Oban to Lochaline

We enjoyed Oban. It feels a lively place with ferries constantly on the move, although Caledonian MacBrayne is very unpopular with many people for its unreliability and inefficiency. But the town has everything you need (including a hairdresser for Alex) in attractive surroundings. The Transit Marina is a very useful stop, although it is quite exposed to wind and choppiness, and on Wednesday I enjoyed a short run to the north which took me around the tiny lighthouse and back along the edge of Dunollie Wood.

Later on Wednesday morning David and I set off in search of serious supplies, while Alex had her hair washed. The nice lady in the marina office had suggested we take one of their trolleys over to Tommy Barbour fuel and they could fill our cans for us. We also took our empty Campingaz cylinder which had finally run out. The ship's chandler behind the ferry port did indeed stock Campingaz and offered to look after our trolley if needed. We managed to find the fuel supplier, almost next door, which had two un-obvious gates, and paid £1.15 a litre for our fuel on a 60:40 split - so 40 litres of fuel cost almost the same as one rather small gas cylinder. Then we trotted uphill to Tesco, filled several large bags with food, and David wheeled the whole lot back in our trolley.

In the evening we had an excellent meal at EE-Usk, right beside the marina. I had a selection of fish which were fresh and delicious, although I thought expensive at £26 for the one dish. Western Scotland is not cheap! Despite having known Alex and David for more than 30 years and holidayed together quite often, I hadn't realised that David doesn't really like fish. (A couple of days later I was even more surprised to discover that neither Alex nor David will eat rare beef. You live and learn).

The weather was causing us a few hiccups, with rain and wind forecast at various times for various spots. I had only really planned as far as Tobermory, but did also want to go into Loch Aline, on the way there, to practice anchoring. Tobermory is a honeypot which fills up early, and with current tides we couldn't get there until about 1600. Friday looked like a very wet and windy day when we might not want to go anywhere at all. Aaargh! In the end we decided on the short run to Loch Aline (the village is Lochaline and it's all pronounced Loch Allen, apparently). It was short and straightforward, with light winds and no sign of the promised overfalls off Lismore, although there were a lot of ferries to dodge.

There are in fact pontoons at Lochaline and naturally the crew preferred those, so we didn't anchor. Unfortunately we were also quite close to the silica sand mine, which beeps and grumbles until around midnight. I would imagine the noise is audible everywhere at the southern end of the loch, although it didn't keep me awake! Before that I walked up to the head of the loch and back partly along the A-road (it's an A road with passing places and a vehicle every five minutes or so) and partly on a forest road - there's a right to roam in Scotland so I could use it, although the views might have been better from the A-road.

Back to the boat for pizza and (for me) worrying about whether we would be ok on Friday.

Distance run: 13 nautical miles.

Castle at the head of the loch