BLUEMOMENT

What does the assembly consider the seminal work on the West Coast gems and hidey holes?

More interested in anchorages than marinas, but will need to stop for fuel and water I guess.

Say using the Clyde a s a start point.


Thanks All

Merry Xmas and all that tosh


Jim,
who is trying to get in a positive frame of mind for 2009. A flying start

We use both the Clyde Cruising club sailing directions and the Imray series by Martin Lawrence.

http://www.clyde.org/www2/dir_index_map.shtml

.
I would recommend the Martin Lawrence pilots , available at all Scottish chandlers. There are four in the W. Coast series:

Clyde to Colonsay
Mull and adjacent coasts
Skye and NW Scotland
Western Isles

If you don't have long you are unlikely to need the latter two, so I would recommend Clyde to Colonsay and Mull and Adjacent Coasts

Also highly recommended:

Browse through bluemoments very own places -

Here
http://www.bluemoment.com/scotmoorings.html

I tend to use the Martin Lawrence books more.

There is a suggestion though that he makes places sound more of a challenge than they perhaps are. There have been occasions when I have found myself saying " well that wasn't that bad."

Always better to be cautious I suppose

(G*d, I must be getting older)

I've come up with some informal ramblings that might (or might not) give you some ideas:

http://fattie.freehostia.com/KnotPilot/

Markie

Your ramblings were both useful and amusing at times. One that sticks out is Scalasaig, where I've had the pleasure of a few wild times over the last 18 years or so. The locals particularly find naked bagpiping to be to their liking. Or so I managed to convince myself. Luckily I know some of the locals well enough to avoid a lynching.

Scalasaig, Colonsay.

Where is it, how do you get in?
East of Colonsay. Trivial Entry.

Shelter & Holding?
Open to E and the whole place seems to be a swell magnet. Tie alongside N side of pier.

Remarks:
Utterly ruined by the Ferry Pier (well I assume it was - I'd never been there before it was built.) Shower at Hotel on the
right as you walk out of town. Moor against the ferry pier or (try to) find a spot to anchor. If you squint you can imagine what the tiny harbour
Scalasaig was like before it was dwarfed the ferry terminal. One of the few Hebridean Islands to avoid the 19C clearances. .

I just think that the ferry terminal might be a bit critical to a community like Colonsay - perhaps it should be judged on its inner beauty? It may be ugly but it's pretty useful if you need transport links to Oban.

Keep blogging - no 'dis' intended!

Shuggy

Haven't been back to Scalasaig since that unfortunate night in the hotel on the CC06. The Corncrake is always a good read though.

Martin Lawrence is yer man FC.

Shuggy wrote:Your ramblings were both useful and amusing at times. One that sticks out is Scalasaig, where I've had the pleasure of a few wild times over the last 18 years or so. The locals particularly find naked bagpiping to be to their liking. Or so I managed to convince myself. Luckily I know some of the locals well enough to avoid a lynching.

'Twould be a brave lynch mob that would take on a naked guy armed with bag pipes...

Shuggy wrote:I just think that the ferry terminal might be a bit critical to a community like Colonsay - perhaps it should be judged on its inner beauty? It may be ugly but it's pretty useful if you need transport links to Oban.

Good point. "Utterly ruined" was meant to relate purely to the asthetics, but it doesn't really read that way. When I get a mo I'll change it a bit.

Mind you £5 for a shower at the hotel.

For that much I'd expect a buxom good time girl in a tartan thong to be thrown into the deal & a Proclaimers CD.

Ah yes. Poor Georgina. I think she may have witnessed some of my younger, wilder days. As did the now-deceased Andrew MacNeill of Colonsay (A.S.), in memory of whom the piobaireachd "Andrew MacNeill of Colonsay" was composed.

Now

Mind you £5 for a shower at the hotel

I can sympathise with!

Now that would be a fiver well spent!

She could pick up the towels and give the shower a rinse as well.

Hope I dont get a bollocking for saying this, but I wonder what she's got under that sporran.

I don't think you're allowed to make sporrans out of beaver any more.

BBC clicky here