Today was the day when Andrew and his old school friend would join us for the first stage of their Highland adventure. We had just finished provisioning for lunch when they arrived. Andrew + the twins, Hugh and Percy (9) and Adam and his two boys Patrick (10) and Albert (Albie – 7). Ballachulish Marina had been build where the old slate quarry used to be, so the first thing the boys did was to explore the shore for skimmers – Percy said that these were the best skimmers ever. Then we had lunch – a huge fry-up cooked by Andrew.

 All aboard for a fry-up – Andrew is cooking at the galley and Adam sitting on the gangway steps.

After lunch we cast off and headed down Loch Lever for a sail and to see if we could find the Lochleven Seafood Café. The wind was gusty and variable and Andrew found it difficult to avoid constantly jibing, which kept everyone on their toes. After an hour of sailing we spotted the café and started the engine, lowered the sails and picked up a mooring – the only problem was that it was 3:40pm and we were not booked at the restaurant until 6pm. Clearly a shore party was needed. Andrew, Adam, and three boys (Percy stayed behind with Rosamund to play cards) came with Ian in the dinghy – beached on a sea-weedy beach and visited the café. After a quick visit to their fish tanks we decided to do a walk to get the boys in training for the next day. Walking along the road towards the narrows – we soon came across a footpath heading up the hill to our left – surprisingly this was a footpath to the lost village of Camus na h Eirghe a prehistoric village abandoned in the early 19^th century. It was a lovely walk up through a tree lined path (an advantage in pouring rain) and the dry stone walls of all the buildings and paddocks could be clearly seen, although there were a number of trees growing in the middle of the complex so it was difficult to make out the original plan, particularly as some of the local farmers were using parts to store pallets and other farming detritus.

Afternoon walk to the lost village of Camus na h Eirghe

Returning to the loch, we set off back to Milo to get ready for returning again for our meal. This took two trips in the tender to land everybody ashore. We then lifted the tender clear of the rising tide before attempting the slippery sea-weedy assent to the restaurant.

Meal in the Lochleven Seafood Café

It was a fantastic meal and the staff were very friendly and helpful – we ate early as we were hoping to leave before it got dark at 7:30, but we were enjoying it so much that it was 8:30pm before we left – it was pitch black and we only had two torches between us. The path to the tender was treacherous in the dark – so slippery on the seaweed. Yet we managed to get the first party on the dinghy and pushed off so that the motor could be started. I have to give honourable mention to Adam’s sacrifice here. He pushed the dinghy out despite getting trousers, socks and shoes thoroughly soaked. The second party helped the returning dinghy to find them by shining a torch (iPhone) from the beach, but sadly the outboard got tangled up with weed and never did start after that, so Ian had to row the tender back to Milo against quite a strong head wind – it took ages.

Once back on the boat, the dinghy was secured in tow and we slipped the mooring. The problem was that it was pitch black – navigation lights were on and Ian was able to set waypoints to aim for and get the boat to track toward them, but he found the brilliance of the chart recorder ruined his night vision so when it eventually came to getting back to home port he relied on Adam and Andrew up front with a powerful torch and night vision respectively shouting out instructions to the helm – “left a bit” – “careful of that boat to starboard” – “what boat, I can’t see it “ says the helm, “watch out for that buoy dead ahead” says Andrew – helm adjusted quickly to starboard. Watch out for that headland on the right. Helm adjusted quickly to port and so on until we got to our berth in a very narrow inlet. When first coming in by daylight, Ian managed to turn in one “U” turn but this time it took four back and fourths to get into position.

Then the bedding – how would we sleep? – four boys in the front cabin and Adam and Andrew sleeping together in the main cabin? In the end natural selection won the day – with Adam and his two boys sleeping in the front cabin and Andrew and his two boys in the main cabin, with Ros and Ian in our usual cabin in the stern of Milo.

The next morning it was difficult to get going. The fact that the table in the main cabin lowers to make an enormous bed is very useful on Milo, particularly as Andrew managed to fill the gangway with cushions from various main cabin settees (4 in all) and ultimately made the whole cabin into a huge bed.  My biggest problem was persuading him to get up in the morning so that I could lay the table for breakfast.

 All aboard Milo in the morning

Eventually we had breakfast – Patrick yet again enjoyed his bacon butties – having three in a row. We then went swimming in the Isles of Glencoe Hotel pool. The boys enjoyed the Jacuzzi.

Boys swimming in the Isles of Glencoe Hotel pool

The mountain climbing party left just before lunch to provision and set off for Fort William. The plan was to park as close to the ascent as they could – then set off and set up a base camp near Loch Meall, leaving early next morning for the ascent – returning to break camp in the afternoon. I learned later that all went to plan with the whole team summiting at about 13:00 hours. Meanwhile, Rosamund and I had an afternoon nap sheltering from the downpour.

Mountain climbing party setting off on the first part of their assent to Loch Meall the planned site for their base camp

We had to enter Loch Leven under the Ballachulish bridge by 10:30am to avoid having strong tidal flows against us. Combine this with winds rising to force 6 and the tidal stream up Loch Linnhe turning at 9:30 meant that we had to be away by 7am. I checked the height of Milo’s mast (13m) as the bridge has a low clearance (16m) – should be OK.

We raised the main while still on the mooring as she was pointing into wind and soon had the engine off as we slipped the mooring and sailed away northward through the Lynn of Lorn toward Loch Linnhe. The Lynn of Lorn was quite narrow so you had to concentrate to keep on course, particularly approaching Shuna Island as it is confusing to begin with whether to pass it to port or starboard, but a quick check of the chart convinces you that doing a dogleg into Loch Linnhe was by far the safer course. As we were approaching the main loch we were goose-winged but then as we headed more NE we slowly moved towards a broad reach.

The weather forecasts (Windfinder and XCWeather) were both predicting force 4 but gusting to 5 at first then 6 later. I wondered how they could predict this so precisely, but found later that this was accurate. On my chartplotter I have set up true ground wind speed and on a separate gauge have apparent windspeed. This is useful as it helps me keep a track of how strong the gusts are. Also, I noticed a pattern on this trip – at force 4 we were going at about 4 knots, at force 5, 5 knots and gusting force 6 we reached 6 to 6.3 knots. Once we had a force 7 gust and she reached 7knots – so Milo seems to have a relationship with the Beaufort wind scale. The Force 6-7 wind gusts were difficult to hold with full sail and she tended to head up into wind taking all my strength to get her back on course. She healed over a lot in the gusts, even on a broad reach, causing items below to crash across the cabin.

 Our track from Marine traffic and our waypoints from the chart recorder

We had such a brilliant sail that we reached Ballachulish bridge one hour ahead of schedule so had the tide still with us when passing under the bridge. The mast did look as though it would hit the bridge, but this was probably an optical illusion. But arriving at Ballachulish Marina pier was a bit of a mystery as we could not get hold of anyone. We picked up a visitor’s mooring and then I took the tender ashore. The gate had a combination lock and I could not get out. Luckily Simon was there – he was about to take out a boat trip. Sadly, he said the owner of the Marina had died last month, so things were rather chaotic at the moment. I had noticed signs of neglect – the visitor’s mooring chain had nearly corroded through and some of the wooden pier boards were rotten with some broken.

 Milo’s mast just clearing the Ballachulish Bridge entering Loch Lever

Leaving early meant that we’d arrived very early in Ballachulish – mid morning. The Marina had an arrangement with the local Isles of Glencoe Hotel so we could use their pool and sauna. We arrived early afternoon to find that we’d coincided with a children’s swimming lesson and only half of quite a small pool was available, but it was still good to freshen up and have a shower. The hotel also had a good internet connection and a lovely view across Loch Leven.   One drawback of the marina was its proximity to a main road, so there was occasionally some traffic noise, but within a short walk under the road bridge there was a well-stocked Co-operative store open 7am-10pm, a visitors’ Centre and café for lunches and afternoon teas and a hardware store. Also, just round the corner was Quarrier’s fish and chip shop and the Laroch Restaurant and Bar where we booked and ate later in the evening and were delighted with the food.

 Quarries and the Laroch Restaurant and Bar where we ate the night we arrived

The next day was sunny and we should have explored Loch Lever, but Ian discovered a serious leak from the engine water pump, which became apparent when the automatic bilge pump suddenly started pumping water overboard at 8am in the morning. Apart from the bilges being flooded, the well under the engine was full and water was continuously dripping from the water pump. This was the pump that (we thought) had been successfully repaired in Tobermory by Philippe – clearly a new pump was called for. It took 8 bucket loads to clear the bilges – 2 of which came from the engine well. From now on, if we were to limp to Findhorn with this engine problem, we had to use our 2 bucket engine well capacity wisely and empty it regularly and remember to turn off the engine stop-cock after switching off the engine. Ian had worked out that the water pump was under the water line, which is why it was dripping continuously.

The main part of the day though was getting Milo shipshape for the arrival of Andrew, Adam and the four children the next day. Normally we use the front cabin as a dumping ground and general store. Now we had to be creative with where we put things and were surprised how quickly we could stow luggage so that the front cabin became usable.  The plan was to eat at the Seafood restaurant down Loch Leven on the north side, for them all to stay the night on the boat and then for them to leave the next day to climb Ben Nevis, but the weather forecast was so bad that we were suggesting to Andrew that we should drive to the restaurant rather than sail as it would be pouring with rain with winds gusting to force 7.

View from our mooring in Ballachulish after a night of rain

After starting the season in the calm waters of the Firth of Clyde in May, we had passed through the Crinan Canal to the Inner Hebrides on our first trip, experiencing some of the turbulent waters through the Sound of Luing up to the Firth of Lorn before leaving Milo moored at Tobermory on Mull. On our return in June we explored the outer Hebrides and experienced some of the wilder weather and waves that the Minch can bring. Now returning to Milo after a 10 week break we were ready to explore the inner lochs and experience calmer waters once again.

Lochaline. This is the Loch where we left Milo moored for 10 weeks for the wilder part of the Scottish summer. Characterised by the silica quartz sand mine at the narrow entrance and the destination of the Fishnish/Lochaline ferry from Mull, the Loch has been renowned over the ages as a safe anchorage. The winds must have been quite severe over the summer though, as only one of our 6 pennants was left flying – the other 5 had been ripped to threads.

Shower approach in Loch a’Choire

Leaving Loch a’choirs later in sunshine

Loch a’Choire. We’ve described our experiences in Loch a’Choire and at the Boathouse Cafe in the previous blog. After a further day on the mooring in this Loch, we were keen to move on to Dunstaffnage where there was a marina with showers and the promise of an electric hookup to charge all our flat batteries and an internet connection. We had a peaceful sail across Loch Linnhe and down the Lynn of Lorn as the wind was on the nose the whole way so we mostly had to motor, although we tried tacking for a while on full sail in the wider part of the Lynn of Lorn after Eileen Dubh. As we approached Dunstaffnage we had a glimpse of Connel Bridge at the mouth of Loch Etive, our next destination. There was a seething mass of white water which we later learned were the “Falls of Lora”

“Turn left at the Merry Monster and you’ll find your way to the village” – in the background Dunnstaffnage marina

Loch Etive. Dunstaffnage is about one nautical mile from the Connel Bridge and the entrance to Loch Etive. As we arrived at the marina we noticed a fast westerly stream crossing our bow – we had been given a berth number (D7) and put the fenders out on the port side and slowly came into the berth, but something was wrong. I could not get near enough for Ros to jump off with the warp. As I reversed out to try again we were drifting dangerously toward the adjacent boat and we got pinned against her anchor, which pierced our netting (and almost pierced Ros’s stomach). It took all our strength to push Milo away from her and head back out to sea for a second attempt. This time Ros did manage to jump ashore and tied the forward warp, but in no time at all Milo was swung broadside and it was when I was fixing a long mooring warp to her stern and started pulling her back round that I noticed that there was a strong tidal stream pushing into the berth – in the opposite direction from the tidal stream we had met coming into the marina, We later learned that there were cyclical tidal streams crossing this marina that always caught out yachtsmen when entering for the first time.

Ian’s surf & turf eaten while discussing the risks of entering Loch Etive

We booked to have an evening meal in “The Wide Mouthed Frog Hotel” that overlooked the bay and the marina, and while Ros stayed on board, Ian set out to find out more about entering Loch Etive. Ros had been inspired to sail into Loch Etive from reading the book “Off in a boat” written in 1937 by Neil Gunn.

One yachtsman who was just leaving when asked if he was local said, “no but I berth my boat here” – “oh great I said, can you tell be the best time to enter Loch Etive and are there any tricks I should know”. “No” he said, “I haven’t yet plucked up enough courage to do that”. The receptionist showed me a video of the “Falls of Lorna” – they looked terrifying. “Ask the Marina boys about it” she said. I did – none of them had gone through. “Ask the local fisherman – you’ll recognise him – he’s the guy with no hair at all” said one – “he goes through daily”.   After a long walk into the village, I did come across the local fisherman. “How powerful is your motor?”, “5knots max” said I. “Well you’d better time it right then – I’ve found that the guides get it wrong – leave it for an hour and a half after slack before going through – better in neaps”. By the time I had met Colin Taylor, the skipper of Moonshadow yacht charter limited, I had almost been persuaded to try sailing under the bridge. He had done this on a smaller boat. His 68ft Oyster was too tall to go under the bridge. He kindly showed me the charts and went through the procedures to follow to get through into Loch Etive and the obstacles to look out for. He and his wife took guests on 10 day cruises as far as Kilda and the Orkneys over the summer months and then spent the winter maintaining the boat. The crew guests who were leaving had been delighted by their trip and all seemed very happy.

Approaching Connel bridge at the entrance to Loch Etive at slack water

I chickened – decided it was too much of a risk. I’d prefer to study a few other yachts going through before trying myself. Besides there were further narrows higher up. I felt I had considerable local knowledge now and would try it one day when I did not have a time commitment later in the week. The meal that evening at the Wide Mouthed Frog Hotel & Restaurant was reasonably good. Ian had a surf and turf which was great on the surf side but the steak on the turf side really let it down. The next day I spoke to the proprietor, Rick Gothard, whilst eating a bacon buttie bap and having a coffee in the breakfast bar. It turned out that he ran a restaurant in Tenerife – in fact he’d worked there 20 years and planned to retire there. It was his wife who’d bought the hotel about 5 years earlier. It reminded me to call Pat, my sister, who owns a time-share on Tenerife.

We left Dunstaffnage fully charged, watered and fueled. Furthermore Ian had replaced his sailing boots lost in Loch Miodart, the oars lost in the Crowlins and our worn out sailing gloves, so we were starting afresh. We motored up to the mouth of Loch Elive and that was the nearest we got to passing through into the lock. Even though it was slack tide the water was still gushing through under the bridge creating whirlpools off the entrance. We understood now why the hour and a half was so important, but left Loch Etive for another day as we headed north again toward Port Appin.

Port Appin on the Lynn of Lorn. We’d read that we could moor off the Pier House Hotel and Restaurants. We had a very peaceful sail on a dead run to get there – making slow progress between 2.5 to 3.5 knots – we had the benefit of the tidal stream so we were in time to get the earlier sitting. The meal at this restaurant was not as good as we had expected. Ros’s fish dish was too fussy and Ian’s plaice not fresh enough. Back on the boat we had a good night’s sleep before setting sail for Ballachulish the next day at 7am to catch the early tidal streams and keep ahead of the strengthening winds.

Milo moored off the Pier Hotel & Restaurant with ferry from Lismore arriving in the distance

Wednesday September 14^th – a day in London for Ros – meetings followed by the theatre with Ian at the young Vic – Yerma by Lorka – a powerful and distressing play about a young woman’s despair at remaining childless. Whether it was the effects of the play or some of the stresses of work, Ros was seized by stomach cramps in the night whilst staying with Joanna in Clerkenwell. In the morning on Thursday September 15^th it was a transitory pleasure to take Vyvan to school,  but a relief to sleep all the way to Bristol and when home into the early evening. This left very little time to pack and prepare for the journey to Glasgow the next morning, and the onward trip to the Western Isles and our to return to Milo.

The next day on Friday September 15^th we caught an early flight to Glasgow and arrived to an unexpectedly glorious day. We took a taxi to Queen’s Street Railway station where we caught a train to Oban,  passing through the most spectacular scenery. By 3:45 p.m. we were on the Ferry to Craignure where the Tobermory bus met us and took us to Fishnish just in time to catch the short ferry back to the mainland again at Lochaline. We were met by Fiona from the ferry on a covered Quadbike and were transported to the marina.

The transition from Bristol to the Western Isles had been like a dream – the sun was shining, there was a seal and an otter playing off the marina and two Swans who’d been there earlier in the year had returned for the first time as we arrived. The troubles and pains of the last few days started to disappear. Fiona transported Ian to Milo in the marina rib and waited to see if she started – she did – first time. Ian had accidentally left the battery switch on in the 1+2 position and this appeared to have kept both batteries fully charged from the solar panel. Milo was brought into the marina single handed by Ian and given a free berth for the night to recharge her batteries and to be filled with water. We spent the evening discussing what to do in the next few days. Our long term plan was to travel through the Caledonian Canal and leave the boat near Inverness where we had return flights booked for Sunday 1 October.

After reading our pilot guides and the Charles Warlow “Scottish Anchorages” book that Andrew had given Ros for her birthday, we decided we would spend the first week exploring Lochs Linnhe, Etive and Lever before meeting up with Andrew and Adam + the four boys in Fort William early on Friday morning.

Our neighbour’s Yacht leaving Lochaline

Fiona had suggested that we spend the first night on a mooring in Loch a’Choire and eat at the recently re-opened Boathouse Café. We contacted the restaurant and booked a table for the following evening. The sun was still shining the next day and after motoring out of Lochaline and the Sound of Mull with the wind on Milo’s nose, we set sail on a broad reach up Loch Linnhe to our destination. We could see the sun falling on a cloud topped Ben Nevis in the distance – the whole mountain range looked magnificent in the evening sun and we hoped the weather would remain set fair for Andrew and Adam’s planned adventures for the weekend ahead.

Ros keeping warm in the weak sunshine on the way to Loch a’Choire

As we entered Loch a’Choire we were impressed by the immenseness of the surrounding mountains – Charles Warlow had said “the surrounding hills positively invite you to jump up them directly from the deck, they seem so close”. With the tender pumped up and emptied of water, we set off for the Boathouse Café. Just in time Ros suggested we put the anchor light on as it would be dark when we returned. The restaurant was a beautifully converted boathouse and the couple running it were very friendly. Unfortunately, Ros found the food very disappointing. Her leek and potato soup was very watery and her steak and kidney pie glutinous and overly salty. Ian enjoyed his bacon wrapped scallops and black pudding and also his venison pie which was tender and tasty, but even he was disappointed by the pastry which was a tiny flaky strip placed on the top when he was expecting a proper pie crust. As we left for the tender we realised we had left the torch behind and precariously, using Ros’ iPhone torch, we launched the tender which had been left high and dry by the tide. We realised that it was so dark, that even with a powerful torch (let alone the iPhone one) we would have never seen where Milo was without the anchor light on. With the anchor light, it was like sailing down a moonbeam and with relief we eventually clambered on board

The Boathouse Cafe – Loch a’Choire

A yachting theme at the Boathouse Cafe with the chef in the open kitchen in the distance

The next day, as was predicted by the weather forecast, it was overcast with a cold front with heavy rain passing over from 10am to 6pm. Ian got on with some work and Ros bunkered down and started to read “Off in a Boat” by Neil Gunn,  given to her recently by Anna Edwards. As she became more deeply  involved in the book she became fascinated by stories written in 1937 of the author’s travels with his wife around the west of Scotland. She started with one of the later chapters where the author writes about entering the Corran Narrows – “It was a day of tall cloud, sun and fragrance after the rain – a transformation that makes life on the west so dramatic; from glooms and drowning deeps to sky shepherd driving his white flocks down the blue fields of paradise (page 320)”

Sunrise in Loch a’Choire

Sailing under the bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh to Kyleakin must always be spectacular. We passed by the Crowlin Isles and anchored in the north inlet, had lunch and then a quick swim. Quick because the water was so cold. The local cormorants (or shags) looked on in amusement while they hung out their wings to dry.

Passing under the bridge linking Skye with the mainland

A “Quick” swim off our Crowlins anchorage

We re-anchored that evening in a quiet inlet just north of the Crowlins and just south of Applecross Bay where Joanna had camped. We were surrounded by a seal colony. I think what surprised us most was how noisy and restless they were. They burred, coughed, spluttered snorted very loudly to clear their nostrils after surfacing. They clearly like the sun and would clumsily hoist themselves up unto seaweed clad rocks to bask in the sun letting their whole bodies curl up like a parabolic reflector to send the rays back to where they had come from. When they got too hot – they would noisily splash back into the sea. They kept their distance from the boat. Occasionally a curious head would rise nearby to check us out. We ate on deck with the setting sun and the spurious noises of our new found friends.

Our new found friends and noisy neighbours

Our peaceful dawn before we heard the news about Brexit

We were were now out of internet and phone contact and we went to sleep that evening feeling optimistic that the vote that day would not be for Brexit. Next morning, still anxious about the Brexit vote, we suddenly remembered that we had a radio on board. Ros was waking up as Ian began to tune into Radio 1, the only station he could get. Ros will never forget the rude awakening, pop music blaring loudly followed by a rather jokey Radio 1 DJ announcing that the country had voted to leave the EU. Disbelief and depression followed and we remained glued to the radio, listening to David Cameron’s resignation as PM later that morning. We set sail for Tobermory leaving the seals behind but no longer feeling the joy that we had experienced the evening before. Later that day when we were in telephone reception again we had long conversations with Joanna and Andrew about Brexit. And when we finally reached Edinburgh on Saturday, Hugh and Skye were also keen to discuss Brexit. By then Skye was doing an excellent take-off of Nicola Sturgeon saying (about Scottish independence) “We will put it on the table….it is on the table”. Hugh was full of gloom about Scotland breaking away from England. And Percy as usual had his head in a book.

Sunset fro our anchorage in Muck harbour

But before travelling to Edinburgh we had two more nights on Milo. The first was on the island of Muck, probably symbolic of the muck up that Cameron had made of the referendum – he should have never allowed anything other than at least 60:40 to lead to an exit. Muck is a pleasantly peaceful island owned by the MacEwen family. Jenny MacEwen, who we met briefly, owns a craft shop near the harbour and a café where we had a start-the-day coffee. We walked up to the top of the island, not very far, where there were impressive views across to the islands of Eigg anf Rhum. On the way back we passed through the ruins of an abandoned village – A’chille – apparently there had been as many as 300 people living on the island before the clearances in 1826 and now there were only 40.

Milo on the pontoon in Muck harbour

View across to the Isles of Rhum and Eigg from Muck

The next day we set sail for Tobermory. We were tossed about quite a bit by the rollers but had a good sail passed Ardnamurchan arriving in Tobermory with wind gusting force 5. Here we met our Dutch friends again from Kyleakin and joined them for a drink on their boat – they tried to cheer us up about Brexit but it was an uphill struggle. The next day I sailed Milo single handed to Lochaline while Ros took all our luggage round by car across the Fishnish/Lochaline ferry. Lochaline marina staff, Fiona and Chris were very friendly and it felt safe leaving Milo in their care – soon we were on our way to Edinburgh through more stunning scenery but from a different perspective.

Meeting our Dutch friends again in Tobermory