Lochaline to Ardfern 19 July 2022

 

Lochaline Quartz Sand mine located just 100 yards from the marina

60 million years ago a volcanic eruption covered this super pure silica sand with a thick layer of basalt and preserved it, until now.  During WW2 when other sources of silica sand became unavailable this deposit became economic to mine (for the production of high quality glass (for periscope lenses and gun sights at the time)) and it has been extracted ever since. It is incredibly fine and white, and great care has to be taken because it can cause silicosis.

The sand is extremely fine

Lochaline is a hotbed of geology!  Not only does it have the white silica sand, it is also well known for the fossil oysters found on the shore immediately at the marina.  These oysters are Gryphaea, or colloquially known as Devil’s Toenails, and were laid down 200 million years ago in a shallow muddy tropical sea (they are the same age as the rocks of the Jurassic coast in Dorset).

Gryphaea on the shore at Lochaline marina. It took about two minutes to find these two 200 million year old critters 

Fitted a new fuel filter to the port engine - the old one didn’t look too dirty, so we think the issue might have been air getting into the system at the filter seal.  We put a new seal on and made sure the Racor filter was fully topped up with diesel and sealed with Vaseline.  We hope this sorts the problem  - we shall see.

Coffee in a lovely new café up by the shop (scones just out of the oven) followed by a 11.45 departure.

Arrived in Ardfern at 15.15ish after some really stiff wind through the Sound of Luing and through the Corryvreckan gap.  It calmed down once we got to Ardfern, but then started to rain, quite heavily. It would appear we are going to have a cloudy damp evening - a bike ride by Susie and Gordon has been delayed until tomorrow.

The entrance to Ardfern Marina in the rain

Princess Anne’s boat

…….we shall see: well, after running for about four hours the port engine developed the same problem as yesterday, so we haven’t fixed it.  Thinking caps on.

Today’s route:














































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