Saturday started with a crew change. Helen and Nigel left to go back home, darkly muttering that some people have to work on Monday, and John joined for the next week. Avis had negotiated an extended pass with Nigel, and was going to stay for the trip to Oban, or more accurately Dunstaffnage Marina ( 56:27.0N, 005:25.0W ) and then leave on Monday. As always, the sailing is easy, it is the logistics that will catch you out....

 

We set off from Corpach sea lock in fine weather, but little wind, and what there was tended to be blowing up Loch Linnhe, which was unfortunate since we were trying to sail down Loch Linnhe. So, this was a trip mainly under motor, with a few attempts at sailing to get some practice and fun. We saw very little other traffic, and slipped through the Corran Narrows with no problems, since we had weak tides.

 

The weather then started to gradually revert to type for this part of the world, since you must always 'pay' for several days of uninterrupted sunshine. The sun went in for a rest and the wind picked up to a F4, which would have been fine, but for the fact that it was still blowing directly from  the direction we were heading for, so mainly motoring apart from the odd tack under sail for the fun of it.

 

We had no problems finding the marina and berthing, although it was a decent day trip of 32 miles, all the way down Loch Linnhe, into the Lynn of Lorn and then into Dunstaffnage Bay......some of these Scottish coastal names are straight out of Lord of the Rings ! Once the boat was safe, we made the first of several visits to the Frog pub next to the marina......excellent pub food and local beer.

 

The forecast for Sunday was for strengthening winds and general unpleasantness later, so we set off for a morning sail out into the bay and down towards Oban, and at last we were able to have a good sail,rather than motor. We went to have a look at a couple of cruise ships anchored just outside Oban Bay, and then back to the marina, as the wind really started to increase, and even the local sailing school boat seemed to be heading back.....always a good sign of weather to come I have discovered. With the boat safely tied up, we spent an afternoon in a surprisingly sunny and sheltered Oban...a real micro climate out of the wind, and we were tourists for the afternoon.

 

 As far as we could tell, the main reason for visiting Oban these days is to eat fish and chips and ice cream , based on the number of shops and the people to be seen sitting on every available seat, wall and bit of grass eating one or the other ( or both) of these treats. We soon joined them with some fantatsic local ice creams. My theory is that it is impossible for anyone to resist these delicacies when faced with a critical mass of people all munching and licking away, with the smell of fish and chips lingering in the air. The worthies of Oban clearly spotted this and deployed neo con Shock and Awe tactics against the tourists, but thankfully confined themselves to a blitzkrieg of lemon sorbet and cod and chips 'take oot ' establishments.  You will never be hungry in Oban !

 

We said farewell to Avis early on Monday morning, as she left to catch a train for the long trip back to Lincoln. John and me were then stuck in Dunstaffnage for Monday and Tuesday,waiting for the wind to drop. Apart from visits to the pub, we also diversified into bread making ( see slightly scarey pic of John and bread ), picking blackberries for making a pudding and wandering over to Dunstaffnage Castle. For those of you interested in the pudding recipie....a bowl of fresh blackberries, sugar, a large slug of malt whiskey and greek yohurt, mix and eat. Jamie O would be proud !

 

In these situations it is possible to go completely mad, trapped in a marina, and the wind can often sound worse than it really is once you do venture outside. Wednesday was forecast to be quieter, and we planned our trip to Crinan, which unfortunately meant a 6am departure from Dunstaffnage in order to catch the tides correctly as we passed by Fladda lighthouse into the Sound of Luing, and then round Craignish Point through Dorus Mor at or near slack. All went well, but we had to motor and motor sail in the fairly light winds in order to 'keep on schedule' to hit the tides correctly. It was fairly scarey past Fladda into the Sound of Luing, with whirlpools and bubbling water in the current,and this was far below the peak tidal streams here. In reality it was no worse than conditions in the Menai Straits, which I am well used to, but it feels very different when you are unfamiliar with the waters and seeing it for the first time.

 

We made very fast time down the Sound of Luing, hitting 8 kts over the ground, and it seemed that we had got the tides wrong, since it should have been closer to low water slack by my reckoning. However, it becam e clear that the currents varied enormously in different parts of the Sound, and as we approached the southern end, everything died down.As newcomers to this area our main concern was to 'keep left' and well away from the dreaded Corryvecken, without straying too far and entering Dorus Mor. My plan had been to pass well south of the chain of small islands off Craignish Point, extending into the Sound of Jura, and then loop back to Crinan, thus avoiding Dorus Mor. However, as we passed Craignish Point a quick look through the binoculars showed smooth water in Dorus Mor, so we cut through and were at the Crinan sea lock in no time. We felt that we were on a steep learning curve in these waters , but were begining to learn how to make them work for you, rather than being afraid of them..

 

The Crinan sea lock was a nightmare. For reasons unknown the lock keeper decided we and the other two yachts in the lock had to get up into the canal as fast as possible = lets open the sluice gates fully and create Crinan's version of Typhoon Lagoon in the sea lock.There was no other boat in sight either at sea or in the canal,so this rush was a bit of a mystery. Since Moondog was last in, has a robust bow extension capped with an anchor and is generally built like a tank, we were ok and were just concerned to avoid scratches on the lock side. The brand new Southerly in front of us ( and therefore closer to the deluge pouring into the lock) must have had a very troublesome few minutes choosing between being flooded by the water  pouring like a waterfall into the lock, or slipping back a little and being skewered by our bow. Somehow we all emerged unscathed, but we elected, in true British fashion, to moor up and retire to the cafe for a cup of tea and a bacon butty, which worked wonders.

 

We were then relieved to see that a new lock keeper was on duty ; a very nice young lady who treated the locks, and us very gently, and we rose sedately in the next lock and into the canal proper. This was the end of help from the lock keepers ( although it was now clear the 'help' was a relative term). Unlike the Caledonian Canal, all of the locks on the Crinan Canal had to be worked by the boat crew, apart from the sea locks at each end. Since there were only two of us on board, I had made arrangements in advance to have some help from a retired waterways man, Jim. This proved to be one of my more inspired decisions of the whole trip. Jim met us at the next lock and worked the locks for us and generally guided us through , and probably saved some serious scratches to Moondog by telling us of the varying heights of the lockside in different locks, so we could set spare fenders at the right height. Seems that the Victorian engineers might not have been so clever after all....

 

We worked on through much of this beautiful canal, and tied up at the down end of the Cairnbaan locks, agreeing to meet Jim at the next lock at 9am the following day. We did in fact have a little excitement working through Cairnbaan locks and bridge, with the bridge keeper waving us on to hurry up on our approach to the road bridge he had opened. This was most out of character for most canal staff, who had a wonderfully relaxed approach to life ( apart from the aforementioned Crinan lock keeper [male]). All was revealed, when the bridge keeper came over to see us at our mooring, to aplogise for this unseemly demonstration of urgency, or indeed of his recognition of time passing at all. Apparently, he had received a call that Princess Anne was on her way along the road, and that she must not be hindered or delayed, which was of course difficult since he had opened the bridge for us, and thereby removed her road. Our response, that had we known this we would have slowed right down, clearly hit the right tone for this part of Scotland, after which we visited the local pub , situated conveniently alongside the lock.

 

The following day, Thursday 9 Sept,saw a short trip down the canal and through a few more locks with Jim, before we were at the Ardrishaig sea lock and ready to exit into Loch Gilp and back into salt water.