Places to visit just the once...

AngusMcDoon

AngusMcDoon

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... because they are scary and however pretty or pleasant they are you're glad to have escaped without getting into a pickle & don't want to push your luck again.

Today I added Portnahaven. Strewth, that's one badass harbour entrance! Very narrow, rocky, shallow & the tide wooshes through at 5 knots with whirlygigs throwing you all over the place. It then exits over reefs, so as much as it wants to take you out with it, you have to turn round & fight your way back out the way you came in. Pretty though.

Any others you never want to go back to?
 

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AngusMcDoon said:
Any others you never want to go back to?
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From the ending of "The Fenian Goat": "Take oot the chart and score oot Port Ellen," said the Captain a little later; "that's another place we daurna enter in the Western Isles!"

In my case, just two entries I think:

Carrickfergus. Friendly people, but a bleak ambience which would have had the designers of East German housing schemes shaking their heads with dismay. "Ein bißchen übertrieben, alter Bursche."

Craighouse, Jura. A drunken auxiliary coastguard was thoroughly obnoxious to my crew there, about 25 years ago. Still off the list.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Craighouse, Jura. A drunken auxiliary coastguard was thoroughly obnoxious to my crew there, about 25 years ago. Still off the list.
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And they serve beer there in plastic glasses.

PS I lived in a concrete tower block in Warsaw for a while (similar architecture to the DDR). It wasn't actually that bad apart from the dodgy lift. A lot dinghier than the architecture at Carrick, so maybe an unfair comparison.
 
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In the picture, where the red car is, that was where my Dad was born and lived. Bastard children and family arguments resulted in it all being lost to the family. My great uncle and his younger brother are remembered at the Port Askaig lifeboat station for their bravery and death in service, respectively.

Milton, a place to visit just the once.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
In the picture, where the red car is, that was where my Dad was born and lived. Bastard children and family arguments resulted in it all being lost to the family. My great uncle and his younger brother are remembered at the Port Askaig lifeboat station for their bravery and death in service, respectively.

Milton, a place to visit just the once.
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BoB senior & the rest of the family must have had some good stories of quite lively seas around the Rhinns when it was blowing old boots outside.
 
AngusMcDoon said:
BoB senior & the rest of the family must have had some good stories of quite lively seas around the Rhinns when it was blowing old boots outside.
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Very little to be honest. They moved to Glasgow when my father was young and he never talked about the place that much. My Nana (Dad's Mum, born 1900) mentioned a few things. She used to row a creel boat for my G. Uncle Sandy and taught me how to hold a boat steady with oars; I am named after him, she also taught me how to throw a line, after recalling a story of how Duncan threw a line to save Sandy who had been washed overboard. The two brothers were lifeboat men and and my G. Uncle Donald won awards but Sandy, sadly died from exhaust fumes blown back into the lifeboat (plaques in the lifeboat station). I remember Nana crying when she told me that story Dad did say that the house had a polished earthen floor and area at the back where animals would have been kept indoors. He used to spit on the floor and make holes in it, before being whacked on the head by his Gran. The only time I heard my Dad talking Gaelic was when he was drunk and Nana was scolding him (she lived with us in Glasgow) and he replied in Gaelic. Nana did mention the huge seas and the tide more or less as you described it. At the time they left, which was common in those days, life was still very hard on Islay and a good life could be had in Glasgow. There were strong prejudices against Islanders in Glasgow, being thought of as stupid / simple and to be taken advantage of; so the whole Island heritage may have been played down.
 
Bunessan, we passed it a week or so ago in sunshine and the wife resolutely insisted we press on, took shelter there a couple of times in our early days but with the swell found it almost impossible to get our kids ashore on the broken down pier surrounded by jagged rocks. Last time, few years back went to the hotel to eat, mine host was English but had obviously done his hospitality training in Edinburgh.
 
Mark-1 said:
I like it it, and it looks similar to Katie Morag's island so it must be good. QED.
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Coll is Katie Morag's island! When I first went there my crew was of just the right age and we had all the books aboard. Arriving at Arinagour gave a very odd sense of familiarity. The old pier with a new one beyond it. The houses and the red corrugated roofs. The only real change Mairi Hedderwick (who lived on Coll for many years) made was to widen the inlet at Arinagour into a bay.

By the way, Mairi Hedderwick's "Sea Change" is a delightful read about a sailing trip down the Caledonian Canal and around the west coast. Highly recommended.

PS It's Katie Morag McColl ... "of Coll" ... bit of a giveaway.
 
Quandary said:
Bunessan, we passed it a week or so ago in sunshine and the wife resolutely insisted we press on, took shelter there a couple of times in our early days but with the swell found it almost impossible to get our kids ashore on the broken down pier surrounded by jagged rocks. Last time, few years back went to the hotel to eat, mine host was English but had obviously done his hospitality training in Edinburgh.
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I went there years ago. It's not on my "never again" list, but I have no fond memories of it - mainly, as you say, because access is such a pain.
 
AngusMcDoon said:
... because they are scary and however pretty or pleasant they are you're glad to have escaped without getting into a pickle & don't want to push your luck again.

..........

Any others you never want to go back to?
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Top end of the Guadiana between Spain/Portugal. Spreaders brushing tree branches, ran aground more than one...

But still want to go back and try to get all the way to Mertola without dingying the last mile :cool:

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Chickened out just before here - 2.4m under the sounder on the ebb at midnight but stern picked up a rock so prop was out of the water, steel boat recommended :)

Vx0Ne5H.jpg
 
JumbleDuck said:
Coll is Katie Morag's island! By the way, Mairi Hedderwick's "Sea Change" is a delightful read about a sailing trip down the Caledonian Canal and around the west coast. Highly recommended. PS It's Katie Morag McColl ... "of Coll" ... bit of a giveaway.
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Don't care, not listening. Struay has three Mountain/Hills they refer to as paps. And a similar Pier. Plus I haven't been to Coll so for that reason alone I refuse to visualise Struay as Coll or Coll as Struay.

JumbleDuck said:
Mairi Hedderwick's "Sea Change"
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Yup got it. Fantastic prints. Katie Morag came after 'Sea Change' for me.
 
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Mark-1 said:
Don't care, not listening. Struay has three Mountain/Hills they refer to as paps. And a similar Pier. Plus I haven't been to Coll so for that reason alone I refuse to visualise Struay as Coll or Coll as Struay.
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Coll is well worth a visit. It's an amazingly friendly place. We first went to Arinagour a few years ago and were told that if wanted to visit the west coast beaches we should just set off on foot and anyone passing would give us a lift. We did and a couple of golfers did. Their round overran so the wife of one made a special trip back for us. There's a deli called "The Ethical Supply Co" - well out of range of lawyers - which is the best one I've been to. The only downside is that Arinagour is rather open - we went back last summer, bounced around overnight and buggered off to Tobermory at 5am with setting foot on Coll. Upside: fantastic dolphins on the way to Mull.

Yup got it. Fantastic prints. Katie Morag came after 'Sea Change' for me.
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I discovered and read it while sailing more-or-less the same trip last summer. Great fun and, as you say, stunning artwork.
 
Quandary said:
Bunessan, we passed it a week or so ago in sunshine and the wife resolutely insisted we press on, took shelter there a couple of times in our early days but with the swell found it almost impossible to get our kids ashore on the broken down pier surrounded by jagged rocks. Last time, few years back went to the hotel to eat, mine host was English but had obviously done his hospitality training in Edinburgh.
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You'll have had your tea then?
Donald
 
Loch Boisdale, lovely new EU and tax payer funded marina with all mod cons... that the locals use. By mod cons I mean, the washing machines, showers etc which have big signs for Harbour Users only. One lady arrived with enough washing to fill all 4 washing machines along with kids and granny in the showers, none of the harbours staff batted an eyelid yet we were paying £25 for the night. Oh and there are no shops with the hotel and ‘village’ looking a dump. One place I’ll never go back to.

Leverburgh, like Kyleakin, pontoons and anchoring space taken by locals, both pleasure and business boats. Would not consider it again. Instead went to Taransay on the way out and Loch Finsbay on the way back, both really lovely anchorages.

Kerrera, too bl00dy expensive. We use the community owned moorings by the sailing club now, much nicer.

Colintrive, over rated hotel with moorings.

Other than that, I’m game for anywhere. Sitting in Stornoway harbour on lovely pontoons, great friendly staff and still sitting outside in a bright sky enjoying a beer in t shirt and shorts. Perfect.
 
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