And that's another season over

Julie, Lynne and David off for the last sail of 2012 in a brisk wind
from the NW, not many others out but we headed off with a heavily
reefed mainsail and genoa. On our way down the West coast of Great
Cumbrae we were doing over 8 knots with the wind on the beam. Lunch
swinging around on a mooring bouy at Millport before heading back up
the Largs channel where I took this Panorama photo. Great day's sail
and a good one to finish the season off with, the boat comes out of
the water this Monday.

Out with the lads

Out for lunch today at the Point in Greenock with, from left to right,
Ian, Brian and Walter. Always good to catch up with the local and
Waverley news, between Brian and Ian there isn't many folk that have
navigated the waters or the streets of Inverclyde that they don't
know. Walter's expression can be put down to his shock at having to
get a round in now that it's September again. (only joking Walter)

At Anchor

Just arrived off the North end of Bute, anchored by the Burnt Islands and indulging in a Pimms to watch the sun set

Lunch out at Rhu Marina

Out on an Awayaday to Rhu and lunch with Mum.  We bumped into Frances Mascarenhas who was also dining out at the Marina Cafe, incidentally a  nice place to visit if you are ever in the area.

Visiting ship

The Passenger Vessel Amadea anchored off the entrance to Oban Bay this
morning. In between showers they have a wonderful day for it.

Pot of gold?

Heavy rain showers at the moment which produced this rainbow over
Lismore and an interesting cloud.

Not one of our better days

Yesterday, Friday 14th, proved to be difficult for all involved, the weather forecast was bad and unfortunately proved to be on the button regarding the wind speed and direction.  On this run strong winds from the North West make the berthing at either end of the run difficult, in particular at Oban as this means it blows directly onto the berth through the North entrance to the Bay.  We departed from Oban on time in the morning and on arrival at Craignure the wind had increased in strength to 35 knots and up, a Force 8 or 9 gale or severe gale.  The  next two sailings were subsequently cancelled until we departed at 13:00 for Oban.  

On our first entry to the Bay we turned round and headed back out to sea to review and wait for the squalls to pass.  We berthed successfully on the next attempt utilising the port anchor to hold the bow off as we approached the berth.  On departure we found on recovering the anchor it had picked up a long piece of wire rope from the bottom of Oban Bay which had wrapped itself around the flukes. This had to be removed before we could proceed as there is always a danger that it could get caught round one of the propellers once we were underway.  Removing the wire proved to be difficult as we had to hook it using a grappling hook, tie it off and then lower the anchor to get it clear.  This was eventually carried out and unfortunately we had to let the wire go back into the water.  We arrived back in Craignure nearly two hours late and so picked up the usual schedule having missed out three round trips during the day.  So sorry folks but hopefully you all made it across eventually.

Celebrity for a morning

We had the BBC on board this morning filming for a new series 'Town'.
This particular programme will naturally feature Oban and Caledonian
Macbrayne is an important part of the community.
They asked for a suitable crew member to be interviewed on board and
yours truly was as you can imagine reluctantly persuaded to step
forward to be filmed with Nicholas Crane. Those of you familiar with
the Coast programme will know him from his signature umbrella.
It was good fun and I hope we look good. Unfortunately you will have
to wait until spring 2013 before it is broadcast on BBC2, don't worry
I'll alert you to it.

Lifeboats and old boats

I have been back on board the Isle of Mull for five days now, providing the service for the good folk of Mull. Now that the jet stream has decided to position itself in the usual position i.e. just to the North of here, we are experiencing what we Might call, our usual weather. As London and Paralympics bask in sunshine, we have mist and rain, see photo of Oban.

This morning to kick off our Sunday we dropped the two starboard lifeboats down to the water and sent them away for a wee trip.

One of my old ships Balmoral has been here in Oban ever since I joined, berthed across the Bay on the North Pier. I'm unsure what is the matter other than she is undergoing repairs, great pity for them
as they have had to cancel their Northern Ireland sailings.

Tomorrow sees a BBC crew coming on board to do some filming and maybe even a wee interview with yours truly.

Anti-clockwise circut of Cumbrae

We set off on the boat with a good friend Carolyn of Two Fat Ladies
fame. The weather didn't look too promising at first with a gentle
westerly but this picked up as the day went on and the sun came out.
We had a terrific sail, latterly with just the main up as the wind got
up to a force 5 giving us up to 7½ knots.

Film night Total Recall

Out on the town last night.  We went to see Total Recall, the remake of the 1990 film, which should have been a good film, but I'm afraid isn't.  More like a series of chases with admittedly great special effects but lacking any kind of a plot and with 'super' humans that fall 30 feet and then pick themselves up before letting off another burst of bullets.  Interestingly, maybe as it was rated 12A, there was a limit of one swear word that was used throughout to describe all events.  

Back to school

Well cook school actually as Julie gave me a birthday present of an
Ashoka Cook school voucher to attend a class on curry cooking. It
has taken a while to get a suitable date but I made my way out to
Motherwell College yesterday and had a very enjoyable morning making
Chicken Tikka Masala, pilau rice and a chapati, see photo. Our tutor
was a chef from the Green Chilli Cafe here in Glasgow, very
knowledgeable and helpful. This has been the second cook school I've
attended and I'm impressed by the extra wee tips that a professional
knows about cooking that you don't seem to ever see in books or on the
TV. Apart from a rather well done first chapati, (carefully concealed
under the second one in the photo) the meal was really good. Ashoka

Motherwell College is also very impressive, and I didn't even know

that it existed.