Talora Chasing Tides

Having returned to Oban Marina on Sunday afternoon to have a couple of jobs done, the parts we were waiting for did not arrive until yesterday (Thursday). The others pushed on on Tuesday. Although the parts were ordered last Friday, the courier, for some unknown reason, delivered them to a Royal Mail sorting office in Glasgow and there they sat! When they arrived yesterday the Marina staff were excellent and got on with fitting a new automatic bilge pump, to counteract the problem we had in Amble, and fitted a new transducer at the top of the mast so we now have a wind speed reading (which stopped working in the big winds off Lowestoft at the beginning of the trip but this is the first place we have been where they were able to fix it). We phoned Ardfern, our next port of call, to book our berth for Friday night, in readiness for our departure.
To fit the bilge pump we had to turn Talora round to get here stern in to the pontoon so we started her up and maneovoured her around. When we went to stop the engine, a warning light sounded and continued to sound even without the key in the ignition and the engine is now refusing to start! It just seems like one thing after another. Last night, Ray asked me whether I thought someone was trying to tell us something, trying to stop us from continuing for some reason. He was threatening to sell Talora when we get home. I think the stress of one problem after another and that feeling of not knowing what the next problem will be or when it will strike, is understandably getting to him. After thinking about it, my reply was that someone was probably taking care of us by making these things happen in places where help is at hand rather than in the middle of nowhere. So, the engineer is on board at the moment trying to find the fault. We don't know how long we will be here but I do know that, having caught up some of the time we lost in Amble, we are getting more and more behind schedule! The weather has been awful. We had one day of lovely hot weather on Wednesday I think, and went into Oban and bought ourselves the biggest ice cream we could buy to cheer ourselves up, I got my hair cut and bought a pair of sandals, retail therapy on a small scale! But we have had rain every day, drizzle and torrential. Will let you know as soon as we know whether we are here for the weekend or can push on. Photo is Ray enjoying lunch on the boat on Wednesday, before the rain came!