What a beautiful start to the day – the sun was shining and the sea was like glass and Loch Nevin looked spectacular
Our heads (and John’s bottom!) are a little sore this morning after our brilliant night out in The Old Forge Pub, but the sunshine made us smile and as we headed out of the Loch to continue our journey. We took advantage of the conditions by practicing maneuvering the boat and took turns at this, which although possibly looking strange to onlookers, was enormously helpful for us all.
We passed by Mallaig and felt glad we had travelled further to Inverie as it looked a little soulless. Eigg looked beautiful in the distance and we continued on our way. We are always optimistic, and hope to sail whenever we can, so the sails came out in anticipation. Unfortunately there were very little used today as there was very little winds, and the little we had was in the wrong direction.
We stopped for lunch on Skye at a place called Isle Ornsay which was very pretty. John and Rick stopped on the boat for a rest whilst Mike and I took the tender to the village to explore. We learned a lesson or two about landing a small craft on a beach and enjoyed our little pootle.
RBE as we headed away from it in the dinghy
Isle Ornsay was tiny, but pretty, and it is interesting to look out to sea which gives you a nice change of perspective when you have been used to sailing.
Back onto the boat and ready to make our way once more. The weather had chanced, and went straight from bikini weather (honest!) to late autumn in a matter of minutes as we headed up the Sound of Seat towards Kyle Rhea. The wet weather gear came out once more!
Did you read from yesterdays blog the interesting discovery we made when calculating the tide for this area as it is a tidal gate? We felt confident we had the timings right, but with no other craft sailing along it, we still awaited confirmation! This soon came when we entered it and found we easily moved 10 knots over ground – we then sighted a yacht crawling along in the opposite direction who had clearly worked from the tidal diamond from Kyle Akin as we initially calculated yesterday!
Cleared Kyle Rhea in good time and rounded the headland and headed towards Skye Bridge. Thankfully the rain stopped in time for me to take some lovely photos of the bridge.
Look at how beautifully pleated the sail is! Far more interesting than the Skye Bridge?!
I went down into the galley to start to prepare supper whilst we continued to motor north towards our destination – Plockton.
I had planned the pilotage into Plockton, with a sketch made and bearings to landmarks given. This would have been fine if the white beacon they promised on the chart actually existed!
Plockton is indeed pretty, staggering mountains in the distance, woodland areas, fabulous houses, quaint gardens and even has its own castle – this served as the second landmark, a superb castle which was very easily seen (or conspicuous as it says in the almanac!)
We are grateful to the couple I met when we were on the ferry from Oban Marina to the town on Saturday night. They told me they have a mooring at Plockton, and as they are out on a sailing holiday themselves, we could use their buoy. I made a note of the mooring, and hoped they hadnt told too many others about this! Thank you to the owners of “Cheeky Monkey” for their mooring in Plockton!
Chicken fajitas for dinner – a little messy, but they seemed to go down well with very little washing up. Straight after dinner – passage planned tomorrow to take us to Lock Gairlock. A quick visit to the town on the dinghy – The Plockton Hotel – (just the one pint tonight!) enjoyed a locally brewed pint and some more impromptu Scottish music
Now its 11pm and indeed time to sleep. Im sitting in my cabin and thinking about my 3 lovely kids and missing them loads – love you Tash, Cal and Ces – goodnight!
