Two cheeky Maids sitting on Bute's bottom.

 Our voyage up the Kyles of Bute continued at...

 ...an increasingly leisurely pace as we entered the wind shadow of Bute. We stuck close to the wild Bute shore to...

 ...avoid the villas of Tighnabruaich (The house on the hill) on the Cowal shore.

 We kept our eyes open for otters as...

 ...the scenery became increasingly highland but...

 ...we only saw this heron and a couple of...

...garishly painted rocks known as the Maids of Bute, which sit on Buttock Point.

The Kames Hotel, a long way home.

After our blast up the West Kyle of Bute, we were looking forward to a luncheon in the Kames Hotel...

...we ordered beef and veggie burgers with pints of frothy sports recovery drinks. We had got chatting to a great bunch of guys from Ayrshire who had been in the bar watching our crossing. After a while they disappeared only to...

...reappear with guitars and an accordion.

My goodness we were in for a treat.  They played traditional Scots...

...and Irish songs...

..along with more recent songs from James Taylor and ...

...this one from Tom Waits....Long Way Home.

Sports recovery drinks were flowing and we knew we were getting into a perilous situation, any longer and we would have been there all night!

So we beat a hasty retreat while we still could and made a run for it up the West Kyle of Bute. This is sea kayaking.

Navigation and tidal planning skills put to the test when David got his spanker in a twist.

From Lenihuline on the Island of Bute we launched or sails and set off on a wonderful downwind blast to...

 ...Kames on the mainland Cowal coast of the West Kyle. The wind had got up to a good F5 but the water...

 ...was nice and flat due to the enclosed nature of the Kyle. I was regularly hitting 14 to 15km/hr but fell back from Phil and Ian as David had twisted his sail and was not travelling as fast as the rest of us.

Our destination was the Kames Hotel. This was a "skills" outing and this week we were practising navigation. Some sea kayakers spend hours honing their skills with charts, maps and plotters.

We of  course simply read the large sign...

 ...and in no time made landfall on the little beach below the hotel.

David clearly had a drouth on him as he had managed to partially untwist his sail and came spanking in just a minute later than the rest of us.

We unanimously decided to head to the pub for lunch but first we had to put another skill into practice...

..this time it was tidal planning. Just how high up the beach should we carry the kayaks?