Leaving Loch Tarbert

After a crew breakfast and awards at the Tarbert Hotel the final event of the Traditional Boat Festival was a sail past on Loch Fyne. We motored out of the harbour near the front of a pack of boats, then got our sails up and had a lovely sail with a variety of traditional boats; everything from converted fishing boats to a varnished wood Antigue Classics racing yacht. Julian took some great pictures.

Some of the boats went back into Tarbert, but many headed straight home. We sailed across to Portavadie Marina, just across Loch Fyne. We needed diesel after our days of motoring south and Loch Tarbert only has it available Monday to Friday.

Portavadie Marina is too new to be on our chart plotter, and a fish farm confused us slightly but we found the entrance and got the sails down. A fender went overboard while Julian was tying them on, but we picked it up without problems and headed in. Julian called them up on the VHS and we got a reply!

We headed straight for the fuel dock and someone was waiting there when we arrived. We had been warned that the fuel was expensive compared to Loch Tarbert, so we just filled the tanks, not the cans, but the whole process was very time effective. It only took half an hour from getting the sails down to raising them again, then we were off on a glorious sail to the Kyles of Bute.

The scenery was spectacular, and the weather perfect; blue sky, force 3-4 wind, and calm sea, The wind dropped as we approached Kames, so we furled the jib and put the engine on to motor along the shore and look at Tighnabruaich. Julian spotted some gannets diving, and decided he wanted to have a go at fishing too. He got out the new mackerel line he bought at Tarbert and streamed it out behind.

I put the engine in neutral and we sailed very slowly (½knot) along the shore towards Tighnabruich. For the first time ever we caught fish! Two beautiful mackerel took the lure, so that was dinner sorted!
 
The wind came up again, so the engine went off and we sailed up to the Butt of Bute. The wind dropped away again there, so we got the engine on and since it was 1900 and we were close to where we wanted to anchor we got the sails down. We had a look in Caladh Harbour, a very popular anchorage, but it was full as expected, and there was already a yacht in the tiny anchorage by One Tree Island we had been recommended to try. We ended up anchored in 3m of water in the scarily named Wreck Bay. There were already 2 boats there, but there was plenty of room for us.

Julian cleaned and cooked the mackerel for dinner. Delicious!