A small matter of the Trade Descriptions Act as we set foot on the sands of Ayrshire.

 We had  left the Little Cumbrae floating serenely on a limpid sea but...

 ...we needed to keep a sharp eye out for other vessels such as FV Five Sisters (OB 353) from Campbeltown (from where we had set off on our adventure 6 days previously.

In the calm conditions my injured shoulder was really feeling the strain as we had to drop the sails. The others were soon far ahead but...

 ...I caught up as they waited for the bulk carrier CSL Clyde to pass on her way north to Hunterston ore terminal.

 At long last we approached Portencross Castle and made our way round Farland Head, upon which it stands, to the sheltered...

 ...pink sands of Ardneil Bay. It was time for a celebration! We had set foot on Ayrshire for the first time since we had bought single tickets for Campbeltown and left its shores six days previously on the ferry MV Isle of Arran. Mind you it was a pretty watery celebration. We had run out of Guinness earlier in the trip and...

 ...had to resupply in Tarbert some 40 km away, far to the north of the distant Isle of Arran. Unfortunately the Co-op store only sold  a pale yellow liquid...

...called S***l*. We thought it was mislabeled P**h, but at least it was wet and we were very thirsty.

Perhaps our celebrations were a bit hasty. Our cars were at the ferry terminal car park, still some 10 km away, beyond the distant headland. My shoulder ached just thinking about it. We also faced a final hurdle, because we had cut our trip short by 18 hours....the tide....

The clarity of light and reflected clouds at Little Cumbrae.

We paddled east across the Firth of Clyde towards the Little Cumbrae island. To its north we could just make out the Victorian Villas of Millport on the neighbouring Great Cumbrae.As we approached...

 ...the wind gradually died away leaving a glassy calm sea upon which...
.

 ...the reflections of clouds gently rolled on the gentle swell.

 It was 5pm and the sun was well round to the west, which gave a wonderful light on the south west side of the Little Cumbrae.

The Stevenson lighthouse was clearly illuminated as was the distant PV Audacia and accompanying tug Battler. Audacia is a 225m pipe laying vessel.

 The clarity of the evening light added to the sharpness of the reflected clouds which lined up over the Little Cumbrae.

As we passed the south end of Little Cumbrae we embarked on the second last leg of our trip, the crossing of Fairlie Roads to Farland Head on the Ayrshire coast.

A turbulent past but all calm now as we made our way past Garroch Head.

The conical profile of St Blane's Hill is the distinguishing landmark at the south end of the Island of Bute. This part of Bute was one of the earliest Christian settlements in Scotland. St Catan founded a monastery here at the end of the sixth century and was succeeded by his nephew, St Blane. The monastery has a turbulent past. Two abbots were killed and the monastery was sacked by the Vikings at the end of the eighth century but the church ruins we see today was rebuilt in the 12th century

South of St Blane's hill, the smaller Barr hill slopes gently to the southernmost promontory of Bute, Garroch Head.

On a calm day the low lying Garroch Head looks very inauspicious and for those who believe the false mantra "There is no tide in the Clyde"   it can hold a nasty sting in its tail. The collection of wind turbines on the distant Ayrshire hill hints that this can be a windy place. The south going ebb tide passes either side of Bute...

...and where it meets, it kicks up a significant tide race. The effect is amplified if there is any south in the wind or if the Firth is swollen by rain or melt water.

 As we rounded Garroch Head we caught our first sight of Little Cumbrae to the east.

From Dunagoil Bay, where we had taken our last break, to our next landfall on the Ayrshire coast is 12 km. We embarked on our crossing of the Firth of Clyde and slowly the top of Ailsa Craig came in to view. It was 52km away, beyond the east end of Holy Island.

As we left Garroch Head far behind us, a lovely light developed as the sinking sun illuminated its green slopes flecked with yellow gorse.

Dun paddling at Dunagoil.

 As we approached the Island of Bute...

 ...the wind dropped away to nothing and...

... my injured shoulder was really feeling the strain by the time we arrived under the imposing...

 ...site of the Iron Age hill fort of Dunagoil.

The lovely sands of Dunagoil Bay made a lovely location for a second luncheon. My shoulder was knackered and we still had 22 km to go so it was great to have a break.

Some fishy goings on in the Sound of Bute.

As we paddled down the Sound of Bute we were aware that strange swell lines were suddenly appearing. They came from different directions and were not what we expected in the relatively sheltered waters of the Firth of Clyde. Nor were there any  large ships visible that might have created such waves in their wake.

Then the peace was shattered by the appearance and sound of a SeaKing helicopter from HMS Gannet. It dotted about dropping its sonar into the sea and was joined by SD Omagh, the naval support vessel which we had seen berthed in Tarbert the previous evening. It was now clear that the swell was the wake of a submarine(s) and that the helicopter was hunting it.

The whole area is identified as a submarine training area but usually the Coastguard  broadcast MSI VHF SubFacts warning of such operations but we did not hear them. Whatever, they do not like to publicise these exercises too much. SD Omagh was not transmitting any AIS information about her whereabouts. For a long while the SeaKing helicopter hovered directly over SD Omagh then they both broke off and left us in peace.

 No sooner had they gone than  common dolphins (above) and porpoises began to appear again.

Please excuse the quality of these photos. They were taken with a standard lens and cropped to give a telephoto effect. Behind Phil you can see a series of great...

 ...splashes...

...caused by dolphins leaping out of the water as if in celebration of the submarine exercise finishing. Thank goodness peace was restored.

All quiet on the Sound of Bute.

As we approached the south end of Inchmarnock, we knew we were entering our home waters again when we caught our first sight of the Galloway Hills rising above the low plains of Ayrshire. To the left of Phil a long line of mountains leads to the Merrick (843m) some 85 km to the SE. Just to its left, the smaller summit is Mullwharchar 692m.

The reefs off Inchmarnock could be seen deep below our keels as we swung round the south end of the island and...

 ...caught sight of our next destination the Isle of Bute.

 As we left Inchmarnock a gentle breeze got up and we wasted no time in hoisting our sails...

...as we set off on the 8 km crossing to Dunagoil Bay on Bute. Little did we know that our peace would soon be disturbed....

Two luncheons, a queen, a saint and a cow on the fair isle of Inchmarnock.

Leaving Kylie the lonely dolphin to her buoy friend at the mouth of the West Kyle of Bute...

...we set off across the broad expanse of the Sound of Bute towards...

 ...the low lying but lovely island of Inchmarnock, which lies off the west coast of its larger neighbour Bute. Inchmarnock was home to St Marnock and long before that to the Queen of the Inch. The beaches on Inchmarnock's west coast are similar to those of Ardlamont Point. They consist of steep rock shelf with intermittent infill of cobbles. We were unable to  land where Tony, Jennifer and I had landed on a previous visit as...

 ...all the cobbles had gone and the spot was already occupied by one of the famous herd of Inchmarnock organic cattle. However, we were able to land a little further on...

 ....near where Mike and I had camped almost exactly a year previously.

 The steep storm beach of cobbles was stacked high in a series of ledges, which represent the height reached by previous storms with the oldest being at the top.

With a wonderful view over the sea to Arran, it was the ideal place to stop for an extended lunch. Since we were cutting our trip short by a day we had two luncheons to eat. We took our time savouring the last luncheons on our trip. We enjoyed the food and our situation, after all we still had 32km to go and would be paddling late into the summer evening anyway.