And onwards North

Last night we stayed in a quirky motel at Daytona Beach, in the
pursuit of cheapness we booked the room over the reception with a
great view of the highway. But it was comfy and the Kon Tiki
restaurant next door provided us a good fried shrimp with three sauces
dinner. By the way that is our BMW X3 hire car, which is lovely to
drive and maybe at the end of the fortnight I'll have worked out what
all those buttons do.

To get away from the concrete we went walking around one of the many
National Parks here in Florida, Favers-Dykes. Seems that the British
were here many years ago and manged to remove all the locals shortly
after they arrived.

Off to the moon because we can

Today it was off to the Cape Canaveral Space Centre to look at rockets
and other such space paraphernalia. Fantastic audio visual displays
particularly the Imax theatre with its 3D film of the space station.
We have now driven about 50 miles north and are staying overnight at
Daytona Beach, and it's just like Oban overcast with a strong breeze
accompanied with drizzle.

1st day in Florida

Did ourselves proud last night by managing to stay awake till 3 in the
morning UK time, 22:00 here. Up at the crack of dawn and we visited a
local lake, of which there are many around here. We took an hour long
boat trip about the shores and the narrow canals with a guided tour
from the old fellow pointing out where all the poor folk have to live
on the waterfront, see example above. Lovely and warm day and a good
start to the holiday.

Home and then off again

I came back from the wild west to Glasgow a couple of days ago.  Time to sort through the post and get a hangover from last night, drinking something called Hopoclypse Yale.  This with a nod to the Marlon Brando film,  "I love the smell of freshly burnt hops in the morning."
Despite there being some lovely days here in Scotland with clear blue skies and frosty starts in the morning, for my leave this time we have decided that there isn't that many good days and are heading off tomorrow to Orlando in Florida, where there is rarely frost but quite often blue skies.
Hopefully there will be places in America where they have the Internet so I can update our progress.  We have hired a car and intend travelling about a bit to Savannah and Atlanta among other places.
Adios for now.

Cleaner seas?

Some changes to the MARPOL (Marine Pollution) regulations, which apply to our vessel, are coming in at the beginning of 2013.  No solid food can be put into the sea when a vessel is within 3 miles of the coast, when more than 3 miles away then food waste can be discharged into to the sea but has to go through a sieve with a maximum of 25 mm/1 inch spacing.  On our run we are never more than 3 miles away from the land so we are no longer able to deposit any solid food waste of any size into the sea.

Now we have been in the habit of putting a lot of food waste, peelings, plate scrapings etc. through a macerator which turns them into a fine soup before going over the side.  From January 1^st we can no longer do this and all of our waste is going into extra thick and strong plastic bags to be deposited into a skip ashore here in Oban.  This will eventually end up in land fill as there are no facilities for organic waste here.

As I see it the fish are losing out on an easy meal and the planet gets a load of plastic and landfill.  This is progress.

Out and about the west coast.

Amazing bit of seasonal weather, cold frosty mornings with blue skies and sunshine, not for long at this time of year but they make for great sunrises and sets.

This is looking across at the hills beyond Oban, Ben Cruachan I think.

And a bit closer to show off the snow cover, notice the smoky cloud coming off the peak.  The trip down and back to Colonsay today was fabulous, we go down one way and back by another route so that our ten passengers with their three cars could have a different view.

On the tourist trail

Been a busy few days, yesterday we did the Eden project and then today we were back in St. Ives, this time without the fog.

Tin Mining

As St, Ives was fogged out we went a touch further down the North coast to the Geevor Tin Mine .  Normally it looks like this.

But yesterday it was like this.

This was a working Tin mine up until it closed in 1990 when the price of Tin no longer made it viable.  Now it is a World Heritage site and museum with the majority of the machinery and buildings intact.  There is a guided tour that took us through the processing plant, which was used to extract the mineral from the lode, about 0.7% metal to that mined we were told, and then a chance to don overcoats and head underground with our knowledgeable guide Barney.  

This was at the start of the tour where we went in about 40 feet, and then waited for a minute I think to check that everyone was comfortable being under the ground with water dripping down the back our necks.  In places I had to bend almost double to get under.

This particular working was very old and had nothing to do with the operation that finished twenty odd years ago.  This bucket was called a kibble, which I believe is a type of cat food in some parts of the world.

The winding gear used to haul the miners up and down the 2,100 feet to the bottom of the mine. The seams and workings then extended up to 1 mile out to sea, there was approximately 100 miles of tunnels.

Air compressors used to power the tools for the operations at the face, especially the drills, this was a safe way of providing power and fresh air.

Built in Glasgow.

I'm smiling because I'm getting out shortly, the miners did up to 10 hours underground grafting.  

On the way out of the washrooms there are photos of all the last miners to work at the mine.

Off to the seaside

Being in Cornwall this week, one is never far from the sea so today we decided to head off to St. Ives on the North coast.  For those of you who don't know St. Ives is famous as one of the UK's premier seaside resorts, its glorious beach, fourth cleanest in Britain, the amazing light that has attracted many artists and a branch of the Tate gallery.  So it came as a bit of disappointment when we arrived today.

There is sea and a beach out there somewhere, but we couldn't see it.  To help with my humour, on the way back to our cottage I foolishly listened to the enforcer on my TomTom commanding me down ever narrower Cornish lanes with mud underfoot and brambles scraping down both sides of the car.  Me praying quietly that there wasn't going to be a Massey Ferguson round the next blind corner.  Grand day out.

First day of the Cornish holiday

Looking back at the Mill

Our first night here in the cottage at Polwheveral Mill and we woke to the sound of the local stream gushing down the hillside. This was due to the pouring rain, regardless we set off through the narrow lanes to Falmouth and walked around the windy streets with lunch in a pub overlooking the harbour.

This is the view from our bedroom window looking down the Creek towards the Helford River

Some locals.

In Cornwall for the week.

Sitting down to a Cornish clotted cream and jam scone in our converted mill house.

Looking out on the Bay

We took about 500 odd coach passengers out to the island and back again today and I don't think that they could have had a better day for it. Not a breath of wind and just enough clouds to make the sky interesting.

At the counter

For some the rally is over.

This is the weekend of the Mull car rally, unfortunately this driver's race ended on the Saturday.

Duart Castle first thing

Our spell of settled weather continues, much cooler this morning only
2 C when set off at 07:45 this morning. The Castle was looking good
washed in the early morning sun as we passed by. The Mull car rally
starts in a couple of days and we have started to take across the
ancillary vehicles, ambulances, doctor's cars and breakdown wagons,
not for the faint hearted this rallying game.

That's it, no more Panoramas

Well it was too tempting this morning when the sun came up over the hills above Oban.

And this was a few seconds later.  

Yes I have a Panorama function on my iPhone

Quick photo taken today heading back to Oban on the lifeline service.
Lovely weather since I joined on Wednesday.

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.