... try and find us

The Crinan Canal was opened in 1801 to provide a navigable route between the Firth of Clyde and the Sound of Jura.  Basically, it cuts across the top of the Kintyre Peninsula so boats do not have to travel the 60nm around the Mull of Kintyre.  This short-cut, sadly meant we could not sing our way around the 'Mull of Kintyre' so we made do with the 'Crinan Canal Song' (and having planted that ear worm firmly in a previous blog post , we will not make you suffer it again in this one!) That red line  is where the canal is and it cuts out a lot of travel around the bottom of Kintyre We traversed the canal from SE to NW The canal has 14 locks, eight up-locks and 6 down-locks and two bridges when travelling from Ardrishaig to Crinan as we did.  The locks are all manual and require the opening of a sluice gate to let the water fill or empty the lock before the gate is opened, the boats enter and the process is reversed.  When we say manual, we mean manual...

With rain forecast for the next few days, we headed to the shelter of Otter Bay in Loch Fyne to sit out the weather.  It is named after the Gaelic term  An Oitir for the   sandbank that juts out into the loch by nearly a mile. There are, however, otters in the area so seeing an otter in Otter Bay is not out of the question! Chinook at peace, resting on her anchor The settlement is named Otter Ferry after the now-defunct ferry that ran across the loch. Despite the rain, we had a delightful few days doing boat jobs, wandering along the beach and sampling the menu at the Oystercatcher Pub . From the end of the otter looking back to shore - hope we've timed the tides right! It's not often you can walk out to the navigation mark you came around!  Be sure you leave this one to starboard as you come north. We had a great few days, Sean's knee has had a good rest and is much improved.  While he will not be partaking in the 100m dash anytime soon, the crutches are now o...

Making the effort to display the correct courtesy flag. After an early departure from Bangor, we had a smooth sail across the Irish Sea.  Crippled Sean was on the helm while Kate did almost all the sail trimming.  As Chinook has handholds everywhere, it turns out a sailing yacht is not a bad place for someone with only one weight-bearing leg. Our first port of call in Scotland was Campbeltown.  It is a former fishing village, a ferry port and surprisingly, a natural gas depot.  The town's biggest claim to (recent) fame is their (nearby) residents, Paul McCartney and his late wife, Linda.  Early on in the Beatles' career, Paul and Linda purchased a farm near Campbeltown that they both fell in love with.  Paul so very much loved spending time there to escape from public life that he still lives there in retirement.  The place inspired some of his post-Beatles music, notably the song Mull of Kintyre . A memorial garden and statue of Linda M...

Wow!  A photo with the two of us. Thanks Eyvan. (notice the four fully-functional knees) After a glorious sail from The Isle of man, disaster struck when we arrived in Bangor.   An ill-timed leap, a wobbly pontoon and funny landing resulted in Sean damaging his knee.  Unable to weight-bear, he bravely crawled to secure the stern line.  Eyvan secured the bowline and the boat was safe.  Only then, was there any sympathy for the damaged knee. Off to the minor Injuries Unit.  Very conveniently, the marina has a wheelchair! Vicky at the marina was wonderful.  Not only did she produce a wheel chair and order a taxi, she recommended we go to the Minor Injuries Unit at the Ulster Hospital rather than Accident and Emergency (A&E).  Wait times at the A&E can run into double digits.  Thanks to her local insight, we were back on the boat, x-rayed, braced and sporting crutches and drugs.  Nothing broken and, following a visit t...

We reckon all the good karma that Eyvan has built up over the years helped the sun to shine and the wind to blow in the right direction, giving us a marvellous passage to the Isle of Man.  Thanks to Eyvan, our new, on-board photographer, we have a picture of the two of us putting up sails. Great action shot! When you are on watch, you need to keep an eye on ships that are approaching.  The chart plotter can make this seem MUCH more imminent than it is.  Here is an example. Yikes! Look at that ship RIGHT BESIDE US!  It's a HUGE TANKER! Reality: not so scary. With that in mind, we looked ahead to a tidal race we were going to transit at the south end of the island - the Calf Sound.  It could be very bumpy if we caught it at the wrong time in the tide cycle. As we approached, we could also see cliffs facing the sound and it was late afternoon - that could mean katabatic winds.  We had planned to sail through, but lost our nerve about fifteen minu...