Sammy the Inchmarnock otter is an imposter!.

Once we had negotiated the reefs exposed by low tide, the upper beach on the west coast of Inchmarnock was a broad expanse of cobbles.

We set up camp at the top of the beach and set to preparing our evening meal.

We had a grandstand view across the Sound of Bute to the rocky ridges of the north Sannox mountains of Arran. The notch of Ceum na Cailich, (the Witch's Step) and the granite tors on the summit of Caisteal Abhail (this means "castle of death" not "stronghold of the ptarmigan" as you may read elsewhere). A yacht was beating up the Sound into the cold northerly wind which also brought the remarkably clear air.

Due to the chill wind we wasted no time in getting the fire and...

 ...the baked potatoes on.

 This must be one of the best views in Scotland and we had it all to ourselves until...

 ...what I thought was Sammy the otter put in an appearance. He ran along the beach from where a little trickle of a burn issued into the sea.

 He made for his favourite fishing...

 ...pool where he caught several sea urchins before...

...heading home again.  What a place, we were just 50km from my house in Glsgow but there was not a sight of human habitation.

I am grateful to Ian and Ben (see comments below) for correctly identifying this animal as a mink. The first unconfirmed sighting of a mink on neighbouring Bute was in 1981 and the first confirmed report was a dead mink at the north of Bute in 1982. Since then numbers have increased. Local naturalist JA Gibson has published an account "Atlas of Bute and Cumbrae vertebrates, 1980". An update Supplementary notes on Bute vertebrates was published in the Buteshire Transactions in 2004. In it Gibson writes about the mink  "I believe it has not yet reached Inchmarnock." and "During a visit to Inchmarnock in 2001 no mink were seen and there was no obvious predation on eider nests." It is sad that the mink is now indeed on Inchmarnock.

Straight ahead for Inchmarnock, hard a-port for Portavadie.

All too soon after our lunch break David and Phil had to turn hard to port to Portavadie. For them, their trip was over.

With a fair wind Mike and I pressed on and left Loch Fyne,  passing on the inside of Skate Island.

 We met Donald on his way back from Inchmarnock then we passed the wide expanse of ...

 ...Kilbride Bay.

 We kept offshore this time and made landfall at,,,

 Ardlamont. At low tide our camp site of two nights previously would not have been an easy landing but...

 ...it was fine for a brief stop before the...

 ...eight kilometre crossing to Inchmarnock.

Inchmarnock is low lying but is a beautiful spot to camp. The easiest spots to land are at the north and the south east as there are treacherous reefs at low tide on the west side.

 This is all that remains of a wreck on the Tra na h-Uil reef.

Mike decided to practice some self recoveries then we...

  ...kept a lookout for a suitable landing place...

...and found this one. We had arrived on Inchmarnock.

A popular luncheon spot in Asgog Bay.

 We left the wide strand of Kilbride Bay and paddled round the Ardlamont coast and through the...

...reefs that connect the island of Sgat Beag to the mainland.

We then arrived in beautiful Asgog Bay where we passed an old motor cruiser. Her skipper was making good use of the fine weather and varnishing her wooden topsides.

Unfortunately the tide was ebbing fast and the tide goes out a long way in Asgog Bay. With loaded boats it would have been hard work carrying them back over the near level sands so we went on...

 ...and stopped for first luncheon at a rock inlet at the mouth of the bay.

The rock pools were filled with interest...

...and we were clearly not the only ones to enjoy lunch here. I had already spotted the trickle of fresh water draining into the gully where we landed. These fragments of sea urchin shell clinched it. This was otter territory. They favour spots near fresh water so that they can rinse their fur after diving in the sea.

The last train to Ardlamont on Argyll's Secret Coast.

 We woke on the shores of Ardlamont to discover that the wind had dropped overnight and the midges were all round the tents. They were not too bad on the beach so that is where we set up our breakfast things.

 We were not the only ones to be up early. The crane barge Forth Constructor was making her way down the Sound of Bute.

 We were on the water by 08:30 and paddled from Ardlamont Bay round to Kilbride Bay. Three eagles were soaring high overhead but that was not the only thing that caught our attention.

We came across this standard gauge railway track that curved gracefully into the waters of Kilbride Bay.

 We decided to land and investigate.

I had first heard about this railway to nowhere in Kilbride Bay back in the 1970's but had only found it a few years ago. I had heard about it from an old man in the bar at the Colintraive Hotel while I was on a yacht trip. The skipper of the yacht I had been crewing in had been in the Army and ended up as a prisoner of war in a Japanese camp. The old man had been a in the Royal Navy and had been involved with WW2 naval training exercises in the Cowal area prior to the D day landings. So it wasn't long before the pair of them were swapping yarns.

He told us the the railway was for launching  and recovering midget submarines on a wheeled trolley. Elsewhere on the internet you will find some who believe it was used to deploy an anti-submarine boom across Loch Fyne. However, this would not be a sensible place to run a boom across as the mouth of Loch Fyne is 4km to the west and then the loch is a further 3km wide at that point. The submarine boom was actually deployed 22km further up Loch Fyne, where the spit at Otter Ferry narrows the loch to 1km. The shore structure identified with the Otter Ferry boom is listed on the Canmore website site 205007.

Nowadays, this area is marketed to tourists as Argyll's Secret Coast. In the dark days of WW2 it really was a secret coast. Ardlamont Estate (and much of the Cowal peninsula) was requisitioned for Combined Operations training in Naval and amphibious landing warfare. About a quarter of a million troops were trained here and Lord Louis Mountbatten, the head of Combined Ops even stayed in the nearby Kilfinan Hotel.

Whatever, if you find yourself on the last train to Ardlamont, I suggest you get off at the stop before Kilbride Bay. It is a pretty wet journey after that.

Putting our feet up in Ardlamont Bay.

We were looking for somewhere out of the wind to set up camp and found a suitable spot on the shore of the Sound of Bute in the lee of Rubha na Peileig (porpoise point). The NW wind had veered round to the north so it was now straight offshore.

Despite being hardened athletes, we had found the headwind quite tiring so it was good to relax for a bit and where better?

We spent a while watching this yacht tacking backwards and forwards while making her way up to Tarbert.

 We soon regathered our composure and set about building a little fire and getting...

 ...comfortable round it before...

...putting the baked potatoes in the embers. This humble spud may look very plain but with a little butter and salt it was a taste sensation. The wind even kept the dreaded midges at bay!

An unexpected wind out of a clear blue sky.

 When we left Port nam Mullaich we were in the lee of Ardlamont point but...

 ...as soon as we rounded the point into the Sound of Bute we were straight into the teeth of the...

 ...NW wind which the VHF "sécurité" call had warned about.

 It was one of those unexpected northerly winds that came out of...

 ...a clear blue sky. Though as we had a high pressure to the west and a low pressure to the east, the direction was not totally unexpected though it was a good bit stronger than the forecasts.

Sécurité in the Kyles of Bute.

From Rubha Dubh on Bute we were bound for Ardlamont Point on the Cowal peninsula.

It was on the run down to Ardlamont that Belfast coastguard issued a "sécurité" strong wind warning on the VHF. The effect on the local yacht population was dramatic. Most dropped their sails and started motoring back into the shelter of the West Kyle. We just kept going to Ardlamont point...

...where we stopped for second luncheon on a beautiful beach at Port nam Muileach.

After eating, we climbed up to the top of Ardlamont Point to get a view of the conditions round the corner.

Beyond the point it was a tad breezy out in the Sound of Bute and it was blowing directly from where we wanted to go.