Tuesday 9 July

At 5am I was woken by rattling lines tapping on the rigging. It was windy, not very much but a contrast to yesterday’s calm. Temptress had swung to face the shore, the breakwater was now a very real lee shore. Time to make a decision. The need for clean laundry and the occasional strong gust decided us. Largs is just north east about three maybe four miles away. By quarter to seven we were ready and lifting the anchor. It took some digging out and was swathed in seaweed.

An hour later we were motoring through the entrance to the marina, already we had seen sustained winds at force seven though closer to the mainland it was more sheltered. A berth tucked inside a hammerhead was easy to get into. Temptress was secure with plenty of fenders and lines to see us through whatever comes next.

The laundry took forty odd minutes to wash whilst we had a coffee in Scott’s and another chunk of time to dry which we spent most of on a walk to the Pencil. This scaled down round tower with a pointed roof, just like a pencil, is a 1912 memorial to a battle once seen as important. Round towers are common across Ireland, built to protect the local monks or population from Viking marauders with a door only accessible by a ladder and usually built over a well to ensure a water supply if besieged. We’ve seen several on road trips but nothing as ornate as this diminutive version.

Back to Temptress. The skipper put up the cockpit tent as it would give us somewhere additional to sit protected from the wind and forecast rain which reached us after lunch. The storm howled with winds frequently over thirty knots but never quite reaching gale force. We were glad we hadn’t decided to head for Tarbert, we’d have been out in it getting very wet and miserable beating to windward up Loch Fyne. Before the weather worsened we saw several boats come in from the Millport anchorage.

The afternoon was spent doing a bit of boat-keeping. Shelves in the master cabin were cleared of books, clothes and teddies then the woodwork washed down with a vinegar mix to remove a winter’s worth of fluff. Even the headlining got a wipe over. Kevin watched some tennis and I returned to my latest read Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire which is thought provoking as well as being well written. Book number four of the holidays. Book three was a bit of local history, the novel Lady’s Rock based on the tale of Catherine Maclean who was reputedly abandoned on the eponymous rock near Lismore to drown in the 16th century. Not the best written, but an entertaining tale.

A table was booked in the marina restaurant though I later doubted the wisdom of venturing out when early evening, the gusts picked up to thirty eight knots. Temptress heeled over in her berth, the canvas work flapped in protest, the rigging screeched and the warps creaked. The gust died so the rain could be heard beating down then the wind rose again, you could hear it approaching. Temptress juddered before it as if resisting, then rocked and rolled. It is more like November than July. Despite being not yet six in the evening the sky is dark, visibility is reduced to a mile or less.

Fortunately the rain held off for our trip ashore. Scotts Restaurant is very inviting and cosy. The menu looked great and the staff friendly though if the girl taking our orders through the meal purred perfect one more time I think I might have strangled her! Our window seats gave us a grandstand view of a weather front in the form of a line of menacingly dark cloud stalled over Bute. At the northern end it appeared to be moving southwest quite rapidly but look away and back some minutes later and the whole line was still there. The moving end was just feeding into it. A road sign and the lampposts were waving around, it was definitely windy out there.

The food was lovely, pork chops plural for him, a teeny chicken breast for me – portion control not a strong point. All beautifully cooked and presented but my meagre plate that was mostly two sorts of potato, mash used to hold up baby potatoes that had had their tops and bottoms removed to form cylinders was rather a disappointment despite being tasty. Kevin was still working his way through his second large chop when I’d done! The wind was continuing to blow a gale when we walked back. Temptress’ berth being at the far end of the lengthy visitor pontoon to the gate we had to concentrate to ensure we didn’t get blown sideways into the water.

Back onboard we were grateful that we were in a marina as the boat heeled over again and again. It was going to be a noisy night with the gusts howling in the rigging. However I slept soundly through it all with a hot water bottle to warm my feet. Yes it is July folks! Sometime in the early hours I woke, all was quiet apart from a bit of a patter of rain on the cabin top. The wind had finally moved on.