Returning to Rhu

Summary: Port Bannatyne back to Rhu. 17.1 miles in 2 hours 50 minutes. Motored all the way – next to no wind at all.

Charmary in Rhu

We headed back to Rhu this morning in more or less a flat calm – a complete contrast to the last few days. Not an exciting passage, but we did see lots of shoals of very small fish bubbling and jumping close to the surface with gulls picking them off. We then saw lots of porpoises – all presumably after the same thing!

We also saw the Waverley. She is the last seagoing passenger carrying paddle steamer in the world. She was built in 1946 and operated the Craigendorm (Clyde) to Arrochar (Loch Long) route from then until 1973. She was originally owned by the London and North East Railway Company (LNER), though with the nationalisation of the railways in 1948, she became part of the Caledonian Steam Packet Company (CSP). CSP gradually in the 1970s with the Scottish Ferry Company – David MacBrayne Ltd. which became Caledonian MacBrayne – or CalMac as it is better known.

The Waverley (which is named after Sir Walter Scott’s first novel – Waverley) is now owned by the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society and operates all round the UK. She usually cruises the Thames area in September and October.

The PS Waverley

As we got closer to Rhu, three police launches, four police RIBs, two minesweepers and a naval patrol boat gave a hint of something going on. Sure enough, a few hours later a large nuclear submarine went past the marina. She was, according to a German sailor further down the pontoon, a Vanguard Class of submarine. He proceeded to give me precise dimensions and details of the sub which did make me wonder whether he was more interested in submarines or the classic yacht he was on! He also suggested that she was damaged and it did look like a series of plates along the side of the hull, but whether this was correct or not – who knows.

There are apparently four Vanguard Class subs with three at sea at any given time and one in for refit. HMS Vengeance is apparently in for a major refurbishment at the moment, so what we saw was presumably either HMS Vigilant, Victorious or Vanguard – the other three imaginatively named subs. The Vanguard Class has a Rolls-Royce pressurised nuclear reactor as the propulsion and they can circumnavigate the globe around 40 times at 25 knots without any need to refuel. This did start me wondering if they do a mini version for Starlights – particularly having just put 60 litres in the tank from motoring a lot the last week.

Vanguard Class sub going past Rhu

Pottering back to Port Bannatyne

Summary: Tarbert to Port Bannatyne. 23.5 miles in 4 hours 25 minutes. Managed to sail most of the way with a short motor up the West Kyle.

Tarbert Harbour

The weather decided to ease after a couple of days of blowing hard, so we left Tarbert about 07.25 and headed down round Ardlamont Point and then up the West Kyle. With the wind behind we managed to sailed the first 7 miles or so (under jib only), but up the West Kyle the wind was dead ahead, so the motor went on. Once at the top though, the jib came out again and, though the wind went very fickle across the top of Bute, we managed to sail all the way through the Burnt Islands and back down the East Kyle.

Toddling across to Tarbert

Summary: Loch Ranza across to East Loch Tarbert. 12.9 miles in 2 hours and 5 minutes. A short hop from Arran across to Tarbert on Loch Fyne.

Entering Tarbert

After a peaceful night (generally) in Loch Ranza, we headed off at 08.10 across to Tarbert. We started with a pleasant sailing breeze and optimistically had full sail for a while. However, the weather gods knew we were coming and so the wind died, then went round 50 degrees and then later blew up (to a 4 gusting 5) and then dropped down again, so we ended up sailing for just half an hour and the rest was spent motorsailing directly to windward. Neverthless a nice trip and Tarbert is a beautiful harbour. Weaving around the islands (Eilean a Choic and Sgeir Bhuide) past first a port hand and then starboard hand beacon makes for a tight entrance, but you come into a beautiful and very sheltered harbour.

In the afternoon we went for a walk to Tarbert Castle and then round a waymarked trail around Tarbert Forest. Tarbert Castle is now mainly a ruin but still stands prominently above the town on the south side with excellent views over the harbour entrance. The castle dates back to the 13th Century, but came particularly to prominence in the early 14th century when Robert the Bruce realised the strategic importance of Tarbert. After the Battle of Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce turned his attention to the Chiefs of the Western Isles, who were then in an alliance with the English. On his way to challenge them, he is said to have dragged his ships across the mile wide isthmus between West and East Tarbert on a track of logs with their sails set to help push them across. This made him realise the importance of the Kintyre Isthmus. He is said also to have stayed in the castle in 1329 – the year of his death.

Looping across to Loch Ranza

Summary: Port Bannatyne to Loch Ranza (Arran), 23.2 miles in 4 hours. Through the Kyles of Bute and the Burnt Islands and across to Arran.

Moored in Loch Ranza

We left around 8.40am heading through the East Kyle to the Burnt Islands and then down the West Kyle past Tighnabruich and Kames and across to Loch Ranza on Arran. A beautiful trip despite the weather and we managed to sail for the last part across to Arran. Picked up a visitors mooring in Loch Ranza.

In the afternoon we went ashore and walked past Lochranza Castle at the end of the bay. Lochranza Castle, as with many in this area, dates back to the 13th century, though most of what cn be seen today dates from the 16th century. Perhaps its most recent claim to fame is that it was used as the model for the castle in the Tintin adventure ‘The Black Island’. Bob de Moor, Hergé’s chief post-war assistant toured Britain finding appropriate settings and chose Lochranza for the castle in The Black Island.

We then paid a visit to the Arran Distillery. The distillery is a very new one and only opened in 1995. In fact the opening was delayed by a pair of Golden Eagles who were nesting in the hills above the distillery – all work was stopped while the pair raised their chicks. The distillery now produces around 750,000 litres per year and I can vouch for the fact that the 10 year old single malt is very nice! It is said that there used to be around 50 distilleries on Arran, but since they were all ‘moonlight’ ones, the new Arran distillery is the first legal one.

After visiting the distillery we walked round the bay following signs to the fairy dell. We are not sure if we ever got there as we didn’t see any fairies and we weren’t sure we saw a dell, but it was a lovely walk nevertheless. We did see two different orchid species though – the common spotted orchid and the northern march orchid.

Deer & Charmary

Bobbling across to Port Bannatyne

Summary: Loch Goilhead to Port Bannatyne. 28.1 miles in 4 hours and 45 minutes. Motored for the first few hours but then a nice breeze (though right on the nose) meant we could sail the last stretch.

Rothesay Harbour

We left Loch Goilhead early morning and headed down Loch Goil, Loch Long and past Inverkip. We then rounded Toward point and rather than head into Rothesay, we decided to try the new marina at Port Bannatyne. The marina was only built in the last couple of years and offers around 100 berths behind a stone breakwater in Kames Bay. It is sheltered and accessible at all states of tide.

Port Bannatyne itself is a small village about 3km north of Rothesay. During the second world war it was the Headquarters of the Royal Navy’s 12th Submarine Flotilla – HMS Varbel. They requisitioned the Kyles Hydro Hotel as their headquarters and used nearby Loch Striven as a testing area. The base was the only base in the UK for midget submarines and human torpedoes. The midget submarines were known as X-craft and were around 51 foot in length. they were designed to be towed to the appropriate area by a larger sub and they were then deployed to hunt out their target. The explosives they carried were in what were known as ‘side-cargoes’ and once they reached the target, they dropped the explosives and headed off quickly! Perhaps the highest profile attack they were involved in was in September 1943 when two submarines successfully laid charges under the Tirpitz, rendering her out of action until April 1944.

In the afternoon we went into Rothesay on the bus and walked past the castle and to Loch Fad – an inland Loch and trout fishery. Rothesay Castle has an unusual circular plan and a history dating back to the start of the 13th century. It is now ruined and is managed by Historic Scotland.

Rothesay Castle

Lolloping to Loch Goilhead

Summary: From Rhu to Loch Goilhead – 17.2 miles in 3 hours and 5 minutes. Light winds so mostly under motor, but a nice sail up Loch Goil.

We arrived back on board on Monday and after fitting the new main (from Kemp Sails), we set off Tuesday at 09.35 to head round to Sarah and Phil’s house at Loch Goilhead. The wind was pretty light for the first  couple of miles, but we did manage to sail most of the way under jib only up Loch Goil. The wind seems to follow you up these Lochs whichever direction you are heading in! However, in the light breeze we did manage to see lots of harbour porpoises on the way to Loch Long. Heading past the naval base in Loch Long we did get shadowed by the Defence Police boat, but having come very close, they just gave us a friendly wave.

Sunken tug at the entrance to Loch Goil

The entrance to Loch Goil is lovely, though at the entrance was a timely reminder to keep to the channel – a sunken tug.One of Loch Goilhead’s claims to fame is that the highlands around the head of the loch were used for filming scenes for ‘From Russia with Love’. The scenes where Sean Connery shot down two baddies in  helicopter were filmed there in 1963.

Once at Loch Goilhead, we met Phil and Sarah, went to the local hotel for lunch and then walked it off with a dramatic walk round the head of the Loch and back to their house. Feeling very lazy, we stayed with them after supper.

The visitors moorings at Loch Goilhead are run by the jetty trust and have little tags on every mooring asking you to either pay online or to pay at the local garage. At £10 for the night they are excellent value.

Charmary on visitors mooring at Loch Goilhead

Hanging around in Holy Loch

Passage: Rhu Marina to Kilmun and back. 17.7 miles in 3 hours 20 minutes. A short passage across to Holy Loch for lunch and a walk and back again.

Hanging around in Holy Loch

A nice weather forecast (for a change) prompted us to head over to Holy Loch for a lunch stop. Holy Loch is only a short inlet (a couple of miles) just off the southern end of the entrance to Loch Long. The sunny weather brought almost no wind though, so we had to motor across and back. We stopped just off Graham’s Point at Kilmun and though we considered anchoring, the Loch didn’t shoal until very close to the shore, so we picked up a mooring. After a quick walk ashore we had lunch on board and then headed back to Rhu.

The main submarine base on the Clyde is now just up from Rhu at Faslane, but during the Second World War Holy Loch was a key submarine base. The Loch was used for trials and exercises for submarines. To prevent attack by German U-Boats an anti-submarine boom was put in place between Dunoon and Cloch Point. Two submarines were sunk during WWII in exercises in Holy Loch. These two submarines were ironically named HMS Vandal and HMS Untamed. HMS Untamed was later salvaged.

Resting in Rhu

Passage from Largs to Rhu: 17.6 miles in 3 hours and five minutes. Motored most of the way, but with a short interlude of sailing.

Approaching Rhu Narrows

A fairly short passage from Largs to our mooring at Rhu. We left fairly early at 6.35am with a forecast of lighter winds early morning. In the afternoon, stronger winds were forecast – again …… It was generally fairly quiet, but we managed to sail a for 45 minutes or so in the middle before the wind dropped again. it did gust back up to around a F5-6 at the end, but this was just as we were trying to come into the marina to make life more interesting. Still at least there weren’t any nuclear subs coming out of Faslane to make things even more interesting! We headed into the marina for a few days rather than straight onto our mooring – just to make it easier to get ashore and do things.

The afternoon was spent booking a car which we will collect tomorrow. The forecast for the next few days looks much better for cars than boats. We also went for a walk into Helensburgh – the birthplace of the inventor of the television – John Logie Baird.

Landing in Largs

Passage from Troon to Largs: 17.2 miles in 3 hours and 35 minutes. A short motor up the Scottish Coast.

The Thomas Makdougall Brisbane memorial bridge

A weather window prompted us to head straight from Troon to Largs. Though strong winds were forecast for the afternoon, the morning saw almost no wind at all, so we motored all the way. Just before Largs is Fairlie Quaywhere William Fyfe began building fishing boats in the 19th Century. He built his first yacht on the foreshore there in 1812, though yacht building became more popular in his son’s time (his son also being called William) with ‘Stella’ being launched in 1849. From then on Fyfe yachts became renowned and many still survive having been lovingly restored.

Trolling across to Troon

Passage from Bangor to Troon: 64.3 miles in 10 hours and 35 minutes. A good fast passage. Wind very variable and light to start off with, but gradually rose to around a F5 just aft of the beam – lovely sailing with speeds often around 7-9 knots.

With the forecast looking OK for today, but fairly flaky in the coming days, we decided, after much deliberation to head straight in one passage to Troon rather than the long way round via Glenarm and Campbeltown. So, we set off at 05.15 to try and catch a fair tide setting us north up the coast. the tide is fairly strong in the North Channel and then weakens significantly on the Scottish Coast, so the first 5 hours or so of fair tide were the most crucial. Winds were fairly light to start off with and we managed to broad reach at around 5.5kts, but the wind was very variable and kept going directly aft and doing so by 07.45 the engine went on again.

From there, the engine was on and off every so often, but after around 11.00 it came back and shifted slightly to the NW, gradually increasing over the coming hours to around 20-22kts. This gave us speeds of 7-8.5kts – lovely sailing.

Ailsa Craig - dominating the entry to the Firth of Clyde

At midday we were level with Ailsa Craig. Ailsa Craig is around 220 acres and is now uninhabited. It is formed from a volcanic plug of an extinct volcano and was used for many years to quarry blue hone granite for curling stones. It is owned by the 8th Marquess of Ailsa (appropriately named) and she put it on the market in May 2011 for an asking price of something over £1,500,000. It is 2 miles across and rises spectacularly to 1,110 feet (340m). As a result, it is visible from many miles away. When it was still 18 miles away, I felt we were getting close! The island has a ruined keep on the east side which was built in the 1500s by the Hamilton family to protect the island from King Felipe of Spain. At the time the island was a haven for Catholics during the Scottish Reformation.

The island is now simply a haven for gannets and increasing numbers of puffins! The island is leased by the RSPB until 2050 and they undertook a project to rid the island of imported rats. Now that the rats are gone, the puffins are coming back.

The wind dropped off as we got close to Lady Isle off Troon, so we took the sails down and motored the last few miles, arriving at Troon at 15.50.

Entering Troon