Loch Goil report

JumbleDuck

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In case anyone is thinking of a trip up Loch Goil ....

There are three 15T visitor moorings at Carrick Castle. They seem well maintained, Very, very fast wifi available. £10 per night, which you can pay on line ... and if you don't they put a picture of your boat in their Gallery of Shame, and serve you right. Recommended.

We are now at Lochgoilhead. Supposedly ten visitor moorings here, but they look very unloved. A couple seem to have sunk. We've picked one up which looks OK, or at least the strop is in good nick. Welcome Anchorages says £15 for an "average 40ft yacht" but the website says a tenner, flat rate, so that's what we paid. No sign of the wifi which supposedly covers the moorings. Maybe it's the drizzle, maybe it's the memory of horrendous bullying at scout camps here, but I am not feeling great love for Lochgoilhead.
 
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Chap from Glencoe was discussing internet speeds this morning on Radio Scotland, he lives there. The speed is a measure of the tourist numbers, recently it has been very fast, now getting slower and in normal summer tourist numbers it is very slow as band width gets used up.

I was up at the Kyles of Bute on Sunday, a lovely sail and very pleasant day. Trip to Craobh has been delayed.
 

Skylark

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In case anyone is thinking of a trip up Loch Goil ....

There are three 15T visitor moorings at Carrick Castle. They seem well maintained, Very, very fast wifi available. £10 per night, which you can pay on line ... and if you don't they put a picture of your boat in their Gallery of Shame, and serve you right. Recommended.

We are now at Lochgoilhead. Supposedly ten visitor moorings here, but they look very unloved. A couple seem to have sunk. We've picked one up which looks OK, or at least the strop is in good nick. Welcome Anchorages says £15 for an "average 40ft yacht" but the website says a tenner, flat rate, so that's what we paid. No sign of the wifi which supposedly covers the moorings. Maybe it's the drizzle, maybe it's the memory of horrendous bullying at scout camps here, but I am not feeling great love for Lochgoilhead.

Was hoping to take a look at Loch Goil this season but it will now have to wait until next year :cry:
 

JumbleDuck

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Further comment: the tides here are weird. As long as the wind is under 20 knots or so, we point north on the mooring, held in place by a southerly tidal flow of 1 - 2 knots. The weird thing is that it is the same direction in flood and ebb. At turn of tide we and the four boats near us all swung through 180 degrees to head south, but within five minutes we were all heading north again. There must be some big whirly effect (stop me if I am getting too complicated) going on.
 

Skylark

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Having no internet signal would not be a problem for me but for my wife it would confirm sailing to be a violation of her basic human rights.?

Have you been ashore at Lochgoilhead? Anything to explore, any highlights? Carrick Castle, too, please?
 

dimdav

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Anything to explore, any highlights?

If you like a walk there is always Clach A' Bhreatunnaich or Stone of the Britons, up the hill. Said to be one of the marker stones which defined the limits between the brythonic Kingdom of Strathclyde and the Scots beyond, there are others to the south on Cowal and over at the top end of Loch Lomond.

Clach A' Bhreatunnaich | Canmore
 

JumbleDuck

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Having no internet signal would not be a problem for me but for my wife it would confirm sailing to be a violation of her basic human rights.?

Have you been ashore at Lochgoilhead? Anything to explore, any highlights? Carrick Castle, too, please?
I've got a perfectly respectably 3G data connection with a Three dongle. My EE SIM is only showing Edge, though.

Haven't been ashore yet, though I'll give it a go in the next lull. The gusts are quite spectacular and it rains every so often. Carrick Castle is privately owned and undergoing a very slow restoration and the hotel I used to go to (it was my favourite weekend destination from the Gareloch when I was based there) is long gone. Lochgoilhead is dominated by the Drimsynie holiday place - I used the pool there before but wouldn't dare now, even if it was open.
 

capnsensible

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What seems a zillion years ago, there was a rickety old jetty at Carrick Castle. I remember docking there with a Sigma 33 and a thirsty crew to discover we had arrived at the start of one of those Kyle minogue affairs that the scots are so fond of. We were given a most warm hearted invitation and joined in with gusto. An awesome night and hangovers of epic proportions. ?
 

ctva

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Good to hear that Loch Goil is still a great place full of ‘character’. We left Sandpoint last Wed and thought about a trip there to see where I spent about 25+ years volunteering at the Scoutcentre and learnt to sail, canoe, climb and drink. Nothing at Lochgoilhead except the hotel and long closed One Way Inn with Sanny behind the bar growling at you to order a drink! Drimsynie is nothing more than a really tacky holiday park, best avoided by normal (yotties) people. The hills are small but fantastic views from Boona rock half way up the Steeple and Cnoc Connic’s views down the Clyde are second to none.

As to Carrick Castle, the last time I was there back on the 80’s, it was an empty shell and we used to climb to the top ramparts, any H&S person would have a heart attack these days! Happy days.

So we missed Loch Goil and just meandered through the Kyles with a lovely meal at the Kames Hotel, vey welcoming and are now back home in the western end of the Crinan. Great service and help from the canal staff (apart from the Dunardry flight). Enjoying a g&t in the dry here sheltering from the howling gale out west!
 
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JumbleDuck

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Good to hear that Loch Goil is still a great place full of ‘character’. We left Sandpoint last Wed and thought about a trip there to see where I spent about 25+ years volunteering at the Scoutcentre and learnt to sail, canoe, climb and drink.

Perhaps we were there at the same time? I have nothing but good memories of centre staff ad nothing but contempt for the leaders of my troop who spent all their time in the pub and left the older scouts to run a reign of terror for the younger ones. It all came to a head the week after my final one, when during the weekly walk/kayak/sail to Carrick Castle the patrol leaders decided that a friend of mine was lazy and beat him with nettles for not going fast enough. After he had been taken to intensive care by air ambulance, where after some time he recovered from his near-fatal asthma attack, awkward questions arose and the troop looked rather different that autumn.

And ... relax.

Happy memory of scout sailing here: asking my instructor who was give way between us (starboard tack, beam reach) and the boat approaching us head on from 100 yds away (also starboard tack, beam reach).
 

Quandary

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So we missed Loch Goil and just meandered through the Kyles with a lovely meal at the Kames Hotel, vey welcoming and are now back home in the western end of the Crinan. Great service and help from the canal staff (apart from the Dunardry flight). Enjoying a g&t in the dry here sheltering from the howling gale out west!

Hi Chris, I am interested in hearing the reaction of the residents of Bellanoch Marina to the canal going permanently on to a five day week in summer, can not be many marinas in Europe which will not let you out or in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays? Are you getting a 30% discount to compensate?
 

Robih

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Carrick Castle from the viz moorings:

Season%2019%20%289%29.JPG


and above the village looking up the Loch toward Lochgoilhead, our boat on the viz moorings:

Season%2019%20%2811%29.JPG
 

JumbleDuck

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The amazing thong about Carrick Castle is that it feels peaceful and remote as Robih's picture from the moorings shows well - and yet you only have to go a mile or so east to be right in the middle of two armaments depots and an oil terminal.

Off to Arrochar tomorrow. I think. Or maybe Glasgow. Or Rothesay.
 

Davy_S

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It must have been in the 70s or 80s, we (8 or 10 of us) would drive up to Loch Goil, we would rent Orkney longliners from Carick Castle, at the time, he was called Tom Murray, we would stay in the chalets for a long weekend and go fishing, the pub was a great laugh with the lads up from Glasgow, also for fishing, the castle was just a ruin, there was a floating wooden pontoon that dried at low water, the Longliners were moored to sinkers on a continuous loop line.
often wondered what happened to the place.
 
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