Fort Augustus

We have been enjoying beautiful Scottish scenery, mostly wonderful weather, quiet anchorages and quaint towns.

From Oban we headed out for a 20 mile trip to Tobermory. As we headed out we came across this cruise ship – the Club Med 2. Certainly a gorgeous location for a cruise but I still like our lifestyle better. We can get into all kinds of locations they cannot.

Some slow sailing and some motoring. As we neared the end we changed our minds and decided to tuck into Loch Na Droma Buidhe (Drumbuie). It is a peaceful protected spot once you negotiate the narrow anchorage. When we arrived about 1430 we had the loch to ourselves. By dusk we had 4 neighbours but the space is plenty big enough for all.

The night was so quiet Alan had trouble sleeping. We spend much fewer nights at anchor than we expected to for a variety of reasons.

Early the next morning we headed out for the huge trip to Tobermory. 2 miles.

First things first, it was time to take on fuel. You will notice from many of the pictures that there has been very little wind. The good news is that we also have not had gales common to this time of year.. As we walked through town, the first store we entered sold free trade items from Nepal where Alan bought a pair of cozy mitts.Lots of touristy shops and restaurants, a surprisingly good bookstore (and tackle shop) where Alan bought a book about the history of the Caledonia Canal. The beautiful building at the left is actually a restaurant although obviously originally a church. Alan checked out a small museum while I browsed in the shops. We stopped for ice cream which was hand made in the shop. The rum and raisin was soooo good. Lots of tourists (no us lol) from the tour busses supporting the economy.

Saturday was a long day. We had many types of weather on a 50 mile motor to Fort William, including drizzle and pea soup fog. Does anyone know what this cardinal mark indicates?

 

This is the scene near Fort William as we circled waiting for the lock. Logging has been a major industry in Scotland for hundreds of years. The majority of the land has been clearcut and often not replanted causing landslides and ugly patches much like BC.

By the time we arrived the sun was shining and the wind was blowing, just when we could have done without it. We decided to go through one of the sea locks at Corpach and tie up for the night.

We met up with friends we had made in Tobermory in a Kelt 9m. We spent Sunday transiting the locks from Corpach to Fort Augustus in tandem. Our first challenge was Neptune’s Staircase. It is a series of 8 locks all attached together Unfortunately our folding prop began to act up just at the wrong time. The lock keepers were great about walking us through the locks. In the Caledonia the locks are all automated and operated by staff. Yeah. The picture below is much better than the one I took.

It was fun talking to the hikers and tourists as we went up. Alan almost started telling people it would cost them 50p to take our picture. We would have recovered our transit fee which was substantial. There were some long stretches as we went through the lochs. Here you see wind and we sailed for a little while but it was definitely flukey.

 

This is our first lock going down. They are a lot less stressful with a minimum of turbulence.

After a much longer day than we planned we arrived in Fort Augustus. Lovely small town, good wifi lol. My first question as we arrived was “where are you taking me to dinner?” We ended up at a lovely place called The Boathouse with a view of Loch Ness. They even had a telescope to search for Nessie.

This is the view as we walked along the path back to the boat.

Today we decided to stay tied up here for the day. I made blueberry muffins and a thick vegetable soup for these cool days. We discovered that because Raymarine has “upgraded’ it’s charts our routes and waypoints no longer upload from the ipad. The only solution apparently is to buy new charts at $300 per area. I am NOT impressed.

Good time to go for a walk! Groceries at the store below.

A stop at the Canal info centre

and a trek to the hardware store to exchange our propane tank.

We will be off tomorrow in search of Nessie…