In 2023, HOEOCA took the exciting decision to run a Social Cruising event based in the Clyde area of the West of Scotland, and what a fantastic decision it proved to be.  The initial booking of boats was over-subscribed and more boats were booked (well done and thank you Beryl), until the final group comprised five charter boats and one owner boat which is based in Scotland.  Our craft ranged from the small, but perfectly formed, Miley (Hanse 325) to a couple of capacious Oceanis 45s.

Day 1 The people at Flamingo Yachts were very efficient at turning the boats around and we (Miley and her crew of Dave Gilchrist (Skipper), Steve E, Ash and Sally E (the author of this reverie)) were able to slip lines by early afternoon and get underway.  Sadly, apart from a brief check of function and quality of both sail gear and crew, the sails were pretty much redundant due to an uncharacteristic lack of wind.  The weather forecast for the week had looked pretty miserable but the first afternoon was calm with blue skies as we motored towards Port Bannatyne on the Isle of Bute.

Port Bannatyne provided the first example of the casual mooring instructions provided by harbour masters, who appear to mostly work from home.  Having called ahead we were instructed to take any available berth. Dave duly located the perfect berth, parked beautifully, only to be immediately followed by the resident of that berth asking us to move. We hadn’t finished tying up so Dave very obligingly vacated the berth and we were advised that the visitors berths were any on Pontoon A. Even on Pontoon A many spaces had reserved signs, but with some crew already on the pontoon we identified a spot that wasn’t reserved and happily tied up in there. We were followed minutes later by the Commodore aboard Phoenix who merrily ignored the reserved signs (or his crew didn’t spot them for him), and was tied up and enjoying docking totties before the berth holder returned. After some polite discussion they agreed to take a neighbouring berth and further Anglo/Celtic conflict was averted.

Although Port Bannatyne boasted its own perfectly acceptable pub, the crew of Miley walked the two miles back to the bright lights of Rothesay (turned out there weren’t many) before stopping on the way back at the Isle of Bute Sailing Club for a quick drink – a bit of a shack but with fantastic views over the harbour.

Day 2 dawned bright but breezeless, and shorts were somewhat unexpectedly the order of the day as Miley motored to Tarbert – having a local skipper proved useful as a lovely hidden anchorage was located for a coffee stop mid-morning (I’ve never had one of those before), and then lunch on a buoy, before arriving in Tarbert by 4pm, in plenty of time, so we thought, to find a meal and somewhere to watch the inevitable trauma of England playing in a football final. Turned out others had a similar plan and a meal was harder to locate than expected.  We finally met up with the crew of Osprey – (Jude’s floating palace) and Chris and Mandy from their own boat, Entre Amis, to watch the football in The Anchor, surrounded by a multitude of Scotsmen in varying stages of inebriation, who appeared to be mostly supporting Spain. Suppressing an urge to chant about 5-1 to Germany, we left some very happy Scots to celebrate the failure of their near neighbour, and returned to our boats.

Day 3 Tarbert is a lovely small town/village, with well-kept facilities and its very own castle and clearly marked walks.  These were explored in the morning, with Steve insisting on going higher up the hill to admire the perfect view, before setting sail for an afternoon passage to Lochranza.  Finally some sailing, although the unexpectedly benign weather led indirectly to some unplanned “hat overboard“ drills – with Ash forgetting to secure said hat. Made us all appreciate the importance of keeping an eye on the overboard item, as it took some time to locate and retrieve, even in relatively calm waters. The rest of the sail was beautiful but uneventful and we spent the night on a buoy at Lochranza.

Day 4  and Miley encountered her only slight glitch of the week – an un-cooperative windlass following another very pleasant lunch stop at anchor. The anchor was eventually retrieved and we sailed for Campbelltown in the close company of another yacht that looked like it might be one of our group but was running blind with no AIS showing. Turned out it was Simon Maycock and crew aboard another Oceanis 45, Skylark – so big it needed a special berth reserving, while the pocket sized Miley slotted happily onto a visitors pontoon. Campbelltown is a good sized town and provided opportunities for stocking up on provisions, as well as several options for eating ashore, and Miley and at least one other opted for The Harbour View (attached to the Black Sheep Pub), for a very acceptable meal, including Haggis Nachos – who knew such delights were possible.

Day 5 for Miley, Campbelltown was the furthest extremity of our tour, even though Ailsa Craig was a very appealing target in the distance. The day started with low winds, but with a forecast of increased winds and possibly some rain by about 2pm. With the forecast for the next day looking pretty unpleasant we decided to cross the Firth of Clyde to Arran and head for Lamlash on the East coast of the island. The forecast turned out to be very accurate and by the afternoon we were all enjoying a lively sail past Pladda at the south of Arran and north towards Lamlash.  We were being tracked all the way by Jude aboard Osprey, but they had set off later than us.

Lamlash proved interesting from a mooring point of view. Having initially picked up a buoy using a pick-up buoy we were advised that we should be on a green visitors buoy – there were plenty of these, but they had no pick up buoys and the conditions were livening up.  Undaunted, a green buoy was lassoed at the first attempt, leaving the challenge of securely attaching a line (or two). Dangling the skipper over the side was attempted first, but unsuccessfully. Cue inflating and launching the dinghy – we would be using it later anyway to go ashore, and Miley was safely secured to her buoy. Just in time to watch the next two boats (the second of which was Osprey) making multiple attempts to lasso their buoys before all eventually succeeded. The crew of Osprey were clearly not in favour of inflating their dinghy, so the skipper was dispatched to swim around to attach lines – I am guessing this is a technique more widely used in the calm and warm waters of the Med, than the slightly chilly and choppy waters of the Firth of Clyde, but good effort Jude – I hope your crew had arranged suitable refreshment for you.

Entre Amis had visited Lamlash the previous day and highly recommended the restaurant on the waterfront – The Drift Inn. A sentiment the crew of Miley would second wholeheartedly, for its view and ambience as much as anything – although turning up to eat in oilies and life jackets is not something I have done before!

Day 6 Thursday dawned as grey and miserable as had been forecast, but with wind of F4 gusting F6, and suitably reefed, Miley set sail for Largs – a certain crew member had had enough of nights on buoys and was keen to tie up securely in a marina. So a relatively short passage, past the southern tip of Bute and between Great and Little Cumbrae, brought us back to Largs, in time for the rain to stop.

The crew decided we would spend a day being tourists on Great Cumbrae, so having successfully re-fuelled the boat (easier said than done getting back on to our berth) we piled into David’s car for the short trip to the Largs Ferry. The whole trip had involved a certain amount of waiting around for one crew member or another, but none to the extent of Steve on Friday.  As we all got out of David’s car and had a brief chat to a family with young children, David locked the car and off we went. It was only after a few hundred metres that we realised one was missing – Steve was dead-locked inside David’s car – it really doesn’t pay to hang around!

David had spent many summers on Great Cumbrae as a child and was keen to show Ash around the island on bikes, so while Ash and David went off to hire bikes, Steve and I said our good-byes and headed off for a brief walk and look at the Cathedral of the Isles. Sadly we then left to catch a ferry to Ireland so can’t tell you about the end of cruise dinner, but I trust everyone had a great time.

Conclusion A lovely place to sail, and I would definitely go again. Large sailing areas and many route options meant that we didn’t meet up with the other HOEOCA boats very often, which was a shame but the price of having so many options. The area felt a bit like my experience of sailing in Greece, but without the heat and with more greenery – lots of islands and bays to explore, and I think we only just scratched the surface. Oh, and the midges were only an issue if ashore in a windless evening!

Massive thank you to Beryl for organising, again tricky with the variety of boats available, and to all the skippers (David Gilchrist, Simon Maycock, Wendy Wilson, Jude Holden, David Reed for charter boats and Chris Dowson own boat) for making it possible for the rest of us to enjoy such a great week.