Rumline around Britain: June 5-6 Lady of the Locks

It is so nice to have the long days of summer when sailing. We left Tarbert at 5pm and arrived two hours later at Ardrishaig with plenty of light. Tied up to the waiting pontoon at the entrance to the Crinian Canal's first loch. Tomorrow would be tiring with all the locks to push open, they aren't mechanised just sweat and grunt. In a moment of collective inspiration we thought just a wee dram at the local pub would allow us to experience the local community, it was a cultural exercise.
Ardrishaig is a three pub town all neatly lined up within stumbling distance to each other. We started at the furthest, a sensible navigational decision. We met some really friendly locals a young engaged couple and three young fishermen. The wee dram turned into a pub crawl with our new found friends. We stayed playing pool, laughing and drinking in The Lorne until the landlady kicked us out at midnight. New friends in tow we somehow managed to descend the the very tall harbour wall ladder to Rumline. We continued the party with our fishermen until sense prevailed closer to daybreak than nightfall. It was fun and despite thumping heads the next morning we were glad to have the boys come aboard and were shocked that despite living on the canal all their lives they had never been on a yacht.
We rallied and proceeded to learn the ways of locking in and out from the great grandaughter of Scotlands first woman lock-keeper. She is the true lady of the lock. With the sun shining and sky blue we slowly motored through the beautiful coutryside. We made a record breaking 4 nm run, the slowest we had ever travelled in Rummy. Exhausted we tied up in Cairnbaan and retired for drinks in the warm bar of the Cairnbann Hotel.

Tarbert Harbour