The Crinan Canal

The Crinan Canal is like the mom & pop shop of canals.  They have staff to help out with the first 2 gates, but after that you're basically on your own.  Opening and closing the gates, and filling and draining the locks, are the responsibility of the crew of each boat transiting.  We headed off first thing, with plans of getting through most of the locks on our first day.

The narrow first section seemed more suitable for a canoe than a large sailboat (in fact, the canal staff needed to add a few inches of extra water for us, since our keel is so deep).

Then we arrived at the main locks section.  5 up, and then 4 down in pretty close succession.  Luckily for us, there was canal staff nearby, who took pity on us, and helped out with the various operations on most of them.

Opening the sluice gate

Closing the gate

By mid-afternoon we had made it through this section, and tied up to a small dock for the night.  The Kintyre peninsula, which we were passing through, has a tremendous amount of history.  The next morning, we all went for a hike up to some 5000 year old stone carvings.

We then headed down the remaining section of Canal.  2 more self-serve locks, and then the final 2 out to salt water.  The last lock is the largest of them, and the operator had us wait for an hour to let another couple of boats catch up to us, and had us all go down together.

Rush hour at the sea lock

Once back at sea, we travelled another hour and a half down to the town of Tarbert.  We had decent wind for a change, and were able to give the diesel a well earned rest.

Tarbert Marina, with ruins of 900 year old castle