18th to Fort Augustus

A dreich morning greeted us, we were in no hurry but because of this it was after 0900 before we got away having done nothing much other than me having a shower. In the dark as there was no working light in it. We needed a good shove to get our bows out beyond the monster cruise boat ahead of us and soon we were pootling along the canal, past weirs, to Loch Dochfour where there were more weirs and the Balindarroch boat house although Balindaroch itself, where cousin Alison used to run a brilliant B and B and I had my fortieth birthday a couple of  years ago. (It may have been more but doesn’t seem like it.) After this we were into Loch Ness, there was a fairy castle on the Dores side along with  a lovely boat house house ( boat house with accommodation above). Sue was cooking breakfast and we carried on towards some apparent sun at Urquhart castle where we had an altercation with a little Caley charter boat who was on my starboard side: There was a monster cruise boat about to pull out from the jetty at the castle and Caley seemed to be heading for my anchor spot, I reasoned that as you don’t even need grade 1 music theory to charter these boats he wouldn’t know it was his right of way and in any event the monster boat frightened him off so we continued to take the anchor position under the castle beside the monster boat jetty where we had morning coffee and biscuits. I also finished my blog but couldn’t get a signal to post it. From here we upped anchor and sailed to Foyers with about a quarter of the genoa, there was neither the room nor the benign conditions appropriate for sitting alongside the jetty there so we went to anchor.  I’d intended to spend the afternoon walking here then going for a barbecue on the beach  but there was wind of up to 18 knots blowing from the North with the beach to the South and, as Loch Ness is so deep and steep sided, one has to anchor very close to a rocky shore to find any bottom and once anchored we only had 2 m under the keel with the beach just spitting distance away (with a following breeze) so I wasn’t comfortable leaving the boat and we just had lunch of an open prawn (needed eating as did / does quite a bit from the freezer) sandwich. We’d blown the dinghy up on the way to Foyers but she just sat forlornly tied to our stern.

Wild flowers/ weeds

River Ness

After lunch we weighed anchor, (my new remote control for the anchor proving useful as I could put the thing in gear then heave the anchor up from the cockpit whilst gently motoring up to the anchor with Sue stowing the cable below).

From here  we sailed, again with not much genny, making 6.5 knots with a stiff breeze, past a newly wrecked yacht on the NW shore to Fort Augustus. I had been going to just go alongside the pontoons at the bottom but as the wind was blowing straight in and the pontoons were dancing about a bit I thought I’d turn around first so as to be bows on to the wind and the sprayhood would work if we were there overnight. I underestimated the effect that the wind would have, we tried to turn to starboard, the favoured way with my propeller but  when going astern the stern just sought out the wind and stopped the turn whilst we drifted downwind going ahead again more enthusiastically with full starboard helm had us nudge the pontoon but still at about 70 degrees to it however  other yachites had seen our plight and come to take lines  so after a little excitement we were secure alongside a bouncy pontoon facing the wind. Sue took the doggies off for a walk / pee  etc. and I sorted out the lines. A lock keeper came down and I enquired about the possibility of going up which was eminently possibly in about 10 minutes so  we prepared for this and soon were turning around again, more under control this time with the wind and a stern spring to help, and entering the first of the 5 locks up the flight in Fort Augustus. At the top there was a berth on the wall where the holiday barges tie which was available ‘til lunch time tomorroow and the lock keeper and Sue walked our lines to it from the top lock. Once secure Sue, who has developed an obsession with cucumbers, wanted to go to buy one along with some lemons so we took the dogs to the Spar shop and found that they were out of cucumbers and lemons and she bought a lime instead. We then went for a walk along the canal and, after a bit, found a path leading intriguingly off to the right so took this and followed it to the river where there was a convenient bench to sit on and admire the view, which we did for a little before following the bank downstream hoping to end up in Fort Augustus. About a hundred metres down stream there were shallows with pretty rapids but shortly after this the path petered out and we were in jungle. There was a bit of a path leading off into bracken which looked like tick country that we’d avoided on the way past but on the way back I said I’d try this, and did, the dogs followed me for a bit before going back to re join Sue, who likes to do her own thing and was walking back the way we’d come. I waded through the bracken for a bit before getting to a meadow of wild flowers / weeds, and was soon back on the tow path where there was a convenient bench to rest on whilst waiting for the others to catch up. We then went back to the boat and prepared dinner and I cooked up 10 hamburgers into mince so it can be used for whatever later, with Sue, who’s not nearly as good a cook as I am,  telling me how to do it. With remarkable patience I ignored her or possibly exaggerated things she told me not to do, and soon we were having our hamburgers with salad, bread, haggis, cole slaw and fish fingers. Well, actually we didn’t eat the fish fingers being a bit full already, but kept them for the dogs dinner.

Once cleared up we came below as it was gloves, hats and jackets weather in the cockpit and had various discussions about how to play dominos with a very high quality set I’d been given in Cuba by Sarah and family which it took me about 10 minutes to remember how to open. Once I’d won, even playing with Sue’s interpretation of the rules, Sue tried to open the box, with my instructions which proved hilarious, after which it was time for a mint tea and bed.