Day 97/99 - Portavadie to Largs to Greenock

Day 97  Portavadie to Largs. Saturday 5th Aug. 2017

Portavadie is a good safe, deep water, up market marina.  However, it is more of a holiday apartment destination overlooking the marina and as such there is more going for the apartment cliental rather than the sailor.  There are a couple of  trendy restaurant come bars and an expensive heated small pool with a heated outdoor infinity pool and hot tubs, but next to nothing ashore for the sailor and no telephone signals - may be a good thing in some cases!  It is a shame as it could have a lot going for it.  The marina had originally been cut out of the side of the mountain to build drilling platforms but that project was abandoned and hence the marina complex.

Portavadie Marina

After the morning swim and a nice coffee we left at 1150 for the 23 mile journey to Largs making use of the tide and sailing, goose winged, South down the remaining part of Loch Fyne, around the Southern tip of Isle of Bute and through the passage between Great Cumbrae and Little Cumbrae Islands, then North for Largs. 

Goose Winged - photo courtesy of Steph

Loch Fyne

We arrived in Largs after another lovely sail and not much rain for a change.  The forecast for Sunday was to be heavy rain so we decided that we could stay in Largs for 2 days and miss out the large marina of Inverkip on the way to Glasgow.  Largs is a large marina and has all the facilities you could possibly need.  There was also a sailing club with a spectacular view of the Lower Clyde and Great Cumbrae Island from its saloon/bar.   We had a lovely long lunch at Scotts, the swish restaurant on site.  Largs town is only a mile to the North.

Sunset over Largs

Largs Marina & Great Cumbrae

Day 99  Largs to Greenock (James Watt Dock)

We left Largs at 10:40 to make use of the last of the North going tide.  It made sense not to bother with Inverkip - luckily it seems as we passed it in a really heavy downpour and we could have been tying up.  Holy Loch was also a possibility but both were quite a way from shops - something we needed if we were to eat in the evening!

Holy Loch

Gourock

The sun came out as we passed Gourock and the wind started to die off so the final run into the James Watt Dock at Greenock under engine was fairly straight forward although a brief coughing at high revs was a little worrying, but we made it in with no further trouble and were given a marvellous berth at the end of the dock just by the gate.  The 17 miles had taken us less than 4 hours berth to berth and until the wind died another lovely days sailing.

Lunar Sea at James Watt Dock, Greenock

In the week that Frank and Steph were with us we had managed to fully sail more than in the whole of the rest of our trip which was a real pleasure.  Even Frank tried to turn Lunar Sea into a thoroughbred a few times. 
Thank you both, we hope you enjoyed getting your 'Lunar-tic wings' . . . . . .

Frank & Steph - Dunoon in background


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Preparations

Image
Luckily I have not been in paid work for 6 months so have had time to concentrate on the boats preparations. This has included all the little jobs on an on-going list as well as numerous others as I have found them. The main jobs over the last year have been; fitting a Hydravane wind steering; fitting 2 new port hatches above the saloon to give more light; renewing deck head coverings; extensive inventory and rationalization of all the equipment and spare gear; repainting of deck; fitting an AIS; having a new cockpit cover made. Boat is now stored up and ready for our around Britain adventure. Planned 2 year route
Read more

2022 - Second Leg - Penzance to Plymouth

Image
Around Britain – Year 3 – Portishead to Ramsgate – 2022.   Leg 2 - Penzance to Plymouth Day 13 – 13 th June – Penzance to Falmouth – 36 miles .   Penzance Wet Harbour Our first impression of Penzance wasn’t a good one, in the area around the train station and the main street running down to it.  For the sailor, the wet harbour was still very much a commercial one. With fishing boats and large cargo boats used to carry goods to the Scilly Isle’s.  Some areas were set aside for yachts, but they would always be rafted and in our case, we were initially on the outside of four other boats.  What with the rafting and the clambering over the inner boats and the new vertical ladder arrangements to get ashore, this made it quite a hazardous experience?  One that Julia had decided that we would book ourselves into a hotel for a couple of nights, and with the promise of a bath this was a great option.  The hotel was in Chapel Street which turned out to be in the old part of town and gave us a mu
Read more

2022 Fourth Leg - Weymouth to Gosport

Image
  Around Britain – Year 3 – Portishead to Ramsgate – 2022. Day 34 – 4 th July – Weymouth to Poole – 30 miles We stayed in Weymouth for 3 days and met up with Julia’s friends Peter and Barbara who were staying in a hotel for the weekend.   As they had a car, we were able to take a trip to Portland to have a look at the famous Portland Race form above.   You certainly wouldn’t want to sail through it as one sailing boat was doing and getting bashed about all over the place.   The reason for trying to go as close to the Bill as possible became so much clearer from above and the waters to the East were totally smooth.             A boat called Caveman rafted to us for a couple of nights.   They were heading to the Scilly Isles.   He had been to sea as an Engineer also so you can imagine all the Lamp Swinging that took place.             The passage from Weymouth to Poole is fairly-straight forward with just the Lulworth Firing Range to be clear of if they are firing, they were the d
Read more