Dunstaffnage navigation

[lady_stormrider]

Well, after arriving at Dunstaffnage Marina on Friday two weeks ago I had to be guided around the new pontoon set-up by Aquaplane by 'phone. It is not the most logical route to the visitor breakwaters, a lot of lefts, rights, over bridges and more concrete pontoons being added as I was there.

I'd also like to comment on the lack of 16 amp electrical sockets on the visitor pontoon, you will need a Christmas Tree extension from the Office. There are posts in the middle of the walkway, mostly 32 amp big sockets for big boats. It's poorly set up for power for normal-sized boats who are their regular customers.

On the whole, they are making efforts to increase the Marina size and I found the staff very helpful but it is a bit of a maze to the new arrival.

[Rick_A]

Its not half.
Finding a visitor berth is difficult enough.

[DaveS]

I was last there two or three years ago. I called them on the VHF to ask for a berth and, once allocated one, to find out which side to I'd be mooring (I was single handing). The conversation went:

"Can I have a berth for the night?"

"Yes, you can have a berth."

"Which berth should I use?"

"Any one that's vacant."

"But what if I pick one that's empty now, but has a berth holder, and he returns later?"

"Oh, if that happened one of you could go to another berth."

So I prepared fenders and lines to port, found a vacant port side berth, and fortunately was not disturbed by a returning berth holder. It struck me as a pretty disorganised approach, however.

[ash]

We've just managed to get ourselves parked in B23. We're sailing in company with another boat, and they had phoned in so I wasn't involved in the conversation with the marina.

Someone on a hammer head said that they were were on D, so we kept going. Saw the board for C, and thought that we had worked out that evens were to port. Then spotted the boarded for B, but it didn't have arrows to go with the numbers, and in any case the board didn't go higher than 20!

Guessed wrong and had to use the Vega's legendary marina manoeuvring abilities between B and the new A.

Anyway we're now relaxing in the sun with a bottle of beer, and trying to recover from the shock of the nightly charge for leccy.

Ash

[lady_stormrider]

I'm still recovering from the car parking charge - £25 for a week on hard standing

[cpedw]

Take a copy of the definitive guide or a long ball of string like Theseus.

The guide shows buoyage as well as the layout of pontoons (but not their letters/numbers), just in case.

Derek

[ash]

Take a copy of the definitive guide or a long ball of string like Theseus.

The guide shows buoyage as well as the layout of pontoons (but not their letters/numbers), just in case.

Derek

Thanks for that.

I had already added Area 3 charts for MX Mariner charting app so that I didn't sail off the page when I went to Salen Jetty, so this allowed me to see the new buoys and the breakwater at Dunstaffnage.

For future reference, this is a photo of the berthing plan taken from the booklet which the office give you, with numbers, but it doesn't show the breakwater.



Ash

[lady_stormrider]

That map makes sense - I think it didn't help that I had just done a full day's work, then set off from Leeds for a six-hour drive to arrive as it was getting dark.

I noticed more pontoons are being made and put into place as well.