Early July 2014, Tarbert Seafood Festival and the Crinan Canal The main event of the second day was an afternoon of music described as "Beer on the Pier". This was a bit of a misnomer because there was no real ale in sight, just bottles of commercial lagers and ciders which can be had from the local supermarket at any time. As we could hear the music perfectly well from where Innisfree was moored, we sat in the cockpit to enjoy the music with some proper beer left from our visit to Islay. The new camera was delivered on Monday afternoon, so we set off for the Crinan canal sea lock at Ardrishaig (below left). The canal is nine miles long with 15 locks and cuts out an 80 mile trip around the treacherous Mull of Kintyre. It was completed in 1801, though had some design faults which were fixed by Thomas Telford in 1816. All but three of the locks are do-it-yourself, requiring considerable effort to wind open the sluices and push open the gates. Ideally you need four people, one on the boat, one to catch and release the lines, one to set up the next lock and one to close the previous lock. We were therefore very glad to see another yacht heading to the sea lock at the same time as us. They also had two on board so making things much easier. All went smoothly until we were leaving lock #4. We were slowly motoring out where there was a loud clunk and the engine stalled. Thankfully we had enough momentum to drift onto a moored boat and from there we could warp Innisfree into a gap on the pontoon. It was very obvious what the problem was - a large tough nylon builders bag had wrapped itself tightly around the propeller. We called the harbour master to explain why we were moored in a private berth and asked if he had a contact number for a diver in case one was needed. He explained that due to a diver fatality some time ago when a sluice was open unexpectedly, they were only allowed a full 5-man dive team in the canal - a very expensive option. If we could not fix it ourselves, the only other option was to try and get a tow back out to sea and get a diver there. This spurred us on as we tried to remove the mess with boat hooks and the bread knife. We were not having much success when the harbour master returned with a long handled pruning saw from his garden shed. This was much more effective, and with the help of the crew from another yacht who had tied up nearby for the night it was all cleared after 3 hours of effort. The process was not helped by the dark brown peaty colour of the canal water making visibility poor. It made an impressive sight when it was all laid out on the canal bank (above right) and it was not surprising that our rope cutters could not cope.
From Cairnbaan we teamed up with another yacht with two on board and very efficiently traversed the rest of the locks. The canal is very picturesque as is contours around the foot of the steep hills around Crinan. It gets narrow and at times it feels as if the trees are brushing both sides of the boat, so we were glad that we met nothing coming the other way. Crinan is the home to the Clyde Puffer Vic32 (left) that was in steam and giving passenger trips around the bay. We only lingered to take photographs before heading on to Ardfern. The purpose of this visit was to get a haul out to make sure there was no damage to our propeller and rope cutters. The marina at Ardfern has a very fancy travel hoist with six independently controlled arms that can move in, out, up or down to cater for all underwater shapes of boat. Thankfully there was no damage, so we are planning to head off to Craighouse on Jura as our next port of call. |