Returning Home

Unfortunately, following the death of my father's lady friend, we have been forced to return home for a period. Hopefully, we will be back on board Jomima in July 2008 to continue our journey around the west coast of Scotland.

Rothesay, Isle of Bute

Fortunately, we had been warned that the harbour at Rothesay was being rebuilt and with noisy pumps etc it was advisable not to stay there for the night. So, after arriving fairly early, we had a quick look at the town. After lunch we caught a bus to Mount Stuart. This proved to be an astounding Victorian Gothic Mansion. The variety of marble and the detailed carvings must have taken hundreds of man years to achieve – all of which was paid for by the docks at Cardiff! The original wealth was created by a marriage of a man with ideas and a lady who owned a bit of land in south Wales. The result was a vast fortune created by some coal and by building the docks at Cardiff. There is a web site which is worth a visit:

http://www.mountstuart.com/

The Stuarts of Bute have been around the island for 700 years. Some readers may remember Johnny Dumphries, the racing driver with John Player Special Lotus. He is also known as: John Colum Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute – the present owner of Mount Stuart. I was fortunate to have been a host at a customer event, at a track near the Lotus headquarters in Norfolk, many years ago. He appeared at the event and drove willing volunteers (me included) around the track in a four seater Lotus sports car. The most memorable thing was that you could tell precisely where he was on the track by the sound of the squealing tyres which continued for the full circuit of the the windy track. Looking at oncoming cabages, while the car was travelling sideways, is also a memory that has lingered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Crichton-Stuart,_7th_Marquess_of_Bute

A memorable visit and well worth the bus ride.

Millport, Great Cumbrae Island

After the adventures of the previous night, we left Lamlash at 7:00 am and arrived at Millport on the Islands of Cumbrae by 9:00 am. As expected, this is a well sheltered mooring which we had chosen with a view to catching up on our lost sleep.

The weather in the morning was excellent and, being a Sunday, by the standards of the Clyde, it became very busy. Many Glaswegians arrived by ferry, hired bikes, and cycled around the Island. With three bike hire shops this is obviously a popular form of entertainment on the island. We lowered our well travelled dingy and collected the Sunday Times. The rest of the day we relaxed, read, and watched the many boats coming and going with people enjoying the fine weather. However, they departed quickly that afternoon when the rain clouds appeared.

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.