Monday 3rd August 2020 – Kames Bay (Bute) to Helensburgh – 18nm – 3hrs

Another day of passing pine forrest covered mountains with the occasional small town along the way, very pretty indeed. We again spotted the same submarine as yesterday, this time with escort. We watched it glide past us on its way to Faslane, we were safely alongside in the marina at Helensburgh.

The marina has just 5 pontoons and guess what we discovered here?
Along the same pontoon was ‘Jaynor’ a wooden one-off racing boat previously owned by our friend and old neighbour from Caterham, Wendy, who sadly died a couple of years ago. So catching sight of ‘Jaynor’ was emotional.

Then further along the marina was our own gorgeous previously owned boat ’ Freya’ a Hallberg Rassy 312 – what a tear jerker of a day this has turned out to be. G&T needed for the purposes of toasting old friends.

Helensburgh is 25 miles NW of Glasgow and the town faces SW towards Greenock. It is the birthplace of John Logie Baird, who invented the television, and death-place of Henry Bell known for his navigation and steam power. In honour of these gentlemen we headed straight for the Henry Bell pub and enjoyed two large bowls of haggis, neaps and tatties and two pints of real ale, all for under a tenner – what a bargain.

This evening we’ll make use of the marina’s laundry and also take the opportunity to catch up on some phone calls now that we have a good signal. Tomorrow we’ll explore more of this large town and plan to take a bus ride further inland. Although still raining we are loving Helensburgh and expect it will look even better in sunshine, fingers crossed for tomorrow.