Loch Spelve to Ardfern

Mark Rosenthal

Some heavy early morning rain dampened our enthusiasm a little as we prepared to set off to head south of The Sound of Luing. The wind rapidly filled in after we came out of the loch and we could see the rain clouds building to the South. Soon we had to put in 2 reefs and down came the rain. We were so wet as we passed Easdale we decided to go and moor for a quick lunch and we picked up a morning buoy. After reviewing our understanding of the tides and the currents we realied that we should be going now! So we motored round the headland and raised the main in winds varying from 9kt to 26kt until we had got through the very narrow channel in the Sound of Luing and had passed a yacht making passage north when we deployed the jib and sailed at up to 9kt with the tides running through the sound. As by now we were pretty wet and running out of energy we decided to head for Ardfern rather than our original destination for the evening at Loch Sween. We arrived at the marina at around 14:15 and had our long awaited lunch which Luke had cooked while we headed north uo the loch. The marina at Ardfern had changed a fair bit since I had been here on Marian Maid back in the 2020’s. The chandlery is well stocked as is the local shop where we restocked some basics and returned to Flair IV. The rain has kept us onboard for the afternoon and even now at 20:20 we are hesitating to go for a walk.