BLUEMOMENT

6 days of Grunt sailing south to Fleetwood in October and back again in April to my £12 per week winter quarters

Come ashore at Kilmelford or Ardfern for the winter. Cost approx £1k I suppose - perhaps £750 extra to actually pay.

No major works planned for winter.

What value to attach to the 6 days?

Maybe more than the six days...
if the weather is looking good you can extend your season and if a mild spring, launch early.
If everything is in good shape at the end of the season then Kilmelford/Adrfern sounds like a good choice.

Yes - agree entirely.
The snag is that I have resorted in the past to getting the yard to do some jobs which I would normally do myself with the resulting increase in costs.
I once left the boat in troon for a week which was quite a smack - because the Southerlies just would not drop to reasonable levels.
Its certainly one to ponder in my current workslave situation

I have ordered my tropical gear in anticipation. Can we go through the Crinan, please?

claymore wrote: I once left the boat in troon for a week which was quite a smack - because the Southerlies just would not drop to reasonable levels.

Yes, I've been told they hold their value.

ubergeekian wrote:Yes, I've been told they hold their value.

I've not seen a grown man so distraught efter having to buy the crew breakfast every day we were stuck there .....

Troon used to have the best fish and chip shop in the world... mind you that was 35 years ago!

Persuading Para and Muzzy to have anything other than the full traditional breakfast accompanied by a Choir of toast proved impossible.

Were Para & Muzzy part of your crew from Fleetwood to Ardfern?

No
They only sail southbound routes.

The trip north was crewed by an altogether more eclectic group which comprised a retired fishmonger, a semi retired folk singer and a man of the cloth

claymore wrote:No
They only sail southbound routes.

The trip north was crewed by an altogether more eclectic group ...........a man of the cloth

Is it no bad luck to have a ministeer aboard? - if Dougie wus here he wud tell ye hiself.

Ash

claymore wrote:No
They only sail southbound routes.

so they'll help get rid of you but not to bring you back...

That's one way of looking at it.
The journey north was interesting although the record in the log is light on detail. I know the journey began early one Saturday morning and that there was a degree of motorsailing. The one with the fine voice has a streak of nostalgia within him - probably useful in the poignant delivery of maudlin ballads. He had been intimate with a chambermaid at the Greaves Hotel, Douglas, one August evening in 1965 and was keen to see if the bus shelter - the scene of this public demonstration of a drunken fumble - had stood the test of time, unlike his knees, which had not. The Pastor was more minded to progress and taking advantage of the formers penchant for slumber, altered the boat heading, narrowly missing the Point of Ayre and proceeded to Glenarm in the Province, arriving in time to freshen up before Evensong.
The Fishmonger came into his own upon arrival by engaging in conversation with a man engaged in the breeding and purveying of salmon from an offshore farm. After a lengthy but productive conversation, he returned to the fine yacht Claymore with as fine a specimen of Salmon that ever a stick was shaken at. Being an expert filleter and a man not given to travelling without his knives, the aforementioned fush was duly boned and rolled - a similar fate to that met by the Chambermaid- blessed by the Pastor and consumed by the three shipmates. The party had been expanded by two as the nostalgic one had engaged with a couple of matelots sailing a traditional pilot cutter with an eye to the main chance and a fondness for poached salmon. Their contribution to the proceedings was a delicate Chardonnay found nestling on the south wall of the local branch of Tesco.
Both ships bid farewell to the Green Hills of the Antrim coastline and sailed in company for the fair Island of Islay. The pilot cutter, crewed by the two matelots with long service on a bucking foredeck, stayed close to Claymore until the Salmon was no more and then, like Arabs in the desert, took up their tents and stole away into the night.
The folk singer was beginning to nostalge for real ale and a rump steak by the time they nosed into Gigha - the fish having gone, the Pastor and the Fishmonger returned to a vegetarian state and dined on a quorn mince shepherds pie and shared a bottle of Schloer, purging their respective constitutions of alcohol.
By the time they were met in Ardfern, each was ready for home.

The nostalgic one who is useful in the “poignant delivery of maudlin ballads” and a taste for “chambermaids at the Greaves Hotel” is heading North today for a ‘long weekend’ sailing around the Clyde.
He had some daft idea that I had a canopy on my 23’ .... but when I informed this was not the case he said with the forecast he’s going to "bring a brolly” ..... so! .... must be getting soft in his ‘old age’.

Edit:
I will have some Malt & ‘posh red’ from 2005 & 2007 if anyone cares to join us.

We will be on the other side of the peninsula. Dont forget the Moziguard