Kelston and Jackie Tobin’s leisurely circumnavigtion of the UK enters its third season as they cruise north from Inverkip to Oban via the Crinan Canal and the occasional whisky distillery!
Following a successful 320-mile voyage from our berth at Milford Haven, we arrived at Kip Marina in Inverkip at the beginning of September 2021. The marina is one of the most spacious we have ever visited and, although tidal, offers excellent protection from prevailing westerlies. We were booked in for a year and were looking forward to exploring Scotland for the first time.
Each time we drove to Scotland to spend time on the boat we stopped and stayed a night or two in other areas of the UK that we had not previously visited. We made the journey to Inverkip a number of times over the winter and stayed on our boat for about a week each time.
Inverkip itself is a ten-minute walk from the marina, on the opposite side of the busy A78. There is a well-stocked supermarket and The Inverkip Hotel, which is the local watering hole with two bars, a restaurant and numerous single malts! The railway station is also close by with a regular inexpensive service to Glasgow that takes around 40 minutes.
EXPLORING THEIR NEW SCOTTISH BASE
As well as visiting Glasgow, we also drove to Largs and Helensburgh, to visit The Hill House, which was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret. While on the north side of the Clyde we drove around Gare Loch and part of Loch Long. It was quite a shock to emerge from the forest to find the massive submarine base of Faslane together with the remains of the peace camp located amongst the trees outside the entrance to the base. On the adjacent Loch Long we came across the very secure RNAD Coulport armaments facility built in the hillside which arm the submarines.
In April we drove further north to identify two possibilities for mooring our boat when we left Kip in September. One was Dunstaffnage marina, about 4 miles north of Oban, and the other on Kerrera Island. Dunstaffnage was on our route to Oban so we called in on our way. The marina is in quite an exposed location and the overall impression was not favourable. We stayed in Oban, which had a nice feel about it with excellent shopping and restaurants. The next morning was warm and sunny when we took the water taxi over to Kerrera, just off Oban. We were very impressed with what we found and booked a berth for a year commencing in September – we just had to get our boat there.
Moorings varied from very small, with an honesty box to put fees in, to large and efficient, like Tarbert
The year was now marching on with the temperature on the rise, so it was time to think about maintenance ready for the boating season. With this completed, as well as a l
