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.