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of Lady Barbara
II Introduction Award Winning
Quaich Trophy Presented to Kenny & Barbara for
their winning sailing Log 2003.
The holiday was planned to be challenging
yet relaxing, achievable but most of all enjoyable. The plan was to cross Since buying her from the Bosun's Locker in September 2002, Lady Barbara II had
enjoyed many short trips but all of them in reasonable weather conditions on
the River Forth. With a well-stocked boat Kenny And Barbara
set off from Port Edgar Marina on Sunday morning 29th June. Day
1. Port Edgar to Grangemouth and River Caron Sunday
29th June 2003 15 miles 10am on a mild but overcast morning as we
set out on the first leg of our holiday to Grangemouth.
A steady F3 Easterly helped us make the trip to the mouth of the Caron in under 2 hours. We had arrived a
touch early and had to take our time up the River Caron to meet our 13:00 de-masting time alongside Steve's crane, which sits on a
floating barge, tide permitting. When we arrived, the tide was pushing up
behind us, the wind was gusting and the Barge was stuck fast in mud. It was a
challenge trying to waste time in a narrow river with the tide and wind
pushing the wrong way. We were amazed at the half dozen or so on-lookers at
the Grangemouth Yacht club who simply sat and
watched as we struggled to come along-side the
non-floating barge. Eventually Steve arrived, helped us attach ourselves and
the Mast was down in around 15 minutes. A quick tidy up of lose ends and we headed
on down the river. As we passed the GYC members they simply sat and stared
and no - not even a wave. We passed under the Kerse
bridge with at least one foot to spare in air draught. We entered the sea
lock, picked up a slot on a quiet pontoon and parked up for the night. Sunday is not as we found, the best day to
start a passage through the Forth & Clyde canal due to staff shortages.
There was also a 7 year old boy found floating in the canal near
Day
2. Caron Basin-Kirkintilloch Mon 30 June 17.5 miles We set off at 08:30 to face the flight of
locks up through Falkirk we were pleased to have qualified help from the
British Waterways team which made the passage through the locks much easier.
We enjoyed a degree of education on how to tie up and we soon got the hang of
the required approach and timings. The Grangemouth to
By Bonnybridge we
were quite well used to the Locks and started to work a system with As we approached the A80 bridge at Banknock we discovered a bunch of teenagers swarming
around the canal side and a couple of lads dangling from the bridge supports.
We assumed this was some form of welcome committee but we had to stay on our
toes as they dived or plunged into the canal a few feet in front of our path.
We quickly popped the Outboard in to Neutral and heard a few splashes as they
adopted just in time manoeuvres to swim out of our way. They seemed slightly
upset when we decided not to stop and made a few gestures when we suggested
that the canal was not a healthy place to try to commit suicide. We passed by
several large canal side properties that were derelict and we could see the
potential of some of these buildings as bistro cafιs or restaurants if
someone had the spare cash. One building had already adopted this and had the
almost relevant title of Passage to We reached Auchenstarry
which had been a recommended stop over for the night but decided to push on
to Kirkintilloch mainly to find shops. Auchenstarry looks a peaceful spot but despite a few
small craft looked quite deserted when we passed through - better visited
when the facilities are completed perhaps. Another 20 minutes or so and we
reached Kirkintilloch.
Day
3. Kirkintilloch to Bowling Tues 1st July 17 Miles At 08:30 We headed West as was recommended
by our local BW man and within a mile we met a canal thick with weed and the notorious
plastic carrier bags we were expecting and we even spotted our first sunken
shopping trolley. After a couple of slow miles the weed eased
off and as long as we stayed mid channel we were generally Ok. I was
impressed with the endurance of our little 8 HP Yamaha which seemed to purr
away and only needed lifting a couple of times in 32 miles to free up wrapped
on weed. It was around this area that we discovered
the answer to one of life's great mysteries - " Where do footballs go when they die" ? The answer was clear - They all end up in
the In one stretch of less than a mile, I
counted no less that 27 footballs of various qualities - Even a Mitre
Multiplex and a rather new looking Match ball perhaps it had floated up
after a wayward shot from Partick Thistle at Maryhill. We also spotted a 3-piece suite, umpteen
bicycles, and a few discarded white goods - it was good to see the donators
kept their deposits mostly to the edges of the canal to keep the middle free
for the boaters. The canal still needs a good tidy up near the town areas. Eventually we reached Maryhill and it was
suggested by a couple of passers-by that our mid morning passage was a good
time to see Maryhill at its best - before things were busy
! We continued on around the North side of
O
Sol e Me O ! We had a rather theatrical yet unintentional
entrance into the middle of We tied up for half an hour and I visited
the canal side Chippy to buy a few chips to
accompany our lunch of Salmon Rolls. Whilst sitting in the sun we were
surrounded by local shoppers carrying the notorious plastic shopping bags and
pushing shopping trolleys. The native Clydebankers
were friendly and keen to learn where we were from and where we were heading
- a few older residents were amazed we had actually made it all the way there
in one piece - Not sure what they meant ? A couple
of individuals we met at Clydebank actually turned up later that evening at
Bowling to see if we had reached our destination which was amazing. One
policeman on holiday with his two daughters followed us by bicycle for no
less than 12 miles. After lunch the first of two pedestrian
bridges was lifted and when I asked the British Waterways assistant why both
bridges did not get raised at the same time - he said it was much safer this
way then added "the shoppers
dont throw things at yer boat if you always keep
one bridge open for them". The shopping precinct area offers a
reasonable stretch to tie up to but beware of a sharp jagged ledges 6 to 12 inches below the surface and extensive weeds. We continued on in our descent of the
remaining locks. As we neared the towering The friendly faces of Jane and David (BW
Lock- keepers) kept us going the final mile or so to Bowling and they stayed
on late to help us raise the mast ready for a quick departure the next morning. We
were pleased to have reached Bowling and after 38 locks we felt we deserved a
night out. We wandered down to the Little Mill Inn and had a meal then up to
the bay We made our way back to the Bowling Basin
only to find the place all locked up for the night (closes all gates at 9pm).
By sheer luck we found the Toilet Block key that we collected in Caron and
tried it in the Gate Padlock - To our astonishment, it worked and we were in.
We wandered back to Lady Barbara and fought off the midges. Barbara had
produced Net curtains, which were tailor made for the door a hatch spaces and
these worked very well. The
Bowling crane is a massive brute and towers eerily above you. Despite it's mammoth proportions it is still manually controlled.
We looked on with amazement as Jane and David did hundreds of turns of the
handle just to raise the mast a few feet. The BW staff are quite particular on matters of safety and insist
that the skipper of the yacht ties and attaches any ropes to the mast prior
to using the crane. Two sets of leading marks guide you in
and out 2 hours either side of High Water
Day
4. Bowling to Rothesay Wed 2nd July 28 Miles The day we
went to Rothesay Oh eventually
! On
the morning of our departure from Bowling we faced a lock problem - The main
Lock gate had stuck. After over 2 hours and much scratching of heads, it was
diagnosed as being short of hydraulic fluid and it was almost 15:00 before we
were eventually released into the Clyde. We
were disappointed at what had become a 4 hour delay as we had hoped by mid
afternoon to have been settled for the night somewhere in the Kyles of Bute. We had deliberately kept an open plan and avoided
a rigid time frame for our holiday and this strategy was proving the best way
to cope with the many unforeseen circumstances one can face being afloat. As
bad luck would have it, by the time of our departure the wind could not make
up its mind where to blow from and the tide was also now against us. This
made for a fairly choppy run up the river We
left the Sea lock with a converted Fishing trawler with 7 crew all destined
for a "Proclaimers concert" at Rothesay that night. They reckoned they would make 7
knots all the way and we tried in vain to keep up with them. We did OK up to
Port Glasgow but by As
we rounded Cloch Point I phoned my dad to tell him
we were passing exactly the place where he had taught me how to fish at the
age of 8 back in the 1960s. This was on the day the UK Navy fleet was
anchored and we were both drenched when the Ark Royal set off and created a
10 foot wash.
Port We
found Rothesay to be a buzzing and friendly little
town even in mid week there are plenty of shops and Tourist attractions to
entice a one or two day stop over. We quite liked Rothesay and regretted not having gone off to explore the
castle and garden grounds so much to see on this small
We found a steady North East breeze which
helped us all the way to Rothesay arriving at 20:30
and tying up in the West Pontoon behind the ferry terminal. We popped out to Zavaronis chip shop and settled for the night with a
pretty decent fish supper. This is a good spot for a short visit -
plenty of shops and Petrol is only 200 yards away diesel on Jetty. Day
5. Rothesay to In the morning we made our way to the famous
Victorian Loos and what a spectacle they are - well worth the 15p entrance
fee. We did some shopping, By this point in the holiday we had heard
enough of Russell Watson and his marvellous operatic voice. So, I bought some
traditional easy listening material by Silly Wizard. Barbara bought tea
towels for the kids that gave explanations for certain useful Scottish terms
such as Eejit, Tewchter,
Skelpit, Glakit, Skunnered and many other
useful words we might actively use passing back through the canal. At 13:00 We left Rothesay
passing the Bowling based trawler, the crew perhaps still sleeping off their
hang-over after the Proclaimers concert. We found a
fantastic F2/F3 NW wind that gently blew us up the East Kyle on a series of
Tacks. We reached Colintraive at 14:00 and pottered
around beside the Ferry and the We spotted a beautiful little cove behind an
island (Eilean Dubh) and
went to investigate - this was
Day
6. Friday 4 July Caladh Harbour
to Tarbert Loch Fyne 18 Miles Another
beautiful day beckons with a gentle F3 North East wind that drifts us down
the West Kyle of Bute. Tighnabruaich is colourful (above Left) as we drifted passed with lots of
yachts but no people. We reached the foot of the West Kyle and as we rounded Ardlamont point we could see the impressive imposing
sight of Aran ahead of us.The sea picked up with 2
foot waves but this was nothing compared to what we were to experience on our
return. We
were trailing the dinghy and had slowed almost to a halt as the out-flowing
tide and wind worked against us. The waves also became more frequent so we
lifted the dinghy on board and quickly deflated. The wind eased as we were
about half a mile South of Portavadie. A whale of a Time ! As
we slowly drifted towards Tarbert, Barbara popped down to put the kettle on.
Immediately, 60 feet ahead to starboard a massive shape leapt clean out of
the water - My first shocked thoughts were that it was a surfacing submarine
and I knew they used Loch Fyne for exercising as
shown on the charts. But I was perhaps even more surprised to see the shape
clearly as a Dark Blue whale, which I estimated to be around 30 feet in
length.
Tarbert is a picturesque and busy harbour We
tied up at the Tarbert Marina and I asked a few locals about the whale, most
seemed surprised as no one else had reported this - the most popular theory
was that it was a Minke Whale and a fairly large
one. Word of our sighting spread around the harbour and even the local
policeman came to ask for details.
The
entrance in to Tarbert is winding but well marked and the local chart of the Day
7. Saturday 5 July Tarbert to Ardrishaig and Lochgilphead and Crinan
Canal 14 Miles The
highlight of the morning Festival was centred around
a short trip made by the queen of the festival on a smelly rusty fishing
trawler and accompanied by a young lady piper and two ladies in waiting. The
Queen arrived at Tarbert Pier to loud cheers from around 200 locals. We
had seen all we wanted to see by 14:00 so we headed back to Lady Barbara and
sailed off towards Ardrishaig. This was a slow trip
in a choppy Loch Fyne. After a few crossings of the
We
paid the £63 passage fee, which seemed expensive after the £57 For the 2-way
Forth & Clyde trip. Shortly after our entrance through the sea Lock we
were joined by Satander, a 35 foot Fisher bound for
Mallaig. Captain was Christopher and he had the
company of his wife and friend. We shared the work of the first three locks
along with a British Waterways young lass called Caroline (known as a
sweeper) We stopped for the night around 20:00 outside the Grey Gull Hotel
between Ardrishaig and Lochgilphead.
entering Day
8. Sunday 6 July Crinan Canal 8 Miles We were up
at 07:30 and I popped down to the Grey Gull Hotel for Bacon rolls. We had
agreed with
As
we moved on past the top-level locks we were joined by a rather lavish 45ft
Dutch Cruiser registered in The
next series of locks were hard work having to do the winding and pushing the
gates on our own. Just after Cairnbaan, Christopher
and crew arrived on Satander all wearing big
smiles. Their engine problem had apparently been quickly diagnosed as a
blocked inlet filter and they were back on track helping us through the
locks. We also met up with a family from The
end of the Rainbow -
About turn and all the way back !
By Crinan and Lady
Barbara's first sniff of the Back at Ardrishaig
basin we were quite exhausted and our backs were pretty sore from pushing
lock gates but we tied up and walked a mile back up the road to the
Argyll Hotel for a meal. When we left for the nite-out
it was a pleasant evening but on the 1 mile walk back we were absolutely
soaked through in a heavy downpour that lasted most of the night. I spent a
few minutes trying to catch tomorrow's lunch but the trout were not biting in
the heavy rain. At least the rain had also kept the midges away. Day 9. Monday 7 July Ardrishaig Colintraive 29 Miles The
morning drizzle turned to torrential rain just as we pulled out of Ardrishaig harbour -
Fortunately we had taken to Oilskins prior to our departure. The trip down
past Tarbert was difficult at times due to poor visibility but the compass
was well used at times. Barbara and I were thankful our large whale friend
did not come back to scare us.
As
we approached the point South of Portavadie we had
to seek temporary shelter behind the small island who's
only inhabitants are a lighthouse and a few Ganets.
The wind increased up to what seemed like a F5/6or even 7 at times and the
waves steeped up considerably. It seemed far too rough to Anchor and we no
longer trusted the local weather forecasts on channel 16 promising easing
conditions so we decided to Top up the main fuel tank and rough it out down
passed Ardlamont Point knowing we would hopefully
find shelter in the West Kyle. This
next five mile stretch was very uncomfortable as 5 to 6 foot waves met us
mostly starboard side on. Lady Barbara took the brunt of these conditions
very well and whilst we would never willingly look for these sailing
conditions again, we secretly thanked Jock Blair and James at
the Bosun's Locker for selling us such a sturdy wee
boat. We
are admittedly not the most experienced of sailors at Port Edgar but it is
amazing just how much experience one can pick up on a two week voyage in
Scottish weather and even in a day in poor conditions. On this wild stretch,
Barbara and I never spoke much to each other, we remained firmly focussed on
staying as upright as possible and ensuring each other stayed on board Lady
Barbara. Just
after 14:00 we rounded Ardlamont point and headed
up the West Kyle and as if by magic, the rain went off and the sun came out
with a scorching 22 degrees. We continued up the Kyle and anchored up just
before Kames bay being careful to avoid underground cables as shown on the
chart. This bay was famous for an ammunitions arsenal during the war days and
there were several very violent explosions during the war years which caused
building damage in Tighnabruaich and were heard as
far away as Inverary. But
today - this was a very tranquil place. The
adjacent beach looked empty and inviting, so we dropped the anchor onto clear
sand seven feet below, blew up the dinghy and popped ashore for a Barbecue
having bought some steak and fresh rolls back in Ardrishaig
and we opened another bottle of red wine. After the Barbie we used the
burning embers to start our own beach fire and we could easily have stayed a
few more hours but we were keen to pick up a mooring for the night in East
Kyle. At
20:30 We up'd anchor and headed off round Buttock
Point, passed Tighnabruaich past Caladh and through the Day 10. Tues 8 July Colintraive
Inverkip
15 Miles We
were wakened at 07:00 by the screeching sound made by the ramp of the RORO
(Roll on Roll off) Ferry that makes the quarter mile crossing between Colintraive and Rhubodach on
the North end of the Isle of Bute. At 08:00 we sailed off down to Rothesay to pick up some fuel and fresh milk to see us
back to Bowling. In Rothesay we played games with the regular Ferry craft
going to and fro and we had to be in our toes to get the timing right. This
time we chose the West side of the pier and tied up along side a Beautiful 46
foot Youth Fellowship training yacht registered in Leith but based in Largs. The crew were preparing
for a run round the Kyles to Tarbert. After
a brief top up of fuel and food we headed off for a leisurely sail all the
way across to Inverkip Marina. I radioed ahead and
booked a slot on Pontoon B which had us berthed up alongside some real luxury
craft - We thought Port Edgar had its fair share of posh boats - our wee 24
footer looked like a tidler next to the 50+ft boats
of all descriptions. We were assured by a few owners that our Summer holiday
had taken our wee boat further than some of these luxury units will see in a
couple of years. We
visited the Clubhouse for a meal and Barbara popped some washing in to the
Laundry. The Opal Marine sales people caught us looking at some of the show
craft and threw us the keys to their range of Legends. We decided the 356
would suit us best. We checked the Purse and Wallet but sadly they did not
hold sufficient funds - Nice boats just the same. Day
11. Wed 9 July Inverkip to Bowling 20.4 miles We paid
our £12 overnight visitor fee at Inverkip and set
off on our final We
reached the
The
tidal flows in the Clyde are similar to the As
we entered Bowling we spotted Ronnie Russack on his
floating restaurant from the Bridge Inn at Ratho.
Ronnie was on his way back with a party of twenty on a 3 day trip back to Day
12. Thur 10 July Bowling to Kirkintilloch
16 Miles At
09:30 Ronnie moved off with his 20 piped-on guests to give us access to the
crane for the ceremonial dropping the mast un-piped. We managed this fairly
well. After securing everything in the rain "again" we headed off
through the Erskine weeds which had not been attacked since our earlier
passage and if anything were worse. Just as we headed off we were joined by
a little fishing boat the Rose leaf from Pitenweem.
This was a tidy wee open boat in traditional Red and Green and with a quiet
little diesel engine.
In
comparison to the Forth the
Sea and wild life on the West Coast was more awash with Jelly Fish than the
Forth and we observed only a few Seals and Dolphins or Porpoises you see
many more on the We
were held up for 30 minutes under the By
Clydebank we had caught up with Ronnie and another Capercaille
cruising Barge chartered from We
were told of horror stories experienced by early passage makers through this
stretch being pounded by stones. The only projectile we suffered from was an
action man figure thrown by a little chap on to the boat no less than 6
times. We threw it back each time as far away from the canal as we could but
like a little dog with a stick he ran off and back it came as if he was
determined to send it on a voyage to Port Edgar. We soon were fed up with his
stupid game and refused to throw it back - more in the interest of safety. He then threatened to Get his Maw So we threw it back
thankfully for the last time. We
were following the large Capercaille charter barge
after Maryhill and as we rounded a tight bend in a built up area, the crew
were frantically pointing to the Port-side canal bank. We reached the spot
they were pointing to and could not believe our eyes. There in a tiny stretch
of wooded canal bank amongst all the plastic shopping bags and rubbish was a
beautiful Our
friendly BW lock - keepers were generally very efficient and helpful but the
Maryhill crew take some getting used to. In the two
week holiday and some pretty rough weather patches, the only minor scratch
damage caused to Lady Barbara happened both ways through the Maryhill Lock
section. Despite trying very hard - we just could not educate them to take
the stern line first when entering the locks with a following Force 4 wind.
When they did catch the ropes they would manage to tie one line on Ok then
forget there was another to do leaving us on several occasions frantically
fending off from the greasy Lock walls as the wind blew us about. We
also found it necessary to get our timing right as we motored up to several
locks and Bridges that had no-one in attendance - It seemed this team were
having a tough time as they were constantly on Mobiles getting a ticking off
from management for getting timings wrong. In the rest of the sections - the
BW staff were very good, helpfull and efficient. We
were aiming for Auchenstarry but had to settle for
the Seagull Trust pontoon at Kirkintilloch again as
time ran out mainly due to the delay in access to the crane and the dreaded
weeds. We tied up at Kirkintilloch and after
showering, wandered 100 yards up to the Kirky
Puffer. This is a Wetherspoons pub and is like a tardis inside. We had arrived on "Curry Night"
and found fantastic value with a range of Indian Cuisine including a Pint or
Glass of wine of your choice for the amazing price of £4.95. We enjoyed the
cuisine along with 100 or more local people. Back at the boat, the night
passed peacefully with no clandestine visitors. Day
13. July 11 Kirkintilloch to Caron Basin 18 Miles We
left Kirkintilloch at 09:05 to get our timing right
for the lifting bridge at 09:15 where The
Silly Wizard music was played yet again and by now we had learned the words
to most of the songs almost wished I had brought along the guitar. We had
to pull up sharply as we approached the small pedestrian Bridge beside the
Falkirk wheel - This was confusing as the control centre were waiving us
through and the young lad operating the bridge was waiving us back due to the
bridge being stuck. We amused the busy canal bank with some nifty circles as
we fought hard to turn around in the breeze in the tight section.Eventually
the control centre spotted the problem and sent someone else to help - The
bridge was eventually raised and we passed through. We pulled up at Camelon where we met Jim and Fay (Mum and Dad) and our
son Andrew.
We
reached the Sea Lock by 17:00 but could not exit due to pending Low Water so
Donald (BW) fixed us up with a decent berth for the night. We took advantage
of the adjacent power and popped on a movie "The Abyss" which we
all fell asleep watching. - Nothing to do with the Red wine of course. Day 14. July 12 Our
final day forced us to hang around until the afternoon as we awaited a suitable
departure slot under the To
pass the time Donald ran me in the BW van to top up the fuel and I treated
Barbara and Andrew to a McDonalds Breakfast collected up the road at Grangemouth. We called Michael our son to wish him happy
birthday and both him and Yvonne his wife a good holiday in Zakinthos and then we sat waiting our departure. One
bridge too far By
13:30 we were fed up waiting and decided to break out of the Sea Lock early.
We waived goodbye to Donald's hospitality, passed under the Motorway and then
faced the Kerse bridge. We very slowly passed
through the start of the bridge and all was going fine until the very last
end piece of the Mast reached the very last segment of the far side of the
bridge. We
all moved to the back of the boat to force the aft end down a little but we
were short of quarter of an inch airspace and that
was all it took the bridge to push off the Mast Light. Some swift fishing by
Barbara managed to recover the light casing before it sank and this was later
repaired and fixed on prior to raising the mast. After the hairy experience
of De-Masting at Grangemouth
yacht club in a running tide and gusting wind, we decided not to bother
stopping and moved swiftly on down the river Caron. We
passed by the members at Grangemouth yacht club who
have still not yet learned how to waive to passing boats. The River
Forth was not kind as we entered. We had a West wind which was useful but a
sea that was rather choppy. The conditions made Andrew's first lengthy
trip a touch uncomfortable but he lasted the pace very well popping down to
catch odd items as the boat pitched around in the choppy swell. We
reached Port Edgar at 17:00 Saturday 12th July and tied Lady Well
we were back after a great holiday, we felt a sense
of achievement. As fairly inexperienced sailors we felt our first taste of
real cruising (by our standards), had been most enjoyable. Our little boat
had taken us safely to the Would
we do it again Absolutely ! - But perhaps next time, we would by-pass
the Forth & Clyde canal and head straight for Inverkip
or Largs by land as a starting point to gain an
extra 5/6 days cruising on the West coast. Perhaps; Oban,
Mull and
Overall
Cost of the · Miles covered: approximately 260 miles. · Petrol used around 45 Litres - £ 36 · Canal fees Caron to Bowling - £ 35 · Canal fees Bowling to Caron - £
22.50 (current discount rate) · Canal fees Crinan
Canal 2 way passage - £ 63.00 · Berthing fees Rothesay
Pontoon - £ 10 · Berthing Fee Tarbert Pontoon - £ 10 · Berthing fee Kip Marina - £ 12 Total £ 188.50 Plus
eating out, food and drink costs = One of the best value and one of the
most enjoyable summer holidays yet |
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