Craobh - Pronounced 'Cruve', so why not spell it that way!

Having been evicted from our pontoon in Oban we had to raft up for the night - all seemed ok until the water taxi arrived on its last trip of the day - the boys were in a rush - the wake was significant, there was an almighty crash, our stanchions and guard rails thoroughly enmeshed with our neighbour's.  Fortunately the damage was limited to two slightly bent stanchions (one each) and a detached guard rail (split pin broken only).  Ropes were trebled in all directions, and no further damage occured despite the water taxi's best efforts in the morning.

We had thought that was the end of the Oban Story, but then we saw the alternative way to get on a mooring buoy:




I suppose it wasn't quite a RNLI situation


After that entertainment we left Oban for Craobh, approximately 20 miles south.  Initially we motored as the start of the  Kerrera Sound is only 0.3 nm wide .  The Buoyage was also totally incomprehensible, with a random use of red and green buoys that seemed in no way to reflect the deep water channel! 

There are some phenominal tidal rips as the sound widens - rather un-nerving to be doing 11kts SOG past whirlpools with the occasional rock just showing! 

Once things had calmed down, we dropped the main and concentrated on finding Craobh - its not easy to spot the gap in the rocks.

We were told that Craobh Marina had been built just over 20 years ago and at the time there had been grand plans for golf courses (looked a bit hilly to me), sports centres, affordable housing etc, etc.  The first bankrupcy followed, debts written off and owner number two took over - grand plans, holiday village constructed in the Tobermory style, and another bankrupcy.  It is now in the hands of owner number three, lets hope it will be third time lucky!
 

The holiday homes did look rather like a film set / Stepford Wives, but you could not fault the marina facilities or setting:




The View South towards Shuna and Luing Islands



Craobh Marina from above, showing how the little islands have been joined together with breakwaters to create a perfect shelter.

One last view of Craobh - the Marina breakwaters and narrow entrance.

We left Croabh for Ardfern, which would have been a 3 mile walk over the hill, but nearly 20 miles by boat.  On the way we saw a yacht with lots of sails a couple of miles away - the race began, we caught up and admired 112 feet of yacht and 7 sails in action.

Target achieved, we turned back towards our destination, Ardfern. 

Another beautiful setting hidden away amongst the islands - pontoons,moorings and very well stocked chandlery plus a real village complete with shop and post office. 

So - more lovely weather, more lovely sailing, more lovely scenery, no midges as yet ...  just in case we were giving the impression all was perfect, we saw this:

The Fiat Doblo on water!!!

Tomorrow - we've not been in a canal, so we're giving a short one a go, the Crinan Canal to the Firth of Clyde instead of sailing round the Mull of Kintyre.