Home / Sailing Gigha and Colonsay, Scotland

By d50wood

August 5, 2007

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20th – 23rd July 2007
Alan the skipper had chartered a Moody 38, Marna IV, for a long weekend’s sailing out of Crinan. The boat itself had been just fitted with a new propeller after two of the wrong type had been supplied, and indeed was still out of the water at Ardfern on the morning of the charter. However Tony, the charterer, did sterling work and had the yacht ready for us on arrival at Bellanoch Marina on the Crinan Canal at 16:00hrs.

The crew consisted of skipper Alan, mate Dave with his daughter Nicola and her friend Nikki, Rufus and partner Dawn, Martin and his brother Andrew giving eight in total, one for each berth on board. It was a complete mixture of sailing experience from complete novice to yachtmaster. After taking over the yacht at the marina we motored gently towards Crinan sea locks to await the arrival of the remainder of the crew. The basin above the sea lock was quite crowded so it was decided to stop for the night in the canal itself above the basin. Crinan is a lovely place, prone to midges at this time of the year. The steam puffer ‘Vital Spark’, of Para Handy fame, is still moored in the basin slowly rotting away. Surely something can be done to restore it. We ate on board that first night then went for refreshment at the Crinan Hotel. The bar closed at 11pm, ensuring we were back on board in good time for starting off on Saturday morning. Saturday dawned overcast and with a flat calm which stayed with us for the rest of the day. We locked out of the sea lock at 08:30 and gently motored south in the general direction of Gigha. It was a gentle introduction to the boat, particularly for the novices amongst us. A lunch stop was made in Lowlandman’s bay on the east coast of Jura, a peaceful natural harbour.

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