We waved "Goodbye" to Bonzo and jumped quickly into the car.
Nice trip up to Lakeland and lovely overnight stop with John and Ann.
Sunday 17th March.
Troon was .. well, much the same as usual really.
Rigged and provisioned boat .. well, half-rigged and fully provisioned (Jean was in charge of the latter, any defects in the rigging were, and are, entirely my fault).
Monday 18th March.
Met up with Peter and Sara, watched Footloose being launched, went out to supper and discussed waterpumps (in some depth).
Tuesday 19th March.
Dissembled and attempted to service waterpump rendering it entirely inoperative.
David arrived from the deep south.
Niel (BSA >>100)* helped me fix waterpump.
Said "Farewell" to the very nice team in Troon Marina Capitainerie and decided to ignore the wind speed reading of 30 knots displayed in their very nice and warm office on the basis that the wind speed sensor was on the roof of the office and therefore likely to be indicative only of the wind speed in that position (rather than anywhere else).
Checked various forecasts and eventually found one that didn't include the words "8, 9" or "severe".
Set off, as planned at 1200.
Decided not to use the mainsail on the basis that
1. it was windy
2. the mainsail hadn't been rigged in a way consistent with it being possible to reef it
3. we all still wanted to live.
Arrived in East Loch Tarbert, warm and in good spirits.
Wednesday 20th March.
Short sail (no need for mainsail today, see reasons above) to Ardrisaig .. where the Crinan Canal starts or ends (depending on which way you are going).
Locked in and, ably assisted by my estemed crew and the harbour master's team, made it a short way up the canal before being advised that further progress that day would not be possible because the canal had been drained a little to facilitate repairs.
Went out to dinner.
Ardrisaig at the eastern end of the Crinan Canal
The canal having been repaired and refilled we progressed to Crinan.
David openned and closed about 15 sets of locks, helped by a very nice man from the staff of British Waterways (Scotland).
We arrived at Crinan Canal basin and cunningly ran aground just in time to prevent denting the canal wall.
Berthed at Crinan
These days are a bit of a blur really.
One day we walked back to Ardrisaig ("Lochgilphead actually"), which was whence we had just come.
Another day, we wallked up a hill.
And another day we walked up another hill.
Mainly we worried about the weather.
It did not exceed F10 at any stage.
View over Crinan
Monday 25th March.We locked ut of Crinan and sailed (jib only .. see above) to Oban.
En route, we survived Dorus Mor and avoided the Corryvreckan whirlpool.
Heading for Oban
*BSA .. Bramah Seal of Approval .. see above and previously as, if and when appropriate or otherwise
