The next morning saw us walking around the bay with its
dramatic landscape. Lochranza was beautiful in the sun. We visited the castle
on the spit of land in the middle of the bay and then walked around to the
craft shop and then back to the distillery. Deer roam the streets and golf
course in Lochranza and we were treated to the herd crossing the road in front
of us.
The only thing missing in Lochranza is a shop to buy
supplies, we managed to get some bread from the distillery, ironically, and
begged for some butter at their restaurant in the visitors centre but that was
as far as our provisioning went. We are going to have to break open the dreaded
Fray Bentos pie for tea. Umm yummy!
Back to the boat and fixed up some lunch before releasing
the mooring line and running back to the Kyles of Bute. The wind was behind us
now so we set the genoa and waited for the wind to hitch a ride through
Inchmarnock Waters again. Nope the wind wasn’t playing today and just as we got
everything set it died completely and the headsail hung there like a limp rag.
It didn’t know which way to go and slowly drifted from one side of the boat to
the other with the waves driving it more than anything. In 0.9knots of wind
there isn’t enough strength to even lift the sail from her forlorn state so we
wound it in.
The sun was so hot in the cockpit it was down to tee shirts
again and off with all the heavy sailing gear. We motored sailed most of the
way up the West Kyle which was doing a pretty good impression of a lake rather
than the ferocious sea. Several boats were determined to sail and sat
completely still for ages. We motored on and rounded the top end of Bute,
something the chart calls the Buttock of Bute, very nice! We found our intended
anchorage at An Caladh and motored into the little bay, but another boat had
beaten us to it and with drying ground on our left, there wasn’t really enough
room for us as well. One quick reference to the pilot and we headed for an
anchorage at the head of Loch Riddon.
Lesson 1 - if you ever refer to the pilot quickly be sure to
read the instructions completely and thoroughly. When we got to the anchorage
it was close to high water and motoring over the top we found depths ranging
from 15 down to 11 meters, which was still a little too deep for an overnight
anchorage. So we headed further up the loch trying to find 5-6 meters. Suddenly
the boat lurched forward and came to a complete halt.
Anyone who has been aground before will know the sinking (no
pun intended) feeling well. We knew we were on a falling tide and so if we couldn’t
shift Ty Mor quickly we would very quickly be in a great deal of trouble.
Luckily we were going very slowly and also, luckily, the bottom was soft mud,
so by throwing her into reverse quickly she released herself immediately and we
hot footed it back to deeper water, laid the anchor, checked the bilges for
water coming in and then got the Go-pro out on a long pole to search for damage
under the boat.
Finally, after all that we read the instructions – ah –
don’t go any further forward than the stone wall, otherwise you will run out of
ocean very fast. Yep, they are absolutely right. Later that evening as the
water completely disappeared, with the outgoing tide, all around us the extent
of the mud bank became clear.
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