Day 5 – What a difference a day makes!

On day 4 in Tarbert we were lucky to stay dry whilst we were exploring, but it was grey.  Then in the afternoon the rain started, at times you could barely see Tarbert from the boat, the piccie below is us holed up in our wee cockpit tent.

However the rain finished and we woke to sun and beautiful skies.  Tarbert is a lovely place, but the sun makes a huge difference as you can see from the piccies below.  If most days were like this we could live here, however……

We were hoping the forecast for the day was wrong (forecasting no wind) so we could have a little sail, however it was dead right.  We did have a little sail managing a mighty 2.7 knots (putting us in Lochranza by Christmas).  So on with the engine.

As soon as we rounded the headland into the bay at Lochranza we were bowled over by how beautiful this place is.  I’m not exaggerating when I say this is up there with the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to on a boat. 

Parking was a mooring buoy, (hooked skilfully by the first mate) and after a bit of phaffing  setting up a bridle through to the buoy we sat back to look at the wonder of Lochranza on a sunny day.  Needless to say we’re staying 2 nights then back to Largs.  The piccies below say a lot, but I’m not sure even they do Lochranza justice – add this place to your bucket list, you won’t regret it.  Just as a small photography foot note you’ll notice the difference with the colours in the first photograph taken just before sunset (‘golden hour’), always take landscape pictures then if you can (or just after sunrise).

As I write this it’s day 6 and we’ve decided to spend the afternoon in Brodick, the main village on Arran, catching the 12:46 bus.

More later,

Vaughan

Second Foot note – As any of you know who have read previous blogs one of the biggest battles on a boat is with the dinghy and outboard, usually called that bas**rd dinghy and / or outboard.  They’re always a challenge – launching, keeping them inflated (they mostly have a leak), attaching the outboard (and the continual fear that during the attaching process you drop the outboard to the sea bed), starting the outboard, keeping the outboard running, then finally getting the outboard and dinghy safely back on the yacht.

We’ve always looked enviously at boats with Davits (to store and launch the dinghy) and an outboard hoist.  Well on Midnight Mirage we’ve got both.  The first piccie below is the outboard hoist and the second one of the Davits used to lower, hoist and store the dinghy.  Wow they are a dream to use, and the outboard (touching wood loads) seems reliable.  The last piccie, for a change, is me enjoying a dinghy.