OK, just to widen the theme of this topic, doesn't count as narrowboat related, but if you look at narrowboat them as floaty thing on top of wet stuff, featuring locks, Here is a link to a video about a floaty thing on top of wet stuff, featuring lochs.
In 2013 I decided to take Good Golly out of the Clyde, around the Cape (Mull of Kintyre) and onwards up the coast through the Sound of something to spend a night or two on a really secluded loch, and then back again. Circumstances conspired against me as a person who worked for me lost their wee boy, less than two years old, to some undiagnosed illness. I shortened my trip to allow me to give the family some support at the funeral. Anyway, it was a great week, just me, my wee boat, some food, some wine, some bottled beers, no trousers, just a few skirts, my favourite Midas cargo denim, a Macabi and a light short full circle wafty thing. Oh and a lot of water. To make the trip work I had to cover 30 miles a day, as the winds were not exactly helpful there was a lot of engine running so I could make my destinations. 30 miles- basically 6 hours at 5 knots, so if I wasn't making 4 knots in the right direction, the engine was required.
I have stuck to the "Slow TV" idea, the video is about 2 hours and there is a lot of just motoring, As it was likely to be a once in a lifetime trip for me I spent a long time close to Ailsa Craig trying to capture the millions of seabirds on video, also the voyage round the Mull of Kintyre and up to West Loch Tarbet was a long long day, I left most of that video in, because I probably won't be there again and wanted to capture as much of the experience as I could, this footage on YouTube will be my memories once I clean it off my PC.
For anyone who doesn't know the Scottish West coast, The Kintyre peninsula is West of the Clyde estuary and if you head West the next land you hit is Ireland, there are very significant tidal flows through this gap, at the Mull, the Southern tip that is, the tide flowing South past the Mull meets and clashes with the tide from the Clyde. When I went round the weather was pretty calm, in heavy weather I think it would be very dangerous for a small boat. As I tried to head North I had to stay very inshore, close to the rocks, where the current against me was slightly less, I had to keep a very close eye on the depth meter and just hope there weren't any nasty rocks just under the surface. When I eventually got to drop anchor and relax I remember relaxing on deck, while I could hear an angry shepherd chasing some sheep along the shore shouting "Come back here you Ba******s!", great technique I thought!
Looking at the tide charts, for the return I headed right out to catch the tidal current but only found a couple of knots of help, had an engine problem while completely out of sight of land and with no wind, motored then sailed back to Sanda were I had 2 attempts to anchor on a very steeply shelving bay for the night, then finally making my way back up the Clyde.
As I keep my skirtery off YouTube and Facebook I have removed footage of me sailing and doing stuff on board where skirts are visible, unfortunately that took most of the sailing footage out of the video! Also when single handed sailing there are many things to concentrate on and so much of the time I was unable to record, these days with waterproof tiny Gopro type action cams it would be far easier to record more of a sailing trip, I even bought an action cam once I discovered them, but then my knees told me to stop sailing.
I did go ashore, skirted (no other option with me) in my Midas skirt, I spent a night in Troon marina, went ashore, drank a few and had a pretty good meal (Don't remember what), as always, almost no mention, I did hear someone on a boat saying "There's that man in a skirt", not in a mocking or surprised way.
The week did end on a bit of a downer, sailing back onto my mooring on the Gareloch, as I was furling the genoa in the high winds that day, it flapped itself too hard and a seam let go, so I moored the boat, went ashore and just asked the boatyard to take the boat out of the water for the year, that was followed up by the wee boy's funeral the next day.
https://youtu.be/25g7w8OFavg
One of these days I will sit and do the friendly URL thing, today, after typing all that, I can't be bothered!
) in response to Big & Bashful's pics & look thread where early on in his thread he documented spending some time on a narrowboat.