Steel Pulse’s ‘Round Scotland’ Log 2006

Cont from Week 1

Week 2 Map

Week 2 got off to a slow start, as the weather deteriorated and we decided to hang out at our visitor’s mooring. Boats came and went, while we patiently waited and tried to reconcile the forecast to the actual weather. Visitors included the McDowell’s Bravado, Spindrift and Dromedaris.

However by Wednesday boredom had set in and with the forecast still F4-5, we had a quiet motor down Loch Sunart as far as Salem and then came back to a sheltered lagoon, known as Drumbuie, where we anchored for the night. After a bit of fishing, a small mackerel provided the bait for the new lobster pot, which caught 6 velvet swimming crabs.

On Thursday the forecast of W F3-4 for the Ardnamurchan area looked good and we set off at 0900 and motored to just past Ardnamurchan, when the wind freed off enough for the sails to appear and we headed for the south entrance of Loch Moidart. Rounding Ardnamurchan we were passed by Jeff Gouk’s boat ‘Sirius’, which headed north as we went east.

Ardnamurchan Point, with Muck behind.

The anchorage at Moidart is described in the pilot as, “One of the most picturesque of all West Coast lochs. ……It is however one of the most difficult of all lochs to enter with a labyrinth of islets and rocks. ….. There is no current detailed chart of Loch Moidart. Photocopies of the very old chart 531 will provide more detail than anything currently published, subject with the usual reservations about obsolete charts.”

A quick check of the tide tables showed it would be low tide by the time we entered – indeed a Spring low. So armed with the pilot sketches we mastered the tricky twisting entrance and motored up to the anchorages, only to run aground off the jetty west of Riska Island. Maggie was dispatched in the dinghy with a sounding line to find the deeper channel and after a second attempt we backed off as the tide rose and we did a 270deg traverse around Riska Island to anchor at the south side off Castle Tioram.

Castle Tioram, Loch Moidart

On Friday morning, it was full tide when we departed, which gave more water depth but actually made the pilotage more difficult, as many of the small rocks at the entrance were now covered. We exited safely and motored over to Eigg. At the entrance to the harbour we saw a minke whale surface twice – our first sighting of any dolphins and porpoises this trip.

We passed through the harbour/anchorage and had a quick exchange with couple on ‘New Chance’, which was berthed alongside us in Bangor before we left.

We then motored around the south and west coast of Eigg and over to the anchorage in Loch Scresort at Rhum, arriving at 1420. Loch Scresort is east facing and 1 mile long by a quarter of a mile wide. We anchored in the vicinity of the other two yachts and made our way ashore to stock up with provisions from the shop and to get some water. As other yachts arrived we witnessed what can only be described as a display of lemming behaviour!! As each new boat arrived they looked for a gap between the existing boats and threw out their anchor. The last boat in (the 15^th) was a Contessa 32 that wanted to be near the previous two boats to arrive and proceeded to drop their anchor within two boat lengths of us. During the evening we swung to and fro, but not quite close enough to touch and in the end we moved outside of the rest of the boats to avoid worrying about a crash during the night.

Kinloch Castle, Rhum.

The following morning (Saturday) the forecast was for winds to get up to F5-7 on Sunday with rain; so we opted to head for the shelter of the Sound of Sleat rather than proceed out to Barra in the Outer Hebrides.

On Saturday we motored across to the Point of Sleat and then up to Armadale, with a bit of unsuccessful fishing on route. We picked up a visitors mooring and went ashore to check out the few tourist shops by the ferry terminal and then walked into Ardvaser to post some cards and slake our thirst, as it was a hot sunny day.

The weather on Sunday morning was still good, with light winds, but there were still strong wind warnings being broadcast, so we motored up the Sound of Sleat to Kyleakin. The narrow Kyle of Rhea has currents of up to 7 knots, so we had to set off at 0800 to make sure we carried the last of the north-going tide through it. As we exited the narrow Kyle, the wind started to increase and we had the dinghy trying to blow off the foredeck – it was tied down by the bow only. The boat that came through behind us, claimed that they had gusts of 35kns. At Kyleakin the boats at the pontoon were already rafted two abreast and the small pontoon at Lochalsh was full as well, so we picked up a visitors mooring off Kyleakin – next to the new Skye road bridge.

Skye Road Bridge, as the rain moved in.

As we came in we recognised Jeff Gouk’s Sirius also on one of the visitor’s moorings. The fact he left shortly after we arrived, we assume to be purely co-incidental!

Cont to Week 3