We woke to heavy rain , mist and very little wind, for today’s trip to Ardfern. This would take us past Oban and then through the Sound Of Luing and Dorus Mor ( 56:07.8N, 005:37.0W). These Tolkeinesque named places have very strong tides, and the good news was that we could hit them at the right time without having to start at an uncivilised hour. In order to get the map routing to work in the blog, I am splitting this trip into two parts...otherwise the route would simply show us travelling across land to Ardfern !

So, with waterproofs on, we slipped lines at 8.45, and made our way past Oban , via the Kerrera Sound, and then onwards towards Fladda lighthouse and the Sound of Luing, seeing porpoises along the way. We tried to convince ourselves that the scenery held a special charm in the rain and mist, but in truth this was much easier to do when inside , looking out. It was a difficult sell when standing outside getting drenched.

The tide helped push us on our way, giving us an extra one and half knots or so, and then the tide more or less disappeared as we approached the Fladda narrows at the entrance to the Sound of Luing.  This seemed very odd, since we were expecting the tidal flow to increase as we went through the narrows, where the depth also decreases rapidly....same amount of water trying to get through narrower and shallower gap = increased flow rate.  The penny finally dropped that we were in the area where the water was backing up as it was constrained by the narrows ahead, and this was fully evidenced as we passed Fladda and entered the narrows. We were suddenly in swirling water, with eddies and whirlpools everywhere...and we were now making almost 11 kts over the ground. The tide was running through here at 5.5kts.

It was not rough, just very active water ; you could feel the energy through the boat, and certainly through the tiller as the current tried to push us first one way, and then the other. An interesting ride, and in the midst of it a seal just ambling along, presumably catching an easy meal in the fast waters. After a while the water settled down , but we were still being pushed at 7 kts plus all down the Sound of Luing. More by luck than judgement we had got the time right, and had almost slack water as we went round the end of the Craignish Peninsula through Dorus Mor, and then we had a slight push from the new flood tide as we travelled north up Loch Craignish to Ardfern.