Weather was pretty Good for the fist day (Wed 10th) except for the wind. Etive was the best option as more shelter over most of the Loch.
Nice easy launch on
- Parked waiting for me to get forgotten stuff from Caravan!
The Falls of Lora were in full flow on a Spring tide, made for an interesting and fun run into Etive, too busy to take video at this point but Danny managed a couple of good snaps, we were airborne twice
- The rough stuff starts
- Big stuff!
- Safely through
It was a great day on the water, went most of the way up the Loch. Tied off to a large buoy to have lunch and hot chocolate, wet our lines but weren't really interested in fishing.
- Nice easy cruise
Day 2 was an easy start with no need to launch. Etive was the only opition as the wind was 20+mph gusting to around 30. Lora was very quiet on the slack, A lot of short chop made for a slightly bumpy ride but a 24 Mph cruise was pretty comfy when trimmed correctly. Went all the way up Etive, no wind on board at a 30mph cruise (It was at our backs) Coming back was not so comfy but the Smartwave handled it very well, only had to drop to displacement speed a few times, just stood at the helm and used our knees as shock absorbers
On leaving the Loch Lora was in flow again but pretty tame, we forgot to take video so turned round and did it again, this time recording both directions. (No we will never grow up or grow old gracefully!)
I'll get that vid onto Youtube later then add it to this post.
We headed into Ardmucknish bay just for an extra bit to add to our day. Heading back to the Marina my plotter was off due to something shaking loose in the rough stuff earlier. Just before the Marina we struck some unmarked rocks about 90yds off the shore, thank heaven for plastic hulled Smartwaves!! The Skeg and prop were not so lucky! Ooops.
New Gearbox case and Prop now being fitted at David Anderson Marine in Newport across from Dundee, I held my breath until he told me the price - +/- £250
got off lightly there.- The damage
