Loch Fyne and the recovery.

Before leaving Inverary, I took a closer look at the castle. Unfortunately, I didn’t get as close as I would have like because the tide was still out and I didn’t want to hit bottom. I could see the castle lawns were yellow with daffodils although you don’t see them in this photo.



I started to head back over to the St Catherines side of the loch and passed a couple of cormorants resting on a huge mooring bouy.



I then opened the throttle to see how the boat handled and how fast it went. Being a displacement boat, it doesn’t plane but it was certainly faster than my inflatable with its 2.5hp engine. However its bow had a tendency to rise and the transom to sink, so I will think about a tiller extension so I can sit in the middle of the boat to distribute the weight a bit better. It was certainly fast enough to over take a couple of kayakers.



I passed St Catherines pier on the way back to the launch point and noticed a lad fishing. I was quiet envious and wished I had brought my rod but today was just a practise outing to see if I could get it up and down the beach on my own.



Finally I landed and it was time to think about the recovery. The hand winch made short work of getting the boat back on its trailer, however when I tried to pull it back up the slope of the beach, it was too heavy for me to move it. I tied a long rope onto the trailer and attached an electric winch to the towbar on the car. It came up a treat.



However I was a little concerned that if the rope snapped , the wire hauser on the winch would retract under tension and possibly go through the rear window on the car.

I will made a modification to the winch set up for the next trip, so I can fix it to the trailer and winch from the boat end. That way id the rope snaps, it wont do the same damage to the car as the wire hauser would. Also, I can guide the trailer better by winching it from that end. Its all a learning experience but using the boat on my own is certainly possible. I have proved that :-D