It was still rather damp and soggy waking up to our last day in the canal and an early start at that – 8 o'clock to start the 2 hr decent through the Banavie locks. Wooden spoon for the day has to go to Ant (or was it Dec?) in the fishing boat in front. The pair of plonkers had bought the boat on the east coast and were taking back to Portree. A one stage the decending a lock the rear line got caught on the cleat and the water went done but the boat didnt. Ant managed to kick it off just in time. 2 locks later the same thing happened but it was beyond kicking off. Out came the knife (more like a six foot broadsword) and saved the boat from suspending itself six foot out the water.
We reached Corpach lock and refueled and then out into the sea around midday. Target for the night was to get to Loch Aline and the sun made its first appearance as we got through the Corran narrows. 6 hours later in Loch Aline it was a stunning evening with no wind and wall to wall blue sky. Tom and Andy went off in the dinghy to do some exploring – good to see the outboard is still working. Found Tennison's waterfall and a few fossils.
Don't ask!
Friday morning and still wall to wall sunshine and no wind – so a motor sail up to Tobermoray. The wind picked up to 15knts as we got there but as it was bang on the nose again we declined to put the sails up. It is amazing how nice the west coast is when the sun comes out!
Mull in the sunshine
We found a mooring – not difficult as all 24 visitors moorings were free. The chain on ours however was very rusty – watch out if you go there! Pam and I went to eat in Javiers, the restaurant over the bar by the end of the pier. We'd been there a couple of years ago and it was excellent. It was good again this time although the range of seafood was a bit more restricted. Well worth a visit if you like seafood. It was then over to the Mishnish to met up with the boys and far too much to drink.
Tom watching the world go by - well an old boat anyway!
Getting up on Saturday morning was a struggle and a couple of Panadol later we were off down to Dunstaffnage. Wall to wall blue sky again and sailing in tee shirt and shorts. Even Pam was feeling warm. There was no wind when we left but the sea breeze picked up as for the day before but it was dead behind us. We put up the assymetric but then the wind died and it was back to motoring. By the time we were passed the bottom of Lorne, it picked up again and we were able to broad reach over to the marina.
So that's the first leg of the trip down south completed. The boat is being lifted out here on Monday to antifoul it and put some new anodes on ready for the rest of the journey south. The weather since thursday has been absolutely brilliant so here's hoping it will keep this way until next weekend when we are back. Hope also we get wind on something on other than the nose or dead downwind which isn't conducive to easy sailing.
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