Circular Tour

Two friends for a long time, Roy and John joined on Thursday afternoon.  For the start of our cruise was a peaceful sail up the East Kyle to the Kames Hotel with a good dinner ashore, the moon rising over Bute with the sun setting over the mainland was a memorable sight that evening.
Friday opened with wall to wall sunshine and the sea like a mirror.  We motored down the Kyle towards Ardlamont Point and then picked up the forecast NW breeze for a brisk sail over to Lochranza on Arran, where, with some difficulty, we managed to pick up a buoy.  Bouncing around in the ever freshening wind I stayed on board to keep an eye on things while the lads went ashore to visit the local distillery.
Onwards, still in sunshine and now with a wind gusting up to 27 knots we set off up Loch Fyne for Tarbert.  Good experience for Roy who is new to sailing to find out why the wind direction has a lot of bearing on the progress.  We were in time to visit Mr. Prentice and his seafood emporium out at the ferry terminal and dinner was in the cockpit, langoustines and scallops accompanied by a fine bottle of Moet, we weren’t scrimping.
Overnight there was tremendous showers of rain, which continued for the day.  The wind was still breezy from the NW but now behind us, all the way to Kempock Point with just the genoa giving us a respectable 6 to 8 knots right up to the marina.  Largs Regatta is on this weekend with some damage apparent on poor soul sailing up Loch Fyne with a ripped head sail.

A great three days, thanks to John & Roy for their company, and the bottles of Rhum and Whisky.  Lochranaza whisky is excellent and I recommend it to those of you who like a tipple.