quite an aural canine.

We hope he’ll be happy to be so well connected. 

Oban to Crinan to Portavadie to Home

I think this leg legitimately constituted  "An Epic". 

The trip from Oban to The Crinan Canal  involves “passage planning”. 
For those that don’t really understand the intricacies of yotting (me, you (Dear Reader), Bonzo  etc.), “passage planning” can be a challenge. 
However, in essence, this is what it is about:
1.  The tide tends to flow the way you don’t want to go, and (in addition), 
2.  When the tide flows rapidly over an uneven rocky channel (all of Scotland) the sea may get very rough.

Oban to Crinan is basically like this. 
Anyway … having worked it out 3 times, we agreed that the best time to set off was 1255.
We set off at 1240. 
The route took us through the Sound of Luing, past (but not through) the infamous Gulf of Corryvreckan, through Dorus Mor and on down to  the sea lock at Crinan .. to start our “transit of the canal”.

Anyway (again), despite being fearsome, our trip to Crinan went swimmingly (I may regret using this adverb). Having carefully done as much of the difficult part of the route at slack waters and as near neaps as possible, we hit only 3 knots of tide in Dorus Mor.

Clouds over The Gulf of Corryveckan 

John and Ann met us at Crinan.

We were the last boat to get into Canal that night. 
We motored through a couple of locks and settled down for the night. 
It is important, Dear Reader, to remember to look out for bridges ahead when motoring along canals. Our boat (mast height 16.5 metres) will not easily fit under a closed road bridge (height 2 metres).

 

A nice stop on the Crinan Canal

Next day was sunny and hot  but then became windy.
The Crinan Canal was built about  200 years ago  so that ships could get from the Clyde to Oban without going around the Mull of Kintyre (thus avoiding endless renditions of  Paul McCartney’s little ditty****…which, of course, at the time, had not been written).  Unfortunately because Sir Paul was not born 200 years ago *, the canal served little use until recent years when yotties re-discovered it.

Anyway … Wednesday 15^th August 2012
We locked our way, first up and then  down the Crinan Canal from Crinan to Ardrisaig.

John and Ann were wonderful, opening and closing gates, catching ropes and providing cake.

Jean helps John close a lock.

Locking with another boat

We teamed up with another boat which accompanied us through most of the  locks.  This was good thing because they knew what they were doing.
Towards the end of the day the wind got a bit nasty (F6) and this made locking quite a challenge **.

Wednesday night was too windy for further progress so we rafted up to “Adela” ably assisted by her charming, helpful and altogether very nice skipper ***

We said “Goodbye” to John and Ann and settled down to worrying about the weather.

Thursday 16^th August.
After a prolonged period of dithering and worrying about the weather, we eventually decided “to go for it” and left the canal at about 1300 hours in F5 and motored to Portavadie Marina.

Portavadie Marina has hair straighteners in the men’s showers.
For a man with as much hair as I have, this is obviously of crucial importance.

Portavadie Marina

As I understand it, Portavadie Marina  was constructed in a basin excavated 20 or 30 years ago to create a harbour for the maintenance of oil rigs.  
Portavadie is on the West Coast of Scotland. 
The oil was on the East Coast. 
They didn’t get a lot (any?) business. 
The oil rig harbour was therefore converted into a Marina (with hair straighteners in the loos, obviously).

Friday 17^th August.
We went home.
Portavadie to Glasgow Airport isn’t difficult  (2 buses, one ferry, one train, a shuttle bus … and you’re there!)

The house felt strangely empty without Bonzo.
I hadn’t realised that dogs could be held on remand and then bailed, but perhaps our modest contribution to the Retired Dog Warden Benevolent Fund helped a little. Anyway, our tame psychopathic canine is home again, at least for now.



* Note to Author  ..  I need to check this
** Yottie term meaning “very difficult”
*** name withheld for security reasons
**** "Mull of Kintyre"

Portree to Ornsay to Tobermory (again) to Loch Aline to Oban.

Hello again Linda.

The plot so far. 

In essence, three intrepid sailors are boating somewhere in Scotland.

Thursday 9^th August 2012

We left Portree and headed under the bridge to Skye planning to stop at Kyle of Lochalsh (mainly I think because the latter sounds very Scottish).  K of L was however, in our view, pretty horrible, so we went on to anchor on the Isle of Ornsay (which was nice).

Martin introduced us to McEwan’s  80 Shilling  (beer). 

This was (in every respect) a good thing.

We explored the island  (walked up to the hotel).

The hotel offered shooting, fishing and deer stalking and had a restaurant.

We had an excellent meal on board and a peaceful night at anchor.

Friday & Saturday 10^th  - 11^th  August

Back down to Tobermory.

Fuel, water, electricity, food and very nice walk in the hot Scottish sunshine.

A meal at the pub.

Sunday 12^th August

We went sailing!

We set off for Lismore Island but ended up in Loch Aline.

It was a nice day (when we set off).

The wind was on our nose and went F4 .. 5 .. 6 .. 7.  The tide was adverse (obviously).

Our course tacking down the Sound of Mull

There are lots of boats around here (possibly as crowded as the Solent at 3 a.m on a weekday in early February when BBC 1 has the FA Cup Final on and ITV4 a slightly pornographic movie).

Anyway ... there were enough boats around for a little race and (it being the Olympics at the time), we took Silver.

8 miles of proper sailing was enough, which is why we ended up in Loch Aline.

Loch Aline.  Another beautiful, sheltered Scottish loch.

Monday 13^th August

Off to Oban.  Raining today. Motored.

Oban Marina. Nice.

Unfortunately we have to say Goodbye to Martin tomorrow morning.

Martin tying a Turk’s Head to the wheel (I was surprised that this is still allowed).

Loch Moidart to Arisaig to Rum to Loch Scaraig to Loch Harport to Dunvegan to Rona to Portree to Isle Ornsay

Possibly rather a long title?

Hello again Dear Reader(s), have you missed me?

Anyway  .. we are in Scotland  … roughly …

Loch Moidart

Initially windy and wet, later windy and wet.

On our second day we had a really good walk  … along the coast over the mountain, around the lake, down to the sea and back to the boat  … wonderful!

We slept well.

2^nd August 2012

Off to Arisaig.

Quite challenging to get into.

If you follow the obvious transit on the hill, you feel very reassured until you realise that the transit actually consists of two Vodafone aerials on a post halfway up the mountain.  These are, of course, always in line from all directions.

We were allocated a mooring and went ashore to the launderette.

Arisaig is nice  (BSA>>12.7).

The tourist centre is excellent.

The Spar Shop sells everything.

We are happy.

3^rd August

We greet Martin at the station and flubber him aboard.

Off to Rum. (aka Rhum).

(Martin: “Crowded, there was another boat in the bay”)

Night in Rum. 

4^th  August

Ashore in the morning.

Today is the official “Rum Midge Fest”  .. ruined by a lack of Midges.

We walked up to the castle and watched a couple of horses having it off in the field. Apparently Edward VIII enjoyed himself here as well.

Next stop Loch Scalaig for lunch

The Most Beautiful Anchorage in Europe.

Scalaig

Off to Loch Harport for the night  (home caught mackerel and chicken stew).

Anchored outside the Talisker distillery.

5^th August

Epic beat to Dunvegan (full of carnivores).

Dinner aboard.

6^th August

Walk to castle

Walk to MacLeod’s finger (erected 2000, vandalised 2001)

MacLeod’s finger

Walk to shop  .. Martin walked to the bakery.

Nice meal (F & C) at Dunvegan Hotel. Pleasant English landlady.

7^th August

Epic trip to Rona  (not a real Epic, but Martin dictated this bit).

Rona  .. deserted but for 7 boat in the anchorage.

No road vehicles except 2 quad bikes and a JCB.

Nice walk to the cave chapel where Martin found a fossilised Ichthyosaur (rabbit bones).

Night at anchor.

8^th August

Awesome spinnaker beat to Portree

spinnaker

Decided to sell spinnaker when we get home (if we ever do).

Arrived Portree

Highland Games Week in Portree. 

Lots of Highland Games going on.

Ate out for lunch then had circular walk (obviously).

Delicious supper aboard.

9^th August

Off to Kyle of Lochalsh. Decided not to stop as K o L was a bit of a dump.

We witnessed a dramatic rescue ... reader(s) of nervous disposition should look away now .. anyway,  let me take you to the scene ..

“Stornoway Coastguard, Stornoway Coastguard, Stornoway Coastguard, this is Yacht Mule, Yacht Mule, Yacht Mule, we are becalmed, on flat water, in no danger whatsoever and the engine is b*gg*red, help! Over”

The rest of this story is probably too frightening for my reader(s) but rest assured Dear Reader(s) no animals were harmed in the reconstruction of this event.

But  .. we saw a huge pod of dolphins  whilst listening to unfolding events.

Dolphin jumping

Under the Bridge of Skye (complete absence of bunnies).

Next stop Ornsay (from where I write).

Tobermory to Muck to Loch Cean Traigh to Loch Moidart

It’s pouring and windy.

The anchor bridle creaks and the wheel spins in the gusts.

We are sheltering in Loch Moidart.

We had two nights in Tobermory and a lovely walk along the cliffs to a waterfall

A waterfall near Tobermory.

Tobermory

We went out to dinner at the bar by the marina for our wedding anniversary (35) extravaganza.

30^th July

Off to the Isle of Muck. Population about 24 plus us plus a boat load of twitchers.

Muck had a grand modern harbour (thanks to the EU)

Muck’s harbour.

We walked up the main road… over the island to the beach

Muck’s  beach with Rum’s mountains behind.

It was all very lovely, but with bad weather on the way we had to find a better anchorage.

Off to Loch Cean Traigh.

Loch Cean Traigh

31^st July

After a quiet night and a walk along the beach and through some bracken we set off for Loch Moidart

Jean in the bracken

We arrived outside Loch Moidart at HW plus 0200 (because I was anxious not to wreck the boat in the loch).

Interesting trip up the loch to shelter behind Riska Island  (not brilliant shelter with the wind coming towards us, and us in front of the island).

We flubbered ashore and walked around the ruins of Castle Tioram. 

Built in the 14^th Century.  Burnt down by the MacDonalds (who owned it) to prevent the Campbells  from getting it (or possibly the other way round) about 250 years ago.

Silly lot.

Castle Tioram from the boat.

Egg and bacon for supper (good).

A bad night (not good .. obviously)

The weather outside is horrible, but then it is August.

Coll to Tobermory

We left the puffins and kittiwakes of Lunga and headed out to Coll.

Coll is just northeast of Tiree. Tiree is famous as a windsurfing place.

Coll is about 10 miles by 3 with 2 shops, an hotel, some beautiful beaches and an airstrip … and, when we arrived, 3 basking sharks.

Basking sharks are seriously impressive but very difficult to photograph

Basking shark (just after it jumped out, smiled, looped and went swimming again).

We moored and went ashore.

Fish and chips at the hotel, a windy night in the bay.

Friday 27^th July  (The day of the Long Walk)

We flubbered ashore and went for a walk.

Various people offered us lifts in their cars … including a nice lady who reminded me of Father Ted’s housekeeper, perhaps she was on holiday from Craggy Island?

Eventually we accepted one  …  a lift that is.

A nice man drove us to the other side of the island.

It was a long walk back from there, although the beaches were lovely.

A lovely beach on Coll

On the way back, we met a dog who wanted to come walking with us.

A dog.

Unfortunately, presumably because we appeared (to passing cars) to be walking a dog, no one stopped to offer us a lift back home.

Eventually, after some 6 miles, we did persuade a passing vehicle to abduct / adopt the dog (quite a nice dog, by dogs’ standards) and let us walk on dogless at last.

Unfortunately no more cars passed, so we still didn’t get a lift.

It rained.

We got back to Arinagour (the capital of Coll) at 1500, just in time for elevenses’.

It had almost been An Epic.

A quiet night on our mooring.

Saturday 28^th July 2012.

Forecast  NW F4-5 perhaps 6 or even 7.

We motored in F2-3 much of the way to Tobermory (of Wimbledon Womble fame).

Tobermory is nice, sunny, friendly.

The town’s not bad either.

Shops.

Launderette.

“Diesel by hose on the pontoon.”

What more could we want?

Footnote:  

No word from Bonzo. 

It really is time he learnt to type.

Time to invent the Dogblog?

Port Ellen to Loch Tarbert (Jura) to Tinker’s Hole to Iona to Bunessan to Coll

After a three-night stop in Port Ellen, it was time to go sailing again.

Monday 23^rd July

We left Islay and sailed north through the Sound to Loch Tarbert on Jura.

Having negotiated the very narrow entrance, Loch Tarbert was stunning.

Quiet, perfectly sheltered.  Beautiful.  A complete absence of dogs.

Loch Tarbert evening

Tuesday.

Off to Tinker’s Hole.

This is a wonderful, rocky anchorage off Erraid just off the SW corner of Mull.

N.B.  Erraid is important because, as students, a number of us decided to acquire it from the Duke of Argyle and build a hippie community there.

The project got off to a rather inauspicious start….. 

I typed a letter to His Lordship suggesting that he might like to give us the island, but on checking through it, I found that it started with the line

 “My Dear Lord Duck”.

I still find this quite funny. 

Anyway, some of our intrepid team later set off (in mid winter) by motorbike for this island.  Unfortunately, having made it only to North Yorkshire, we overslept somewhat and awoke next day to realise that:

1. it was a very long way to Scotland
2. motor biking was very cold in Winter
3. the whole project was very silly.

Tinker’s Hole is a lovely anchorage. It is a little scary to get into (and out of), but it is lovely.

We went ashore, climbed on the rocks, watched some seals, and generally felt very happy.

Tinker’s Hole

Wednesday 25^th July

Off to Iona.  We anchored half a mile up from the Cathedral. 

Founded to commemorate  St Columba’s arrival in Scotland bringing Christianity from Ireland. (Of course, the Irish got Christianity from St Brendan, who had paddled across from Wales in a coracle. I’m not certain how Christianity got from England to Wales, or why it didn’t go straight from London to Glasgow … M1 M6  etc. thus avoiding a lot of dangerous  messing about in boats .. anyway).  We looked around the Cathedral and had tea.

Next, back to the boat and around to Bunessan.

We anchored in the bay. It was nice.

Thursday 26^th July.

First stop Staffa   … Fingal’s Caves   (we didn’t stop, but sailed around and had a good look).

Staffa .. I wont bore you with its connection with The Giant’s Causeway.

Next, Lunga Island.  This a “must do, must see, and must go on about destination.”

A lovely anchorage.  Beautiful island.  The birds were totally wonderful.

Puffins, Kittiwakes, Guillemots.

A lovely walk along the cliffs.

Puffins on Lunga.

Near Lunga is another island the interestingly named “Dutchman's Cap”

Off again, now to Arinagour on the Island of Coll.

More about this and The Long Walk of Coll, coming soon.

Troon to Campbeltown to Islay

Troon was good but life must go on, so we left at 1000 on Saturday 19^th July.

At 1005 the Troon to Somewhere ferry also leaves Troon (going somewhere or other) but we didn’t collide.

Troon is dredged to about 4 metres but we only had 0.0 beneath us near the entrance.

Next stop Campbeltown on Kintyre. 

Saw porpoises on the way; also Guillemots, Shearwaters and BBGs.

We’ve visited before and dropped our anchor on exactly the same spot (just up from the submarine).

The view from our anchorage

Nearby was Yacht “Ithaca”  (again).

Ithaca’s owners plus dog, flubbered out their boat.

Later the dog took them ashore again for a walk.

Later still, they returned.

Next day, the dog was up early. They flubbered ashore, presumably for another walk.

Friday 20^th July.

Off to Port Ellen on Islay via the infamous Mull of Kintyre.

We took the “inner passage” through Sanda Sound.

Having calculated this to the nearest five minutes, we were not impressed to see other boats completely ignoring the tidal constraints and sailing through these treacherous waters at the wrong state of the tide and in the wrong direction but without any difficulty.

It did get a bit bumpy on the SW corner of the Mull but nothing too terrible.  (Next time we would go closer inshore and hopefully completely avoid the overfalls.)

It was something of a slog across to Port Ellen on Islay as we wanted to go NW and that was where the wind was coming from.

For some reason, our boat will make 6 knots on port in 12 knots of true wind beating but only 5 knots on starboard.  We are confident that Martin will sort this out for us.

We have also discovered that hoisting the genoa properly (using a winch) makes the sail set much better.

Anyway, we managed to sail, against the wind, for almost all the way to Port Ellen where we arrived in sunshine at 1740 feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.

 Port Ellen (BSA>10) is lovely, and we berthed without trauma.

Saturday 21^st July.

We walked to the Laphroaig Distillery and had a guided tour.

Making alcohol taste of burnt peat and oak takes a lot of effort.

The distillery is cleverly camouflaged

It’s all quite interesting really.

Only 85% of the malted grain required to make Laphroaig Whisky is manufactured at the modern chemical plant near the port, the rest comes from the more traditional process still practiced at the old distillery.

Much of the flavour, I understand, comes from the phenols present in the smoke from the peat.  Phenols, as far as I remember, intercalate rather neatly into the helical structure of nucleic acid polymers thus disrupting the coding required for protein synthesis. This makes them, potentially at least, potent carcinogens.

We tasted a couple of drams then we walked home and had a sleep.

Saturday afternoon dawned brightly.

The internet café was still shut  (everyone was busy at the highland games up the road) but we remained confident that the weather on Sunday would be terrible.

We had another little walk (past the chemical works) and back along the beautiful white beach.

 The Marina at Port Ellen

The word was now out that tomorrow was going to be windy and our little marina was completely full.  Mainly Swedes and northern Europeans, one French boat and us.

Bradley Wiggins has the yellow jersey.

We decided not to talk on the pontoon about, football, the war or cycling.

We had a nice meal at The Islay Hotel  (Soup, Sea Trout and bottle of sauv blanc) and returned to our boat.

Troon again

Saying  “Goodbye” is always a pleasure when talking to canines.

It’s good to be back in Troon.

Tomorrow Campbeltown  … hopefully.

More about dogs

Recent research*, reported in JPPD ** indicating that 83% of canines preferred The Higgs to any other subatomic particle, has failed to generate very much interest.

As far as Bonzo is concerned, there's little difference between an Up Quark and a Charm Quark, that cant be detected with a good sniff.

Don't miss next week's posting.  More riveting sailing news and something about the canine importance of  Gluons.

* "Quarks .. do they matter?" 
** The Journal of Particle Physics for Dogs

Home again

Home again and Bonzo is fine.

The injunction didn't really work as Bonzo like many dogs cant read.
He does of course watch television but has been unable to understand quite what is so exciting about the recent discovery of the Higgs boson.  So for dogs everywhere, I have included this simple diagram.

The cruise:
Leg 4 is still at the planning stage but might remotely possibly go vaguely like:

17/18 July      Troon
19                 Campbeltown
20                  Port Ellen
22                  Port Askaig
23                  Loch Tarbert
25                  Scalasaig
27                  Iona
29                  Coll
31                   Muck

4 August        Arisaig                  * pick up M
6                    Tobermory
8                    Loch Linnhe
9                    Loch Melfort
10                  Crinan Canal
11                  Ardrishaig
12                  Portavadie
14                  Home

Troon … City of Adventure

3^rd July

We are in Troon.

We’ve already been to Morrisons.

The marina has a bath for the ladies but only showers for the blokes.

Is this fair?

We have a very nice new fender board in preparation for the Crinan Canal and the Wilds of the North.

Troon is the logging capital of Ayrshire

Logs in Troon

Templehill Street has:

a GPs’ surgery

a Chemist’s shop

a Chiropodist

an Optometrist

and three Undertakers.

But  …

West Portland Street has:

a Canine Boutique

(eat your heart out Bonzo!)

Home tomorrow.

Glenarm to Troon (via The Giant’s Causeway)

Glenarm is really lovely  (BSA*>10).

 Glenarm is even nicer than this picture shows

Glenarm is only 90 minutes by bus from The Giant’s Causeway.

Two possibilities:

1. A giant (called Finn MacCool), having had a strop and wanting to do battle with a rival giant in Scotland (Benandonner), decides to build a paved highway over to Scotland (the Island of Staffa, to be precise)  .. in order to get there (obviously).

The Causeway is what remains.

2. As molten lava cools slowly, it cracks to form fairly regular columns of basalt which can look just like …err, a Giant’s Causeway?

For further thoughts, including a theological view on this sort of problem, please refer to Russell’s Teapot.    

 Jean at The Giants Causeway

Saturday 30 June

Off to Scotland.

After much discussion and calculation, we left Northern Ireland (now one of my favourite countries, though not yet having a fully validated BSA**), and headed out into the Northern Channel towards bonny Scotland.

As my calculations were based on not having to get up early we arrived off the Mull of Kintyre at the wrong time and had to fight the tide***.

Arrived Campbeltown in Kintyre and anchored near (but not dangerously near) the unmarked wreck of a submarine having fortunately been forewarned by Helen’s Father-in-law****.

Anyway,  “Thanks, Peter”

Sunday 1^st July.

Off to Lamlash.

Sailed most of the way. Moored in northwest corner in order to take full advantage of the lack of shelter from the East.

 Holy Island opposite Lamlash

Holy Island is owned, run and lived in by Buddhists.

We went ashore (to Lamlash) by flubber and enjoyed a nice meal and a little wine at The Pierhead Tavern.

Monday 2^nd July.

The morning dawned with an Easterly and rain and fog. 

Our mooring was wobbly and wet.

I rapidly cancelled my secret trip to Holy Island to seek enlightenment (Surely they could tell me how to come to terms with Bonzo?), and we set off instead for Troon.

Troon is Scotland Proper and only 14 miles away.

We motored out into the fog  ……

What happened next?

Did our intrepid dog-loving sailors survive the Fogs of The Clyde?

Await the next exciting instalment  “Troon … City of Adventure”

*BSA … see elsewhere if you must

**BSA … don’t bother

***fight the tide = start the motor

**** … cunning ploy not to reveal names on the web.