There are 8 locks up to the summit reach and 7 down, assuming you
are heading north.Well today, we were guaranteed flat waters- passing through the 9 miles of the Crinan Canal, up to the summit reach at 68 feet above mean sea level - then back down to Crinan itself - and the jumping off point for the West-of-Scotland proper.
The sea locks at each end are operated hydraulically - the rest have to be done by the crew - so it is quite a demanding job. We teamed up with 'Run Rig', a Westerly Storm 33 heading for Tobermory on Mull - to share the workload.
The canal has suffered from drought restrictions for the last few years - we rather doubt there's any problem this year - indeed they were wasting water!
There are 8 locks up to the summit reach and 7 down, assuming you
are heading north.
There's a little store at Cairnbaan, near the summit
reach - so 'Run Rig' treated us all to a choc-ice!
We were followed through by Andromeda - a Hallberg Rassy 46 from Basel in Switzerland -
we'd seen them in Bangor when we were there too. A boat this length must be quite a
handful in the narrow locks etc - but the crew handled her fine - though the powerful
bow-thruster undoubtedly helped!
Now we've arrived at Crinan we look across to the Islands of Jura
and Scarba - and the infamous narrow channel between them called Corryvreckan - one of the
world's worst tidal cauldrons...... We won't be going through - but loads of boats do.
Half the Manx fishing fleet seems to be in the basin below us - 2 boats from Peel, 1 from Castletown and one from Douglas - so there are lots of Manx flags flying tonight!
Woke to a torrential rain shower - and a brisk WNW wind - but there was blue in the sky and a half-decent forecast, so we took the second locking out of the canal and headed for the 'Dorus Mor'.
Dorus Mor is Scots Gaelic for 'Big Door' - it is a clean widish passage in a chain of islands between Loch Craignish and the Sound of Luing - the route up towards Oban. The tides sluice through this whole area as they are constrained by the Islands - and speeds of 7-8 knots is common in all the narrow passages between islands. We arrived at the 'Big Door' about an hour before the tide was due to turn North - but the powerful motor on Tidewinder easily pushed us through - though with lots of swirls and sideways movements on the eddies.
The
wind was whistling through from Corryvreckan - bet that passage would be rough
today - as we turned north for the next tidal gate at Fladda - towards the top of the
channel between Lunga and Luing. By the time we arrived there, the tide was just turning -
which was just as well, as the strongish WNW wind might have been kicking up a stew. We
had a short shower or two - but all retired to the dry comfort of Tidewinder's inside
piloting position - so we didn't even need to break out the oilies - though you'll see we
caught a spot of rain on the camera.
With the wind now well off
our port beam, we pulled out the genoa, and sailed beautifully past Easdale, then between
Seil and Insch Islands towards Kerrera Sound, and Oban.
The visitor's buoys in Oban bay were all taken, so we
berthed at Oban Yacht Services pontoon at Ardentrive Bay across on the small island of
Kerrera. The boatyard and yacht station is built in the old seaplane depot from Oban's
wartime days.
We berthed alongside a
Moody 376 (from Largs) called 'Tiftie' - whose owner must get the prize for being the most
snooty and fussy skipper we have ever been alongside! Usually yachties are a friendly
bunch - and part of the fun is chatting to folks - often from far afield - even if it is
only a common moan about the weather. This chap was so stuffy, if he'd said one more word
we'd have left and gone somewhere else - watch out if you see him anywhere.
On a mooring in the
bay, we spotted 'Segret' - another Southerley 115 - but a quick check of her transom
showed her to be a Series II model - the Series III has a sugar-scoop stern. She also has
in-mast mainsail reefing, whereas Tidewinder has a fully battened mainsail with
single-line slab reefing. Southerlys are not too common a sight in Scotland.
OYS run a free water-taxi across the bay to Oban - so we took the chance to get a swim - it helps keep the smell down :-) - and do a bit of shopping. You'll see the Oban skyline is dominated by 'McCaig's Tower (latterly known as McCaig's Folly!). It was built by an eccentric as a monument to himself - but he ran out of money before it was completed :-D
Well what a day - virtually no rain - a good sail over half the passage - and the magnificent scenery - things are looking up!
A lazy start today - the two tidal gates we were due to pass didn't start to open until lunchtime....
Left the pontoon under sail - just to show we can still do it - though it was easy as the wind was blowing us directly off anyway.
Our passage took us up the SE side of the island of Lismore, through the Lynn of Lorne. The weather forecast was for sunshine and showers - with wind force 3 - 5. We got the showers - but no sign of the sunshine, and the force 5 winds - never saw the force 3 ones :-) Still it was directly behind us, and though the day was all shades of grey, the sailing was good.
We arrived off Appin - at the head of Lynn of Lorne about an hour before the tide turned - but with a stiff breeze behind us, we continued to press through - even though we were losing up to 2 knots of speed to the adverse tide. It was also quite choppy - as the tide was against the wind. At this point the passage joins the Lynn of Morvern - part of Loch Linnhe.
The next 'gate' was at Corran
Narrows, and we expected the tide by then to be flooding NE. In fact at our arrival time -
2:15, the tide was just turning - so again there was quite a choppy patch where the swell
was meeting the last of the ebb. The small (20 foot yacht in front of us must have had an
'exciting' time!
The wind continued directly astern (in Loch Linnhe the wind tends to either blow NE or SW due to the very high hills either side of the Loch). We passed the small yacht - and two hours later, arrived off Forth William and turned West towards the entrance to the Caledonian Canal at Corpach. We completed the whole passage under sail - except for the last 30 meters into the sea lock - once again, the size of the locks on this canal appeared huge compared to the ones on the Crinan.
We invited the small
yacht (Sea Spray), to tie alongside us for the lift. The two crew confirmed that they had
indeed had an 'exhilarating' ride through Corran Narrows. It also turned out that the
skipper is one of the lock-keepers at Muirtown, Inverness - so he promised us a gentle
ride there as a return favour.
We moored in Corpach Basin - with the shoulder of Britain's highest mountain, Ben Nevis, just showing in the photo - but the top 2000 feet lost in the cloud.
Total passage today - 30.8 NM by the log.