As we left the Ardrishaig sea lock on a rather grey morning on Thursday 9th September, our plan had been to head for Largs, but this was changed en route for Troon (55:33.00N, 004:41.00W).

 

We motored out into Loch Gilp in fairly windless drizzle, but after a while were able to sail, and motor sail when needed to make progress in the lulls. Then we heard a strong wind warning, which was contrary to the earlier forecasts that we had checked, and so we diverted into Portavadie, only about 10 miles down the loch, to get a better forecast and take stock. It transpired that we may have misheard the  forecast, which was probably giving the strong wind warnings for 'later', which would be well after we were tied up at our destination, so we set off again....good mooring practice !

 

The diversion also gave us a chance to have a good look over the Portavadie facilities, which are excellent. This is a new marina development in an old rig building site, and they have done a huge amount of work over the last year ; it no longer has that 'industrial wasteland' look , and is really a very pretty place to visit, with the most luxurious loos and showers seen anywhere on our voyage to date !

 

Back on the water, the wind increased nicely to around F4, the rain finally stopped and we had a great sail in the sunshine. It was at this point, just before we would have needed to 'turn left' up to Largs, that we realised that the wind was perfect for holding our present course, which would take us straight to Troon. Since we both wanted to have a good sail rather than more motoring, it was an easy decision to hold course for Troon. This was a great leg, with Moondog cruising along at around 6.5 kts in a nice F4 on the beam. No stress or drama ; we could have sailed for days like this, but we were soon going to run out of sea as we sped across the Firth of Clyde, with our bow pointing directly at Troon all the way !

 

Apart from just enjoying the sail, we tidied up the boat a bit, particularly after the Crinan Canal, with John washing fenders to remove grit and mud, and a bit of a general tidy up. Come 6.30pm we were entering the outer commercial harbour, and making our way to the marina in the very well protected inner harbour. Tied up and secure by 7pm, and in the excellent bar and restaraunt shortly after... All in all quite an interesting day, adapting our plans to the conditions, and achieving a good 50 mile run over about 10.5 hours, including our sojurn in Portavadie.

 

It was clear that we were going to have some difficult decisions to make when we got up on Friday, to find that the strong winds 'later' had now definitely arrived. Our next port would be Stranraer, which was a good 45 miles away, although the wind direction from the NW would be good. My big concern , however, was that Stranraer harbour and marina was exposed to strong NW winds, and I did not want to be stuck there in those conditions. So, no sailing this day, and we decided to wait and see what it looked like on Saturday, having established that we could do the next crew change on Sunday or Monday in Stranraer, rather than Troon as originally planned ; we were effectively a couple of days ahead of schedule as a result of diverting from Largs.

 

We took the opportunity to wander around Troon, which is a pleasant mix of victorian seaside holiday town, a working port, more or less the home of golf, and a 'real town' for the local area. The only slightly unwelcoming feature was the line of four competing funeral parlours on the road into town, seperated only by a number of chiropodists and doctors ; convenient presumably when things go wrong. As two Sassenachs alone in Scotland we felt it wise not to linger on this quiet street, and made hastily for the safety of the busy town centre. Into the local Spar shop for some supplies, and here was at least a possible clue to the funeral parlour business model..... pride of place in the chiller was given to a large shelf of pre prepared battered haggis. Now, haggis is fine, but you would probably not want to eat it too often, even if you had a robust disdain for watching fat in your diet. To contemplate deep fried battered haggis on a regular basis is a very brave move indeed. We crept out of the shop with our bag of fruit and veg, feeling even more conspicuous as we crept back along funeral parlour way to make our escape.

 

The marina staff were very helpful, and we took the opportunity to get some help with the 200 hour engine oil and filter change, which was a job well done. But Saturday brought more bad forecasts, and even though we could get down to Stranraer that day, it was looking more likely that Moondog would then be stuck there for days on end, in strong NW winds . Reluctantly, therefore, we decided to leave Moondog in the very safe berth in Troon for a few days, and go home for a break. Once again the logistics were interesting, with John and me hiring a car, and my next crew  Paul kindly agreeing to defer joining the boat for a few days. This all turned out to be a good call, since the week ahead saw very strong winds, up to severe gale, on the Scottish West coast, and most of it was from the NW.  I learnt later that they had recorded 50 kts in the shelter of Troon Marina, which is fortunately totally protected from swell, and Moondog was completely safe there.

 

I took the opportunity to spend a couple of days at the Southampton Boat Show, helping Torsten man the Sirius exhibit ( the premiere for the new Sirius 31 ). This was certainly a very popular boat at the show, and attracted a lot of interest. Then it was back home on Tuesday night to wait for the weather to calm down a bit.