Tarbert - 55° 52' 01" N 05°24'38" W

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 McCartney - closed while we were there.
We were still able to peek over the fence.

After our crossing, we dropped sails and motored straight into the town dock and were met, literally on the pontoon by the Harbourmaster.  He even caught and secured dock lines for us.

Chinook had got us across ahead of the wind that had been forecast.  We thanked the harbourmaster, then went below to catch up on sleep once Chinook was secured.

Tied to a pontoon is a good way to wait out a weather system.

After a day of gusting winds we ventured out ... but tentatively.  Sean was still on crutches and wanted to allow his knee to heal.  Kate located the local grocery store and walked into town to get provisions.

Our third day in Campbeltown began to show signs of clearing and looked inviting, so we brought out our Brompton bikes.  Pedalling would be a good way to travel without stressing Sean's injury too much.

Riding out along the bay entrance, past sheep paddocks.
Hooray for bicycles!

Sean's bike, Napoleon and Davaar Island in the background.

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So, after a few days of light duty and some boat jobs, we moved on to East Loch Tarbert.

East Loch Tarbert - just to confuse things, there are at least six places in Scotland called Tarbert. 
A tarbert is a strip of land between two bodies of water over which boats can be hauled (or
portaged, as Canadians would say). This particular Tarbert is the one in Argyll.

Stopping here was to serve two purposes: to allow Sean more of the easy access on/off the boat (and therefore a chance to recuperate) he had in Campbeltown; and to explore what we were told was a very pretty town that must be visited.

Right on both counts.

Although fishing is no longer the industry it was, there are still a number of pretty boats
 alongside the pontoon.

We have been very fortunate with the weather - sunshine, light winds and warming temperatures meant that we have walked around the harbour and out to the entrance; saw the ferry landing and the old commercial docks (still active with scallop and prawn tanks); chatted with the very friendly and social locals; Kate managed a couple of trail runs; ridden our bicycles to the loch that nearly turns the Kintyre peninsula into an island AND had time to meet a few of the cruising couples who have pulled into the marina, too.

We met the lovely Emma and Stuart aboard their Nauticat, Evolene.  Remember these two, they will feature is later blog posts - and us in theirs!

West Loch Tarbert - much quieter than East Tarbert

Kate, being the social type, had a chat with one of the fellows tidying up the gardens around the harbour.  It turns out that he is retired and has a place in Tarbert and spends the summer here.  While he and his wife are here, they work at seasonal work (he at a game lodge two days a week and another two days with the harbour authority; she at the local primary school) and are aware that the town's continuing future is in question.  The fishing industry - once a mainstay of the local economy - has had to change with the dwindling catches and expanded to include fish farms along Loch Fyne.  

The waterfront is gorgeous and well maintained.

The harbour authority has also spent a lot of money to beautify the harbour and entice small businesses to set up (creating walking areas around the harbour walls, leaving areas for ice cream vendors, bike mechanics and other tourist services).  The town is gambling that this will bring more people year-round to the area,  giving young people a reason to be here, keeping schools, grocery stores, restaurants and other businesses alive.  it is too early in the plan to know if the plan will work, but the town seems to be attracting people.  The shops all seemed busy on this sunny day.

We noted just how many locals were happy to stop by for a chat - even when we were away from the Canadian flag flapping from Chinook's transom.  We were sitting at the benches along the harbour wall when passers-by would take our "hello" as an invite to strike up a conversation.  We had a few of the other sailors on the pontoon stop by to ask about Chinook or just point out that it was sunny.  In Scotland.  For the second day in a row!

Tarbert Castle

We are a few days away from our booked time to start the Crinan Canal and there is rain in the near forecast, so we will find a spot to anchor and wait out the rain before we start our first foray into going cross-country with Chinook.

To celebrate our FIRST EVER canal trip, here is a song, known and beloved to the locals, that immortalizes this lock system we are about to traverse.  Sean has decided to add it to his repertoire of guitar-friendly folk classics. Apologies in advance for the earworm!

Be glad you can stop playing this if you choose, because Sean and Kate will have it going through their heads (or Chinook's sound system) the whole time they are transiting the Crinan.

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