Tuesday 10th

Having seen Graham to the bus stop Ailsa and I bought some milk, frozen peas and garlic then went back to the boat to make a sandwich and potter. Ailsa stuck a button back onto one of the seatbacks in the saloon and we sat in the sun at the top of the flight of locks eating sandwiches, drinking tea and having some delicious cake, thanks Sheena. A Norwegian asked us when the locks were to be open, I’d managed to get them on the radio as they were heading for lunch so told her I thought about1400. By 2 O’clock there was activity in the locks as a group came up, I went to have a look and chatted to a young couple on a little sloop which I thought might be a fibreglass Vertue but turned out to be a trident 24 and looked tiny but was about the size of Salmo and Speedwell, my father’s boats. They had come from Ipswich and were to spend the summer on the West Coast.

Back at Yemaya I did some paperwork - expenses claim, and sent it to Briggs and tried again to see if I could manage to post my blog onto the Beagle Cruises website. I had tried before and although pairing my ipad to my telephone the ipad refused to access data. This time using wifi rather than blue tooth it seemed to work and, I believe, probably did because Katharine has managed to read it.

I’m going to try adding a photo or two and see if it works.

Well they’ve appeared, the one above is Monday going through Loch Lochy and the ones below are Tuesday on the canal and at Fort Augustus at the bottom of the locks.

A far nicer day on Tuesday, obviously.

The boats coming up came out at about 1430 and we started the engine and pottered into the lock, Ailsa ashore attaching the lines and me aboard tending them. A helpful chap came and offered to walk our stern line from lock to lock and did this all the way down which was great. He was in the area doing environmental surveys for the energy industry. In the lock with us were about 4 other cruisy boats, all on hire from Loch Lochy, little fibreglass motor boats with mostly elderly people aboard. There is a bridge at the bottom and once the final lock gate was open and the road bridge too we came out and onto the pontoon at the bottom where we tied up for the night and went for a wander around the village. There was a space beyond us which was reserved with cones and about an hour later a dutch barge converted for guests berthed there and we chatted to the skipper who was fisherman from Skye. They only had 4 guests out of a possible 12 but it was a private charter and seemed to be going well.

After a cup of tea we went for another walk around with an ice cream to keep us going before reading a bit then pottering to a local pub for a meal.

There is a big old building here, originally a fort as in Fort Augustus, one of the ones built by General Wade et al to quell rebellious Scots should they feel revolting which subsequently became an abbey then a school and was recently converted into apartments and club, it looks good but isn’t open for tours which is, perhaps, a pity. After dinner we walked around looking for places to park for Scott but drew a blank, there are car parks and some spaces for free but all have ominous ‘no overnight parking’ signs. It’s a strange village, quite touristy and busy during the day but quiet