West Coast Scotland cruise

[Spare Thyme]

So just back home from our short tour of the west coast, 2 full runs of the Caledonian Canal (6 days in all in the canal) plus stops at:
Oban bay (town swing moorings)
Tobermory (marina)
Plockton (swing moorings)
Portree (swing moorings)
Kyle of Lochalsh (pontoon)
Inverie (swing moorings)
Eigg (anchor)
Salen (loch Sunart) (swing moorings)
Loch Spelve (anchor)

Some fun times, tasters for your appetite, more as I get the videos and pictures processed

Good times
https://vimeo.com/225551338

Bad Times
https://vimeo.com/225553562

Interesting times (time lapse Neptune's Staircase)
https://vimeo.com/225555666

More will be added later

 

[Divemaster1]

Very nice John,

Hard work that staircase... more so going up the way!!

Presume Kerera not fully operational hence Oban Bay ??

Looking forward to seeing the next installment!

 

[rafiki_]

Great vids John. Dreadful luck with the rope. Were you able to release it without a lift? Your sternest looks in great condition.
Nice to see a wonderful boat ��

 

[QBhoy]

What did you think of the Caledonian canal ?
Did it a few years ago in the old man's Princess 385.
I perhaps thought it a bit of a non event. Being used to Loch Lomond and other west coast beautiful hot spots, it was a bit disappointing. It probably didn't help that the big princess is propped for open water cruising. Not ideal for the canals at all. As soon as you put both engines into gear she lurches forward and does around 6 knots at tick over.
The hire boats in the locks were a constant cause of concern too. Haha

 

[Zing]

What's the slowest form of travel known to man? Snail's speed doesn't count, but I think I have an idea.

 

[Spare Thyme]

Managed to get the remains of the rope off while we were on the swing mooring in Plockton, amazing what you can do with a boat hook and a wire coat hanger


Problem was a creel with about 20m of floating line, getting into Plockton my attention was on all the rocks and navigating the best route in, didn't see the floating line till the last minute, managed to hit neutral but the rope still hooked up. Lucky that time but will certainly make sure I carry a diving mask and a shorty wet suit in future.

Re the "big ditch" (Caledonian canal), it's a bit of a nessessity if you want to get to the west coast, a real pain at this time of the year with all the holiday boats and the ever increasing passenger cruise ships that seem to have priority through the locks and at the pontoons. On the way back we we stuck at Fort Agustas top for 6 hours, resulting in an extra day to transit out. The Azi is the same with speed, both engines at tick over and the trim tabs full down its 6kts, the only way to do it is with only one engine in gear, you then get 5kts at just above tick over, you need the other idling in neutral ready for when you meet a biggie as you need all the manoverability you can get as in the narrow sections it can be a bit tight. Still on Loch Ness and Loch Lochie you can open her up. This gets you past a lot of the holiday boats but often results in the next obstacle (road bridge or lock) holding you back until there are sufficient boats to make it worthwhile operating the lock or bridge.

Another observation this year is the amount of boats in the sound of Mull, it's like the M25 at rush hour! Loch Aline and Tobermory were jam packed by 15:00 on the days we were there, once past Ardermurchan point it got a lot quieter, probably because we had F5's getting around the point it kept a lot of people south, we only saw a hand full of boats above Arderurchan, no problem with places to stop.

Very good overall fuel economy, we did most of the trip at 8 - 9 its with the odd blast to clean things up, managed an overall fuel burn rate of 2.5lts per nm

 

[rafiki_]

Good job with the rope John.

Rafiki burns 1.15 Nm/gal at 18-20 knots, and 3 or 4 at 9 knots.

Cal canal on my bucket list.