Having ‘hunkered down’ on board for our first night in Fort William due to the incessant wind and rain we headed ashore the next morning in Terry (the tender!) to be met by niece Jane and a day of home comforts with her family in Banavie, just by Neptune’s Stairs.
It was great to be able to catch up with Jane, husband Kieran and my great niece and nephew, Emily and Finlay. They have a lovely house with a fine view of Ben Nevis, although all we could see was a big cloud! They also had copious amounts of hot water and excellent laundry facilities so we left feeling a lot cleaner and more human than when we had arrived!
During a quick walk around Neptune’s Stairs we watched a number of yachts that were heading down to Loch Linnhe having crossed though the canal from Inverness. It looked a slow and fairly laborious process and although it would have been convenient to have been moored within a few yards of Jane’s house, I was, in retrospect, quite pleased that we were moored to a buoy in the loch itself without any locks to negotiate.
A really relaxing family day was made complete with a fine supper at the Ben Nevis Inn, Achintee; highly recommended – especially the Chicken and Haggis Rumblethumps!
The following day Nigel planned to make an ascent of Ben Nevis so he headed off into the clouds while I did little shopping and ‘boat administration’ ie. I bought a new gas bottle and another 25 litres of diesel! More importantly though, I needed to do some food shopping in preparation for a family tea on board Little Scarlet!
Nigel’s ascent was successful although apparently the view was rather limited and I’m sure he would have far preferred to have a rather than the were on there way!
A good time was had by all. You can’t go wrong with fish fingers and beans and the rather soft (indeed runny) ice cream for desert was enlivened by smarties. Hunt the smartie in a bowl of ice cream could become a new family favourite, along with the ‘how many pairs of spectacles can I wear at the same time’ game – see picture!
Nigel and I were, as ever, always thinking about the plans for the next few days. Our departure from Fort William and down through the Great Glen would be far more straightforward with a favourable tide at the Corran Narrows so we had a plan to slip from the buoy late in the evening and be clear of the narrows with the ebb in the early hours however, as we said goodbye to our tea guests and the rain poured down again, we decided to stay another twelve hours and leave the following morning.
It was good to have a decent night’s sleep and relatively slow start the following day but again it rained so we headed off down the lock in a wet murk. We had a vague plan to head over to the island of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides, for the Tiree Music Festival but with overnight visits to Oban and Tobermory en route.
We spent a quiet night in Dunstaffnage Marina, a few miles outside Oban. It was a particularly quiet evening as the facilities mentioned in the Marina – restaurant, cafe, bar etc., were closed and had clearly not seen any action for several years. In search of a pint we endured an unpleasant walk along a busy A road to Connel but we were off early the next morning, heading up the Sound Of Mull and into Tobermory by lunchtime. The tide was favourable for a quick passage and we also took advantage of high water to squeeze through the channel behind Calve Island with into Tobermory Harbour with just a few feet of water under the keel.
Tobermory has a pretty and photogenic waterfront although we didn’t see it at it’s best as it was – raining!! The highlight of Tobermory was an excellent pint or two in the Mishmash pub and a particularly delicious beef stew! Highly recommended!
An early night was followed by a thoroughly miserable day motor sailing into the wind and rain in an effort to get to Tiree and the Tiree Music Festival 2022.... it better be good!
