Scotland - the final leg.

After a day of gales and torrential rain we woke to a cloudy morning with a brisk F4/5 forecast to drop to a F4 from the NW perfect for us! So after a refuel we set off for Girvan. The pilot books warn that Girvan is one of the hardest harbours to enter on this part of the coast largely because of the shelving seabed and a bar across the harbour entrance - we felt quite at home as this is normal fare for the East Coast!

We had a glorious sail along the coast watching Ailsa Craig getting ever closer- this huge lump of granite poking up from the seabed traditionally marks the start of the Firth of Clyde and sits about 16 miles out to sea opposite the entrance to Girvan harbour. We also passed the famous Turnberry golf course - it really is as close to the seashore as it looks on the TV! - and watched a small helicopter land on the lawns in front of the hotel discharging their VIP cargo - no idea who it was but we passed the time making silly guesses. We knew it couldn't have been Mr Trump himself because he was making  speeches on the news in the USA.

By early afternoon we were furling our sails and heading for the entrance to Girvan. The entrance was fairly straightforward if bumpy and we motored into the small yacht harbour and tied up alongside one of the relatively new pontoons. We had spoken to the HM the day before who, as with all of the HMs we have encountered on this trip, was incredibly helpful texting us instructions and useful information such as the codes to get into the loos and showers and the code to get off the pontoons. After a lovely supper of steak (cooked on board) and chips from the chippy across the road we settled down for the night. Although the harbour was a little bumpy due to the tide rushing in through the harbour piers we slept well and up bright and early the following morning for a 6am leave to Stranraer.

The early start was needed to ensure that we had the tide with us into Loch Ryan a bottle neck with Stranraer tucked into it's bottom south east corner. Loch Ryan is also home to two ferry ports the PO ferry to Larne and the fast Stena Line to Belfast. We could see the ferries coming into the loch from quite a way away so we could avoid them! The only problem was that we couldn't see them leaving their berths until we were in the Loch and crossing the deep water channel. Luckily 1 mile of the Ayrshire coast I had a full phone signal with 4G (can't even get that in villages 30 miles from London) so I was able to check the timetables on line as well as listen to the VHF for ferry traffic news. The problem with the VHF is that the harbour control announces the ferry movement as it is happening so gives us very little time to get out of their way. Despite the dire warnings in the pilot books we had no problems with the ferries and indeed it was a lot easier than crossing the deep water channel in Harwich which we do regularly.

Stranraer marina was a bit of a detour as we knew we would have to travel the 7 miles down the loch to it and then 7 miles out of the loch when we left however we also knew that another gale was forecast and the alternative (Portpatrick) was a traditional harbour where we would be tied up against the stone harbour wall and would need to adjust our lines as the tide rose and fell. This didn't seem appealing in a blow! Equally the option of heading straight for Bangor from Girvan would have meant leaving at a silly time and arriving late afternoon or leaving at a better time and arriving in the dark neither of which appealed especially as the wind was due to start building as the day moved on.

For once the weather gods were smiling on us and we sailed down to Stranraer in beautiful sunshine with a very gentle breeze. With the tide under us we were making a steady 4-5K which meant we arrived in Stranraer in time for lunch in the sunshine. It was a real change to the weather we had become used to but we were still wearing thermal base layer and oilies for the passage as it wasn't that warm at 6am!.

As it was Sunday we had a look for an evening service and at 6.45 found ourselves joining the Stranraer Baptist Church congregation for their evening service. Again a small congregation - although the morning congregation is apparently much larger - who were very welcoming. The church itself was modern, no hymnbooks or organ everything on projector and a small band and singer leading worship and all modern songs/hymns but the average age of the congregation must have been about 70!  They were such a lovely group that we were there for about an hour after the service just chatting about our adventure and our plans.

As predicted Monday was dreadful we measured winds of 26-28K across our deck which for those who are not familiar with wind speeds means we were seeing a F6/7 in the shelter of the harbour which would mean that at sea this would be a definite F7. It was also pouring with rain so we battened down the hatches and were thankful for the shelter of the harbour.

The weather was looking better for Tuesday so plans were made for the crossing to Northern Ireland.