Once through Dorus Mor at high water slack, it was an easy motor up Loch Craignish in very light airs and rain...which lifted more or less as we arrived at Ardfern Marina (56:11.0N, 005:32.0W). This was most unusual, since we normally had the reverse with rain starting whenever we needed to play with mooring lines.

Ardfern is a pretty place, nestled at the top of Loch Craignish, and is also a very well run Marina. We were to meet friends Chris and Ann here, and they arrived shortly after we had got the lines sorted out. Chris keeps his boat here, and  we were moored only a few boats away from Swallow. As is customary in boatie circles we were soon admiring each other’s boats and swapping tall tales of sailing adventures.

Chris and Ann had kindly offered to give us a tour of some of the  surrounding countryside and then to cook us dinner at their home nearby. This was a good break from sailing, and it was interesting to explore on land some of the landmarks we had seen from the sea.  I have known Chris for many years when we worked in the same firm, but it turns out that he was wasting his time as an accountant....he should have gone into cooking based on the meal he prepared, using freshly picked mushrooms.

All I can say is that the mushroom site is within 20 miles of Ardfern, but he stubbornly resisted our pleas for the exact location.  Apparently such sites are to be kept secret, and a newcomer must go out into the wilderness and find their own damp bit of forest laden with potentially deadly fungi. Very much a rite of passage for new residents I think. We did not want to delve deeper into any more arcane customs in case there was a version reserved for temporary visitors ( although if it involved anything to do with swimming in ice cold water Michael and I had already got Cathy lined up....)

After this excellent meal and company, it was back to the boat and hoping that Chris had got the up to date edition of ‘ Identifying deadly fungi’. Turns out he had , since we all woke up the next morning for the trip into the Crinan Canal.