Lamlash, Arran

The journey from Campbeltown to Arran, on the west coast of Scotland, was proving uneventful. Jomima was handling the slight swell with ease. There was little wind and the sun was shining. We were planning to visit some friends, who had retired to Arran, and we had been unable to visit them for several years. There are no marinas on Arran and the nearest recommended safe place to moor was Lamlash Bay, which is sheltered behind Holy Island. We have never anchored overnight so we were pleased to see some visitor’s mooring buoys provided by the local yacht club – even though they appeared to be fairly close together. It was early on a Saturday afternoon and most of the buoys were vacant. So we picked up one fairly near the middle of the line of moorings and, for extra security, attached Jomima to the buoy with two ropes.

We telephoned our friends and they invited us to have dinner with them and volunteered to collect us from the pier. We lowered our tender and set off for the end of the pier. I had checked the tides and knew that the tide was going out. I carefully moored the tender, with a long rope, to allow for the rise and fall of the tide as we were likely to be away for about six hours.

When we returned to the tender, she was floating comfortably at the end of the pier and the tide was coming in. We returned to Jomima and raised the tender onto the davits. After admiring the line of yachts, that had filled all of the other vacant buoys, we headed for bed.

At three in the morning Ann woke me to say that she was unable to sleep because something was banging against the hull. By this time the tide was out again and the swell was making Jomima roll slightly. I quickly put on a few clothes, and my life jacket, and made my way outside. It was slack water and the mooring buoy was bumping against the hull. I tightened and adjusted the mooring ropes so that the buoy was immediately below the pulpit and no longer able to hit Jomima’s bow. I then returned to the cabin and noticed in the moonlight that the other sailing boats were at a different angle to the tide – probably because of their keels. I then returned to my bed for some sleep.

Unfortunately the swell increased and it was now causing Jomima to roll badly. Alternatively, when she swung further round, the waves banged very noisily under the bathing platform which was behind our bed. Ann and I were now wide awake and we decided that a cup of tea would probably be the best solution to our problems. I went to switch the gas on and noticed that the next yacht was now very close indeed to our side rails. I dashed outside, with very little on, reached over our rails and pushed the yacht’s pulpit away from our port side. By now the tide was fully out and this had caused the swing ark of the, already close together mooring buoys to increase greatly. Also, being a different shape to the other moored yachts, we had adopted a different angle to the tide and slight wind. The yacht, which was still in total darkness, headed for the side of Jomima again. Ann took over fending off with our boat hook while I prepared to leave this, by now, extremely uncomfortable mooring.

We had not put to sea in the dark before but managed to do so in double quick time. There was an anchorage marked on the charts near by and, by moonlight, we headed for that area and dropped anchor. I imagined that I had thought of everything but, from now on, I will avoid buoys that look too close together. Also, as we are no longer ‘anchoring virgins’ we will seriously consider that as an option in future.

Campbeltown

Next stop Campbeltown. We went past the lighthouse, at the harbour entrance, and moored up to the single pontoon near the fishing boat wharf. We then paid a visit to the very, very old and traditional distillery. After the modern equipment at the Arran whisky plant it was remarkable to see the

traditional methods being used by the Springbank distillery. Most of the equipment and buildings seemed to have been put together in the 1800’s. The guide stressed that if anything had to be replaced then it was carefully copied in the same materials. They even prepare their own barley and Ann was able to have a go at turning it with a ‘grubber’. We had paid £10 each


for the visit and that was supposed to include four tastings. However, they were very generous and we eventually lost count of the tishtings and eventually somehow managed to find our way back to Jomima.

Loch Ranza, Arran

The forecast for today was some sun and, more importantly, less wind. There are only really three places for us to moor Jomima on Arran and none of them have a marina and they are all likely to give us a sleepless night in high winds. The closest point is Loch

Ranza and that is where we headed for. We managed to find a buoy, some distance from the all too regular ferry and its wash. We then lowered our tender and headed for the shore and a visit to the relatively new, and only, distillery on Arran. This proved to be a very pleasant visit and a suitable bottle was purchased. After a tasting we wobbled back to the dingy and

rescued it from the rising tide. The wind kindly dropped completely and we were able to enjoy the incredible sunset before heading for bed.

Inveraray

Something that you may be unaware of is that Ann likes buses. Give her a bus timetable and she will be quiet for hours. The buses through Tarbert go all of the way to Glasgow – but only three times each day. The midday one was chosen to take us as far as Inveraray at the head of Loch Fyne. This gave us chance to visit Inveraray jail, which is now a

museum. This was very well done and it showed how awful jails were 200 years ago. The day improved when we visited Inveraray Castle, which is owned by the Duke of Argyle – who is head of the Clan Campbell. The day improved even more when, after deciding we needed a meal before the 19:50 bus back, I managed to locate the Loch Fyne Hotel. This is owned by the sister company to the Loch Fyne oyster bar chain of restaurants. A fish slate, followed by Venison and sticky toffee pudding – washed down by an Australian Shiraz. An excellent way to finish a wet, but enjoyable, day.

Tarbert, Loch Fyne

The weather forecast, for the next couple of days, was rain and more rain plus a blast of wind for good measure. We therefore decided that a couple of nights in a sheltered harbour was called for. We chose East Tarbert. Very old fashioned and, at that time, recovering from a very busy weekend holding a major sailing regatta, it seemed tired. We managed to stock up with food, and the locals were friendly, so we decided to stay another night.

Loch Riddon

Tom, one of the other boat owners at Kip Marina, had very kindly offered us the use of his mooring buoy at the top of Loch Riddon. We cruised slowly up the Kyles of Bute, past Rothesay on towards the narrow entrance to Loch Riddon. The depth gauge was reading about 45 metres and suddenly went down to 5 metres, for about five seconds, and then back to 45 metres.

This is a fairly common problem in this area and fortunately one that we had been warned about. We had just been undertaken by a submarine!

We had lunch at anchor in Caladh Harbour, which is a very small natural sheltered spot behind an island and almost totally enclosed. In 3 metres of water it felt like a puddle compared to what we are getting used to in this area. When we arrived at the top of the Loch we spent 5 minutes looking for Grand Cru’s mooring buoy. They all have the owner’s boat’s name on but wind and tide make reading them rather tricky without actually colliding with the buoy. However it was well worth it because, once safely moored, we were able to admire the wonderful scenery and bob gently in the peace and quite in this undeveloped area. However, the weather deteriorated during the night and we spent an anxious few hours wondering if the single piece of rope holding the buoy would be strong enough to compete with the high winds trying to push us against the lee shore!

Rest Day in Kip Marina

The mooring that we have, at present, in Kip Marina is rather splendid. Jomima (third from right) is moored to a pontoon that is nearly twice her length and the boats nearby are magnificent. Tomorrow we plan to leave Kip Marina for a while so we generally cleaned her and prepared for our

journey around the islands in the Clyde area. Now full of food, fuel and water we are prepared to visit more remote areas where these things are less available.

One of the nicer things that happened today was the hatching of a signet to two swans that had nested very near the entrance to our pontoon. They apparently nest there every year despite the general noise and problems with high tides. Isn’t nature wonderful.

Isle of Bute

Today was a day, for me, to catch up on my jobs. I had managed to service the port engine before Ann arrived at Inverkip. The starboard engine now needed oil and filter change and also the diesel filters needed changing. That involves removing most of the interior flooring and furniture in the

middle of the boat. So, Ann was going out in the car by herself and chose to visit the Isle of Bute. This was largely because it will be a difficult place for us to stay overnight because there is major construction work going on in the harbour area.

Ann thoroughly enjoyed visiting this beautiful island. There was very little traffic and she was able to visit both the largest town (the only town!) of Rothesay and also the eastern end of the island. It was an interesting adventure – and I managed to get my dirty jobs completed.

The day dawned wet and windy and we decided to return to Kip Marina, if the wind abated, so that we could restock and I could finish servicing the engines. After lunch the wind dropped sufficiently for us to make the 45 minute journey to Kip. Most of the visitor’s berths were occupied, by the bank holiday boaters, but the berthing master very kindly found us a berth on their pontoon for larger boats, where we moored in state surrounded by magnificent boats up to twice the length and ten times the price of Jomima.

Loch Long

Derek and Julie are very experienced sailors having previously sailed around Britain and Ireland. However, they have very little experience of motor cruisers and today was the day to correct that oversight. The selected cruising area was the full length of Loch Long, largely because it would have been a difficult sailing area with much tacking between the nearby shores. They were surprised by how much more you can see from Jomima with the higher helm position and lack of obstructing sails. I don’t think that they are ready to convert to power yet but, perhaps, the thought is now not so onerous.

Unfortunately the truck ride to Scotland, which stirs up any sediment, followed by treating the diesel tanks with treatment to kill any bacteria and algae, meant that the port engine stopped abruptly with a blocked filter. I had planned to change the filters in two days time, in Kip Marina but was now faced with having to do so at anchor at the top Loch Long. Spare filters and equipment for changing them was all on board. So, with the experienced help of Derek, we changed the primary and engine filters fitted to that engine. Air had been drawn into the pipes, by the fuel starvation, so the engine needed to turn over for some time before it finally started – much to the relief of everybody. The diagnosis of the problem was confirmed when we made it back to Holy Loch Marina without any further problems.

Loch Goil

The weather had moderated a bit that morning so we decided to start the exploration of the local Lochs. We left Holy Loch and turned north up Loch Long and then north west into Loch Goil – passing two porpoise as we did so. Shortly after entering the Loch we saw Carrick Castle on the southern shore. I took
Jomima closer to the bank but the castle looked very dark and forbidding so we headed up to the town of Lochgoilhead. On the way up the loch we had to move over towards the west bank to avoid one of the many navy vessels in this area. It is amazing how deep many of the lochs are. At times I was only 50 metres from the bank and there was 50 metres of water under Jomima. No wonder I was advised

to add another 30 metres of anchor chain to my puny 30 metres of chain.

At the top of the loch we tied up to a buoy for lunch and enjoyed the fantastic views of the surrounding mountains. Ann was impressed enough to take out her art equipment and start to draw and paint the surroundings. After lunch we returned slowly to the marina at Holy Loch to await the arrival of fellow travellers, Julie and Derek. They arrived in their Warrior sailing boat at about 6:00 pm in time for a quick dinner with us prior to a visit to the local pub to watch Manchester United win the European Cup.

Benmore Gardens

Today we decided to use the local bus service to visit Benmore Botanic Garden. It is only about 5 miles from our base at Sandbank on the shores of Holy Loch. The gardens themselves were far better than we had expected and even Ann managed to find a number of plants that she had not previously seen. They had the largest (in more ways

than one) collection of giant redwood trees and magnificent array of 300 species of rhododendron set in 120 acres of mountainside gardens. With many interesting shrubs such as a handkerchief tree. You never knew what you were going to find around the next corner.

After lunch in their café we again took the bus and rumbled along to Dunoon. There are two regular ferry services operating from there to the mainland. The locals seem to treat the ferries as an extension of the roads and plan their journeys accordingly.

Holy Loch

Road journeys always cover boats in far more grime than usual. So, firstly, we needed to clean Jomima and then stock her with fresh food ready for heading to our base, for the next week, at Holy Loch. The journey to Holy Loch Marina, near the old US nuclear submarine base vacated over ten years ago, was uneventful. We carefully crossed the Clyde traffic

lanes at 90 degrees as instructed – but without another vessel in site. Holy Loch itself is stunning. It looks like a small estuary but is nearly 50m deep – which is why it was used by the US submarines. The marina is being converted from the old landing area used by the US marines. They had a permanent mother ship and dry dock moored off shore with nearly 3,000 men attending to the refurbishment of the subs when they came in for servicing.

Kip Marina

Ann had agreed to drive our car from Nottingham to Kip complete with the final items of packing and also the essential outboard engine for Jomima’s tender. This had been too heavy to load onto the boat while she was out of the water at Newark. Ann left at 8:30 am and had a good journey, apart from heavy Friday afternoon traffic in Glasgow, covered the 300 miles by 3:30 pm. That afternoon we were welcomed to Scotland by Margaret and Morrison, who are also members of the Broom Owners Club - with a boat very similar to Jomima. That evening Morrison had arranged what proved to be and excellent meal for us all at the local hotel. However, by 10.00 pm Ann was fading fast, after her long drive to Scotland, so we were not long out of bed.

Arrival at Inverkip

The Glasgow police will not let wide loads travel along the M8 through Glasgow until 10.00 am. So, unusually, the driver did not leave at his normal 6:00 am and we had a lie in and finally left at 8:00 am. The view from the very high cab of the truck was magnificent as we headed north up the M6, A74 and M74. The journey through Glasgow passed without encountering too much traffic as a result we were slightly early for the escort vehicle. After a brief spell in a lay-by I was handed a two way radio by the escort driver and asked to listen to instructions. We were then able to follow a white van, with flashing lights, through the centre of Greenock and all of the rest of the journey to Kip Marina.

After waiting for one hour for the crane to return a yacht to the water, after having had a new propeller fitted (I never did find out how he lost his last one), Jomima was lowered into the waters of the Firth of Clyde ready for the start of this year’s adventure.

Travelling to Scotland

After months of planning, Jomima was just about going to be ready for lifting onto a truck, for transporting to the west coast of Scotland, by Thursday 15^th May 2008. On the Tuesday before she was due to go I received a call to ask if we could be ready a day earlier because the truck was ahead of schedule and they could then bring a return load back

from Scotland on the Friday. The return load saves me having to pay for the truck to travel back from Scotland empty and therefore saves me money. So, after a busy 24 hours, we were ready for the off a day earlier than planned.

Jomima is nearly 4m wide and is therefore a “wide load”. This means that the driver needs a “second man” and an escort vehicle for the last few miles of the journey to Inverkip from Greenock near Glasgow. I had agreed to be second man so, once Jomima was loaded after lunch, we headed north up the A1 from Newark and then across the A66 to Penrith. The A66 is one of the highest roads in England so the views were great. At Penrith is a secure truck stop where we were able to stay the night with the driver sleeping in his cab and me sleeping high up on the back of the truck in Jomima.