Day 8 - Bonawe to Port Appin - Lizzy and Ola join the ship

It was a slightly grey start to the day at the Bonawe narrows, with mist hanging limply over the hills and the waters of Loch Etive like a dark, gloopy mirror. Seaman Finnigan departed early to go and pick up his first mate Ola, who had managed to drive herself to the wrong side of the Loch. Seaman Farago set off under oars to deliver Finnigan to the other side of the narrows, whilst the skipper made breakfast. It was with some surprise, then, that Seaman Farago was gone for a great deal of time, and when he returned the Skipper was informed of his mis-adventures. You see, the tide flows strongly through the Bonawe narrows, and it seems that Seaman Farago's rowing skills had succumbed to the incoming flow. He recounted how, having rowed across the narrows, he could not make his way back down to the bay and had ended up being carried into the mouth of the river which appears on the other side of the narrows. A plea to some local fishermen to help him carry the dinghy across the peninsula and launch it at our bay had fallen on deaf ears, and so he had carried the dinghy, complete with seagull, back himself.

 
The skipper decided that such effort should be rewarded with a trip to the restored Bonawe Iron Works, once the mainstay of the village when the wooded surroundings of Loch Etive had provided copious quantities of coppicing to fuel the blast furnaces used to extract the iron from the ore.

Following the trip ashore, and awaiting news from Seaman Finnigan and Ola, we returned to the boat to continue fishing and tidying up. The little Seagull was ready for action, but it was with some surprise that Ross and Ola arrived from the wrong side of the Loch (again) in an ancient Avon inflatable dinghy powered by an equally ancient Seagull, all being handled by the bearded Bob. It turned out that Bob, who had chatted to Seaman Finnigan on the shore earlier in the morning after noticing we had a Seagull outboard motor, had found Ross and Ola on the beach on the other side of the narrows and had offered them a lift over. Bob joined us for a cup of tea, and told us how his little Seagull had served him for nearly 50 years, almost 5 times the life expectancy of many modern 4 stroke outboards. Seagull outboards are no longer made, as being 2 stroke motors they are deemed too 'environmentally unfriendly'. But, for the same reason that the greenest car of 2009 was the Morris Minor, outboard motors use far more energy and create far more emissions in their construction from raw materials to delivered finished product than they will ever produce during their lifetime of running. Hence the brilliant little bit of British engineering that is the Seagull outboard, with it's seemingly unlimited lifespan, will easily beat the 4 or 5 4-stroke motors lifetime emissions, even if the running emissions are higher. It's a brilliantly simpple bit of kit too, with very few parts to keep an eye on and little to go wrong. Take care of it and it will last a lifetime, as Bob was keen to point out.

Bob was soon on his way again, a cheery wave accompanying the putt-putt of his Seagull across the open Loch. We set off down the Loch under engine, and the skipper prepared the travel shower for a second use (it had already performed brilliantly in Oban bay). We reflected that it would have been nice to sail to the head of Loch Etive, but there is a power cable crossing the narrows at Bonawe with only 12 metres clearance under it in the middle, and we didn't have the chart for the upper Loch anyway. A local had told us that there would be plenty of clearance for us if we sailed close into the North shore where the cable was higher (it hangs in an arc), so this has been saved for next year. Save for a close encounter with some partly submerged rocks - a passing motor boat had tooted his horn to warn us - the trip down the loch was uneventful. We picked up a morring near the Falls of Lora and waited in the calm loch for the right moment to transit the channel. This time we went whooshing through with the tide under us, although it still looked like the water was calm!

 We then continued under engine to Dunstaffnage Marina to refuel and pick up Lizzy, who looked a little unsure at the whole boat thing but seemed to settle in quite quickly. At the marina, we met the owner of the Najad who had taken photos of us 2 days before, and also managed to source a bolt for the Seagull fuel tank which had dropped off the previous day. We noticed, with great hilarity, a boat called 'Clear Blue', and wondered why on earth someone would name a boat after a pregnancy test...

Following refueling and re-watering (and many complimentary comments about the boat), we set off into the Firth of Lorn, motoring against the tide on a flat calm sea.

 Passing Eriska island, Lizzy got a view of her work she had never seen before (she works as business manager for the IsleEriska Hotel which is a 5 star Island and Hotel resort), and before long we were round the point of Appin and taking a mooring at the Pier House Hotel, where it seemed we could get a jacuzzi as well as showers if we wanted. A good deal of drinking and banter with a nice couple ashore ended in a swamped dinghy whilst trying to do donuts in the water at 1am...and it was 3am before the Skipper and Lizzy finally doused the oil lamp in the cockpit and retired for the night. It had been a great day indeed.