Suggestions for trip from Oban

[Aja]

You will be back unless this is your final sailing trip ever or the weather is naff and you try to squeeze too much in. It’s a special place and if you take your time you’ll want to come back to do the bits you missed.



Midges are not a problem on a mooring or anchor. Midges will only fly about 50m at the most over salt water, and as others have said will not keep up with a moving boat. They can be an irritation on land in June, July, Aug and depending on local area and winter weather late May and early Sept. Avon skin so soft is not as good as it used to be and only resists them biting not deterring them coming close:- smidge (widely available in all west of Scotland villages) is the answer, if hanging around on shore a midge net would also be worth the £5 investment. smidge also deters ticks which are in reality a bigger issue than midges!

One of its positive features is lots of people think like you so it’s pretty quiet! If it had Brittany’s weather, great travel links to London and no midges it would be heaving with folk for “the City” and the some of the best of the west would be destroyed.

Rowing off the shore, anywhere in the Kyles, before you can get the outboard started, you will get mauled by midges in season.

 

[awol]

This year I needed SP50 more days than I neeed thermals! And don't forget the tick remover - any walk ashore with a leaf near it is dangerous. Tick checking is a form of foreplay!

 

[steveeasy]

Still due to be wet but ‘spoons was good for a pre concert dinner. Now camped south of Tyndrum, heading home tomorrow so wave when you pass in a silver transit (reg will be easy to identify)

Missed Ya, By Jolly it was cold on the boat. -6 last night and i had 5 sleeping bags over Me. Not so keen anymore on this boat fixing lark over winter. Takes its toll. each time I go up I age about ten years. Surprises me how busy(no Boats) Oban is in winter. Lot of West country places are dead in late September.

Steveeasy

Hold on did you say Camped!! I did that In January in Glencoe next to Ice climbers. Even with a camp fire the ice would not melt. We had to evac to Oban really early. Never ever felt worse than that morning.

 

[steveeasy]

Never saw a Midge all this year, stayed for a week in a lodge too and nothing. I do recall 20 years ago when the children were younger and we lived up that way we would walk almost every week. riddled with the buggers then. Was heading back South next year, but there is so much to see and so many places to sail too. how could you head back to Lake Solent. What surprised me was the few people that came up to sail with me, all they said was its just more Mountains. Cant beet a good Oil refinery!!
Steveeasy

 

[dunedin]

This year I needed SP50 more days than I neeed thermals! And don't forget the tick remover - any walk ashore with a leaf near it is dangerous. Tick checking is a form of foreplay!

Do your race crew accept the terms of your final sentence ? Very brave !

 

[awol]

Do your race crew accept the terms of your final sentence ? Very brave !

I dinnae let them ashore - they would scarper!

 

[Halo]

If the weather is right then Fingals Cave.

 

[bikedaft]

If the weather is right then Fingals Cave.

Indeed

 

[RunAgroundHard]

If you head south from Oban, the tidal gate times, noted below, are accurate, based on local knowledge.

Claymore’s Definitive Tidal Gate Chart

 

[Cptsideways]

Have a list of potential places you'd like to visit. Let the weather choose your route, do not have a fixed itinerary. Very few weather forecasts get it right and then you have the tidal gates and huge currents to contend with, get them wrong and you'll be sailing backwards.