A phrase we have often used on this trip – “Every Day Is A School Day” today this as true as any! I shall explain some of the lessons shortly!
We had an early start, up before light with the kettle on at 4.30 in readiness to set sail northwards. We knew at this stage of the leg that we have 2 options, we either –
- Head towards Mallaig and aim the remainder of this leg sailing along the mainland. Or
- Just before we reach the Sound of Sleat, head North West and visit the West coast of Skye (Loch Harport), then head off towards the Outer Hebrides towards Uist.
As we approached the southern tip of Skye, we had reached a consensus and decided to stick to the mainland. The rationale for this was to avoid long passages where we could be more vulnerable to the elements and gain by spending more time visiting a larger number of places, practicing anchoring and mooring, having shorter days with chance to explore the area more.
It was beautiful sailing so early in the day, watching the light increase and the landscape come into view. A cloudy day with rain forecast, everything looked grey and ethereal with the sea, land and sky merging as one. The Cullins on Skye could just be viewed and looked fabulous.
Ardnamurchan Point
The Cullins on Sky in the early light of day
Heading around Mallaig we were greeted by a wonderful sight that is Loch Nevin, as the clouds lifted and the wonderful landscape came into view
I feel that we are now starting to feel more instinctive with our sailing and starting to work out what needs to be done whilst sailing rather than waiting for instructions be given by the instructor – it is a transition which feels good. The learning curve is still a steep one with a long way to go – but we are making our way along it at least.
Our previous skipper – FFFFFred advised we visited Loch Nevin, and become acquainted with the Old Forge Pub, as we approached Inverie Bay, using the binoculars, all we could see was a few houses and a post office and wondered if we had been given a duff lead by Fred. We anchored off, pumped the tender and John, Mike and I made our way to the shore.
We visited the village shop/post office, a very small place with a smattering of supplies and found ourselves buying goods we didnt particularly need in order to support such a remote little shop – the out of date shortbread biscuits will be lovely with a cuppa later! We were served by an English guy who looked a little like Billy Connelly – he wasnt actually in the shop when we arrived, but saw us coming and rushed to open up.
We then found the Old Forge Inn and enjoyed a lovely coffee there. The menu looked fabulous, but we are so well organized, and have our menu planned for the week, so we decided we would just have coffee and plan to eat on the boat this evening
Having returned to the boat, we ate lunch then set to our passage planning for tomorrow. We are aiming for a place called Plockton, visiting Ornsay on Skye along the way. Mike and I set to lookin at the optimal time to travel, knowing there is a tidal gate at Kyle Rhea, which produced 6-8 knots, so timing is vitally important unless we like running whilst standing still or being pushed backwards. We found the nearest tidal diamond and learnt a very important lesson today! I shall explain.
We calculated our passage to be optimal if we had travelled through Kyle Rhea before 13.30, using a tidal diamond nearest to us at Kyle Akin – it made complete sense to us and we sat there very smug! John was doing a cross check by using the tidal stream atlas using tides at Dover (I’ve mentioned this in a previous log – Dover you may ask – in N Scotland – just accept it!) ANyway, he said from his calculations that we can’t approach Kyle Rhea before 4pm – this didnt make sense. It was only upon further research that we realised the tide was completely different at Kyle Akin, abeit really close to Kyle Rhea. The lesson for today ladies and gentlemen is to use as many sources of information you can and cross reference as this will make an enormous difference. Mike and I could have made us travel backwards……
As it turned out, this wasnt the only lesson to learn today…….
We were all a little tired after our very early start and felt it was now time for snooze so we all went to bed for a well earned rest. After half an hour, we heard the VHF crackle into action, and Rick, thinking he heard the word “Experience” emerged from his cabin to take a look – our dinghy was missing! There was a strong wind and tide pushing everything towards the shore, so total common sense should tell us that the dinghy must be on the shore, we couldn’t see it at all, even with the binoculars. We found ourselves looking in disbelief – it can’t just go missing, we were so perplexed that we even found ourselves looking into the wind and tide for it – as if a tender would start up its own outboard and head away from us!
Shortly, as saw a gentleman rowing towards us, bumping along the waves as he did so. I use the word “gentleman” as this is a true title for him. He reached RBE and informed us that our dinghy was safe at his house on his private slipway. His name was Terry and he informed us that a woman had seen our dinghy, she had taken her clothes off down to her underwear and waded into the water to bring it up safely, he then took it to his house for safekeeping. They then realised ours was the only moored boat without a tender attached and tried to radio us.
We haven’t been happy with the painter on the dinghy, it just wasnt long enough to be secured sufficiently to the cleat, and this was another lesson for the day – if you are not happy with something, do something about it (you will be glad to hear we have now!)
Terry rowed Rick to the shore
Bye bye skipper!
and led him to our tender. He lived in the local church which he was renovating and looked fabulous.
It turned out that the semi naked rescuer was in fact the land lady of the Old Forge pub so we immediately felt indebted to her, and to Ian of course, and felt we really should give our custom to the pub this evening.
So, we continue to contribute to the local economy and spent the evening in the Old Forge Pub. A great tip off thanks so much Fred – what a fabulous place!
We were a little disappointed by Tobermory, particularly with the attitude of the local trades people. The landlord of the local pub in Tobermory stood over me and told me off as if I were a little school for plugging my laptop charger into his socket, asking if I had stood on the seat to reach the socket. I, thinking he was joking applied my usual sarcastic humour and said “well, I didnt levitate and as I’ve only got little Welsh legs…..” my words tailed off as I realised he was serious and had indeed come over to give me a piece of his mind! I informed him I had asked for permission to plug this in and hadnt just helped myself, and I was terribly sorry for standing on his chair in my clean shoes!
I feel so much better for typing that now and getting it all off my chest!
The Old Forge Pub at Inverie was a complete contrast. We arrived there, laptop in hand as usual in order to blog. I quickly placed a very quick brief blog as the Wifi is turned off at 6pm. It really is how pubs used to be years ago – no mobile phones (as there is no mobile network in this area), no computers, definitely no TV allowed – its just the local characters coming together to talk, to share tales and make music together!
Unbeknown to us we sat next to the landlord of the pub and the husband of the woman who rescued our dinghy – he was called Ian. We were joined by Kenny – a local character who was born in Harris (where apparently 50% of the navy captains originate!) Gaelic is his 1st language he has seen many changes in Scotland in his time.
We told Ian about our experience in Tobermory, he immediately knew who we were talking about and informed us he is known as “Grumpy McCloud” he is the son of a famous boxer, but he was not as good as his father. I have very little idea about boxing and asked the boys if they knew a boxer called McCloud. They laughed as it turns out he was a box player – someone who plays the accordion.
I popped outside as I could spy a lovely sunset!
The Round Britain Experience in Inverie Bay
We all enjoyed a lovely meal, chatting to the local characters, other “yachtees” like us and then watching a group of locals gradually come together to share their music.
Rick has a chat to a local sailor
What a difference! I would advise anyone traveling in this area to spend more time in little places like this rather than aiming for touristy areas like Tobermory. We really enjoyed ourselves here – fabulous food, great beer and tremendous company!
We made an overpayment to the local economy this evening as the beer was so good, hic, hic. John however, being far more sensible, only drank lemon and lime after his first pint of shandy so we nominated him to be in charge of our passage back to the boat. We set upon returning to our newly rescued and much appreciated dinghy. As we left the pub, John and Rick headed off whilst I took my time to say goodnight to Kenny who asked me with interest if I was married…..
The lovely Kenny!
When we reached the dinghy Mike and I found we had missed a lovely moment, as when John, the only sober member of our team stepped from the slipway onto the boat, misjudging the drop into the boat (it was dark) and landed in the dinghy on his back. I was less startled by this story when I realised Rick had been keeping an eye on the dinghy all night, bringing it up the beach as the tide came in, so it wasn’t actually on the water when John performed his gymnastics!
We giggled all the way back to RBE, thanked one another for another good evening. To think we planned a quiet night, but ended up with a brilliant evening only made possible by losing our dinghy – sometimes things are meant to happen for a reason don’t you think! Goodnight!
