Another day of motoring

We wanted to make the most of the tide up the Mull of Galloway. This turned in our favour at 08:30, which was not too early, but did mean leaving before any of our friends from the night before were stirring. I dashed to the shop for milk and the makings of lunch, and we got away just gone nine.

Another day of steady motoring ensued, this time with a slight wind from the South. We did not bother raising the main today, and once again Julian slept whenever he was not on watch. He was on watch mid afternoon when the engine suddenly failed. A quick check of the fuel tanks revealed that the cut off valve in one of the fuel tanks for closed itself, and the other had run dry. We filled the tank from our cans, but had to bleed the air out of the engine. This was my job with Julian feeling the way he did, but he found the relevant pages in Nigel Caulder, and told me what to do.

After a couple of false starts the fuel was flowing again, and we left Ailsa Craig astern.

Bird life was abundant on the water. Rafts of Guillemots with their just fledged chicks, with the occasional razerbill and Puffin for variety. Gannets, herring and lesser black back gulls were also highly visible. I saw a big seal, which seemed very interested in us, staying on the surface and staring as we motored past, and the usual indifferent harbour porpoises cruised around. The most interesting “encounter” occurred in the distance. A whale sized splash attracted my attention, and a minutes later there was another one, this time with a cetacean coming fully out of the water. While it could have been a dolphin it looked much bigger given the distance. Julian did some online research and found that Northern Bottle Nosed Whales were known to exhibit this behavior in the Clyde. This is not a species we have seen before, or are common in now.

We reached Ardrossan harbour while we still had light, and I got the foresails stowed and ropes and fenders prepared in the approaches. I can called the Marina earlier, and knew to go onto Pontoon F, just inside the harbour, and take any vacant berth. However the pontoons were not labelled which made things more difficult! The first obvious vacant berth had me moving the fenders rather than searching for a port side berth I had set up for, and someone came to help us moor up. He was excited to meet us, saying “Is this the famous Robinetta?” It turns out that he has one of my books on his kindle, and I invited him on board to see her.

Our berth was just across the pontoon finger from an old gaff yawl with Albert Strange lines. There was no one on board when we arrived, but we could see the name Redwing, and we found her on the Boat Register. She turns out to be owned by a current Scottish OGA member we had never met (he lives in England). James and his crew (also a James) appeared back on board just as we were settling down, and we came out on deck and had a chat before inviting them below for a dram. Another convivial OGA evening ensued. Two in a row!