Day 13 - Leaving the Crinan Canal - the final stretch home - A Journey completed

It was another early start on the final day of our Western Odyssey, with the locks opening at 8.30am and our final destination being the Good Ship's mooring at Gourock, some miles away. We raced through the last of the canal, arriving at Ardrishaig around 1pm. With some boats coming up behind us also wanting lock out into Loch Gilp, we took the opportunity to pause for a bit at the canal office, chatting for a while with Emma (surely the most bodacious lock keeper in Britain... ) and her mother, who was down enjoying the sunshine as well. Emma, like many of the canal workers, is a student for the rest of the year, with summer holidays happily coinciding with peak season on the canal.

Ardrishaig had a lazy feel about it, and it was with some reluctance that we locked out of the sea lock and into Loch Gilp, motoring out through the channel into a building south-westerly breeze. Beating down Loch Fyne, although reasonably fast, was not going to get us home in time, and so off Tarbert we resorted to motorsailing under engine. The infamous shortcut inside Skate Island (infamous not for any difficulty of navigation, but for it's appearance in an episode of the Vital Spark, where Para Handy beats his arch-rival by taking the short-cut, running hard aground, getting the locals to off-load his cargo so he can float and then reload it the other side, all completed at a speed not unlike a Benny Hill sketch) gave us a handy saving in time, but on rounding Ardlamont Point the forecast South Easterly force 6-7, which would have had us steaming up the Clyde, failed to materialise. Indeed, as the evening drew near, the wind died away completely, and we were left motoring at full speed through the Kyles of Bute. It was almost dark when we reached Toward Point, the racing boats all heading back to their moorings in a stunning sunset, and the tall figure of Toward Light House standing as a lone sentinel amongst the wooded landscape. The lighthouse light came on as we passed, it's caring light sweeping across the sea majestically as we motored past on an oily calm Firth.

Passing Toward, we switched on the nav lights for the first time in the whole trip, and as darkness fell, the shores on either side of us lit up like christmas trees with street lights and domestic housing lights. It was a beautifully still evening, as the crew tidied ship on the way past the Cloch Lighthouse. On reaching Gourock, the moorings were dark but the clubhouse was in full swing after Thursday evening racing, although our late arrival meant that we would be disembarking on the dinghy, as the boatman had gone home at the turn of darkness. Seman Finnegan duly did 3 return trips on the dinghy with all our kit and stores, whilst the Skipper tidied up ship and made the mooring fast. It was 11.30pm by the time we were all back ashore, tired but relieved to be home after a long day. So it was that farewells were said, and the crew headed back to the City, leaving the Skipper to his lift from his brother. Back at home, the Skipper put his head to the pillow, and that was that...

Day 12 - Tinker's Hole (Erraid) to Crinan and the return canal trip

Our final day in the islands began early, the plan being to catch the tide along the Ross of Mull and hopefully hit either Corryvreckan at slack water or, if we were too late, at least hit the tidal gate at the top of the Sound of Luing at the turn of the tide. Sailing the West Coast demands this kind of tidal planning, where hopefully one carries the tide for just the right length of time, then hooks into the next (opposing) tide at the correct moment to facilitate the next stage of the journey. The crew seemed less than pleased at beginning so early, but once settled down into the reach across the Ross of Mull they cheered up somewhat, with Seaman Finnegan cave-spotting again and Seaman Farago just happy to be sailing.

It was a brisk sail at first, and with the open sea to leeward we could see the various weather systems spread out across the sky, with sunlight shining off the sea here, and a raining cloud there, with a variety of shades in between. For our part, we managed to stay totally dry, and though we had moments of grey, as we turned into the Sound of Luing, the sun came out and we enjoted a brisk sail back down towards the Dorus Mor, in the company of a little junk-rigged Vertue which fairly scooted along the shore of the island after jumping onto the tidal stream off Pladda lighthouse. We reached the Dorus shortly after 3pm, approaching slack water, and with the sun beating down mercilessly. The wind had died, and so it was under the faithful Yanmar that we motored through the swirls and eddies, threatening but far less tempestious and malevolent than during our previous transit of the Dorus.

On reaching Crinan, we locked through the sea-lock immediately, and proceeded to motor at great speed through the opening stages of the canal, hoping to reach Cairnbaan by closing time at 5pm. Alas, it was not to be however, and so we berthed at a secluded spot just down from lock 13, and prepared to spend the night.

After a short while, we were joined by the Vertue from earlier, and the Skipper got to look over some fascinating features of this clever little craft, not the least of which was a simple clip on home-made barbeque, the details of which were duly noted for further implementation on the Good Ship. Seaman Farago took the opportunity to take some eerie photos in the beautiful evening light, before we wandered along the tow-path to the Cairnbann hotel, about a mile from our berth for the night, for a quiet but well earned pint. It was dark by the time we returned to the boat, and after a long days sailing it wasn;t long before the crew turned in for a peaceful night's sleep on the canal.