Crinan Basin shenanigans

The weather reports of gales on Wednesday meant that we did not want to leave the canal before we had to, so our goal for today was just to get to the Crinan Basin. We woke to a grey sky, and wanted porridge for breakfast, but we had half an hour of bright sunshine at 8 a.m. so we went for a walk along the towpath.

The locks needed purging before they could be used, so we knew we would not be on our way before 9. By 08:45 it had clouded over again, and we put our damp wet weather gear on  before setting off down the last two Dunardry Locks in the rain.

The canal organization seemed impeccable. We were warned that we might need to wait for the two bridges to be lifted as the bridge keeper was doing water quality checks, but he appeared to swing the first bridge before we had time to moor up, and he was ready and waiting at the second. Here he warned us that there were two yachts heading our way in the narrowest part of the canal, but that this meant the Crinan Basin top lock would be ready and waiting for us.

We passed the two yachts and continued on our way, only to see the lock gates close as we rounded the sharp corner on the approach. This caused us a huge problem. The waiting basin seemed full of yachts, giving us very little space to turn around. The lady closing the gates seemed surprised to see us, and vanished down towards the bottom gate rather than reopen the top one.

Julian maneuvered Robinetta with great care, but Worm is always a a problem when reversing in tight spaces and it was a fraught five minutes before we were round and heading back up the canal, rather shaken. We had cleared the concrete abutments with inches to spare, but we did discover a nasty scrape in Robinetta's paintwork later. Julian suggested dropping me off at the first pontoon with space while he turned Robinetta and headed back to the lock. This is not seem sensible to me, and his plan was cancelled with we saw the lady from the lock walking fast along the towpath towards us.

We moored up and chatted to the lock lady. She had not known we were coming, and apologised for closing the lock. We would have to wait about an hour before she could open it again as it was already being reset to allow another two yachts up from the basin.

We agreed to wait where we were until the lock cycled and we saw two yachts coming past us. It was only 11:40, but the sun was shining again and we decided to take advantage and have an alfresco lunch in the cockpit. No sooner did we have everything out than it started raining again...

By 13:00 Robinetta was moored up in Crinan Basin, with Worm ashore and upside down. Heavy rain with occasional sunny minutes continued all afternoon. Our mooring spot was too far from the electric to reach it, we had no phone signal, or usable wi-fi. Julian got quite depressed since we knew the weather would keep us in port until Thursday morning.

Stretching our legs between rain showers took us to the sea lock, where we spotted that the yacht coming in was another Heard 28, like Capraia. We knew this one too. Oystercatcher of Glenarm had attended the Oban OGA rally we organised last year, and as well as Mike the skipper her crew was another friend, Kevin. We spent the rest of the day socialising in the Crinan Hotel, having a fine meal in the bar.

When Oystercatcher entered the lock there had been a large Finnish yacht close behind. They did not want to enter the basin, and moored up outside on a concrete jetty. The swell increased as the evening drew on and she was pitching and rolling dangerously where she was. The sea lock is always left open at night, to allow yachts to take refuge, so we walked over to advise them to come in. They took our advice and we helped them moor up in the lock before heading back to our respective boats.