Cairnbaan, Crinan to Tarbert 06 June 2024

 

Leaving the first of the descending locks at Cairnbaan this morning.  After a lot of heavy rain through the night it was good to have dry weather for the journey. 

The lock keeper's team at Cairnbaan were an extremely friendly and efficient bunch.  They got us down through a ladder of four locks in 35 minutes.  Descending is much easier than ascending, because there is no surging incoming water, and we were on our own for these four locks.  It was almost relaxing.
For the following three locks farther down the canal we were paired again with the same yacht (and skipper) as yesterday.  The same degree of ‘eptness’ as yesterday was on display but because we were descending it was much less stressful.

Much of the journey was calm and idyllic.  Wonderful.

It didn’t take long to reach Ardrishaig at the eastern end of the canal.  Here we were guided through four locks where the lock keepers were all women (three of the four of them looked as though they might be students doing a holiday job - one that we talked to was on day 4 in the job).  They certainly did as good a job as the man team earlier this morning.

At Ardrishaig we were spat out into the sea, and although it is very windy the sea state is good because we are in the lea of Kintyre - that was the plan.

It took less than an hour to motor south to Tarbert, where we berthed rather inelegantly, in winds gusting at 22 knots.

Tarbert town below, and a wall mounted not-Neolithic artwork on the marina toilets.

Today’s boat bird list is 32 species - enhanced with a lot of passerines again, but also a few seabirds including Red-throated Diver.

Our route:






































































































































































































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