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.

SLYC to Carrickfergus.

24^th June 2012

Strangford Lough has 12 sailing clubs so we left Quoile (QYC) and headed for Strangford Lough Yacht Club (SLYC).

We anchored outside SLYC, carefully positioning ourselves in the centre of the Sunday youth topper training fleet.  We flubbered ashore and met a very nice club member called John.  John was incredibly welcoming and helpful, showing us around the club, giving us a set of keys and inviting us to use not only the full facilities of the club, but even his own flubber berth.  Indeed, when after a nice meal at Daft Eddy’s Pub, we returned to find that our flubber had managed to spontaneously remove its own bung and deflated, John even helped us pump it up again.

Daft Eddy apparently succumbed after being shot by a customs officer many years ago, however his name lives on in the Culinary Atlas of Ulster.

25^th June

Next stop, Audley’s Castle anchorage, just up from the famous Strangford Narrows.

A lovely peaceful place, just across from Portaferry.

 Audley's Castle Anchorage and view to Portaferry

 A nice walk around the castle grounds.

 26^th June

Up early (who cares?) and off through the Narrows and out to sea again.

Next stop Carrickfergus on the northern coast of Belfast Lough.

A modern marina with a statue of William III just outside and Sainsburys across the road.  All very civilised and comfortable.

Remind me never to try to get in here at low water springs, or in a swell. It’s not as deep as they say at the entrance, nor inside the marina.  We had 0.2M at the entrance 90 minutes after LW.

You get 2 nights for the price of one here.

We decided to stay for 2 nights.

We watched the Carrickfergus Yacht Club Tuesday Evening Race. 

There was absolutely no wind. 

Doesn’t anyone over here know how to rock a boat?

 Carrickfergus Marina

But the Sailing Club appears to have had a nasty fire.

 Carrickfergus Sailing Club

Rainy night.

27^th June (Thursday?)

Up early (again) and off to Glenarm

Glenarm has a very high BSA* and apparently a free launderette!

Rainy day with fog and no wind.

Despite this, had easy trip to Glenarm.

We motored past the spectacular high cliffs “The Gobbins” of Islandmagee.

Spectacular if you can see them, but it was foggy.

Apparently they are 80 metres high and almost vertical. 

Back in 1641, the (English) garrison at Carrickfergus, in reprisal for what we would now call “a terrorist incident”, threw the entire population of Islandmagee (300 people) off theses cliffs.

Yesterday, our Queen shook hands with a former leader of the IRA.

(Please note, this blog now contains historical facts subtly linked to modern politics, in addition to sailing and canine psychopathology.)

Anyway, back to Glenarm.

A very friendly welcome. 

The harbour master took our lines.

The showers are free and so is the launderette!

Footnote:

Still no news from home. 

I worry about Bonzo and his carer.

It seems unlikely that they are entirely happy together.

Has one of them succumbed (to the other)? 

If so, which one? (and to whom, and how?).

The only question not worth asking is “why”.

*BSA.  See previous blogging for precise definition and calibration of this important Marina Approval Index.