Girvan Harbour

[marisca]

I had a cunning plan to take advantage of Tuesdays NW'rly to pop down from JWD to Belfast. A suitable overnight stop would be Girvan but a phonecall to the harbour was diverted to Ayrshire roads dept. and the best they could offer was entry 1 hour either side of high water which with HW ~midday doesn't quite fit my passage plan - apparently heavy rain changes the depths considerably. The latest chart I have shows the channel dredged to 2m (2000). LW on Tuesday is 0.7m and Marisca draws 1.65m.
Does anyone have up-to-date knowledge, please?

[Burst Boiler]

Its been a few years since I was there, but at that time the HM was Roddie Leitch and he spent ages chatting. The issue is more the bar at the entrance than the channel itself. There's a training wall that means heavy rain scours the channel but residue will get moved to the bar. Once in, he said deep draught yachts (>2m) sometimes settle into the mud, but its all soft so they come back out again with the tide no problem. As for height over the bar, I've no idea but there's an all weather lifeboat on a mooring in the harbour, so maybe give Girvan RNLI a call and see if they can provide some thoughts. Girvan is a great spot with good facilities, they had just finished a new shower block when I was there.

[claymore]

I too have visited in July 1999
I got depressed in there and vowed never to re-visit. I note from the Log that I advised myself to pass this on to others to spare them the pain I experienced
Rest assured, Dear Boy, I shall be monitoring Ship Finder to confirm that my advice has been heeded...

[Gardenshed]

stop in Troon and then start earlier the next day....

[Burst Boiler]

Pick up a mooring at Whiting Bay.

[claymore]

Currently seems to have got to Kip and thought 'Fekkit - I'll go and ram the shore at Ashton'

[Burst Boiler]

The old Rangers goalie, Peter McLoy was known as the Girvan lighthouse. But when I visited there was no lighthouse in Girvan. What gives?

[mm5aho]

I was there 3 years back and touched bottom on the bar at the entrance (Contender - 1.4m), at half tide, but a slight swell. Might have made it if it had been smooth. Got out, but encapsulated keel makes for less worry about touching a sandy bottom. Clearly a problem for them.

[claymore]

19.51 Tuesday
Marisca appears to be in the Jaws of the Clyde with Sanda to Starboard and Loch Ryan to Port
I hope it isn't as breezy and wet as it is here!!

[claymore]

23:27
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/ho ... .7/zoom:10

Carrickfergus to starboard

[marisca]

After I posted I had a chat with the lifeboat station and they reckoned LW+/-2 was safe over the bar but depends on sea state. HW+/-3 is in my copy of Martin Lawrence and despite dredging at the start of this year seems to be about right.
However, Tuesday, after a slow start, was champagne sailing, at least until after Ailsa Craig - warm, sunny, broad reach and the boat churning along at ~7kts. Despite the CG forecast the wind got to fluctuating between 26 and 36kts with a bit of a sea running. I tried to remember how big a breaking wave has to be to capsize a boat and a couple did get the side deck under. Lay hove-to for over an hour but it obviously hadn't heeded the CG "dropping to 2 or 3". Belfast marina is almost full with over-winterers.