After a fairly long drag up through both canals, and out to Lossiemouth, we left there last Thursday AM and headed east along the Moray coast, then a smidgin north of east and out over the empty N Sea. The first half was 10 Kts on the nose- so lots of tacking and then some motor sailing. The middle was flat (smooth - not flat!!) and a bit foggy.
The last 100 miles to the Norwegian coast had Northerly winds- a fine direction. The only problem was 20-25Kts rather than 10-15...
That was hard work , mostly on a small jib alone, still doing 6 Kts. A lot of effort was spent on watching the weather side for 3-4m breakers coming in....
Arriving on an un-kent coast at midnight is never a great idea, particularly considering the miles of skerries littering the sea north of Stavanger. So we played safe and used the deep water entrance south of Karmoy. Never got properly dark
. And the sun was up again about 03:30. 335NM from Lossie to where we tied up.However, a few interesting Scottish anchor stops were made on the way up.
Up Loch Craignish a bit , south east side, inside of Eilean nan Gabhar and a wee rocky islet (and a floating barge of creels!) - a fine quiet spot, damn good holding and shelter.
Picked after coming out the canal late on. Good choice.
After Kerrera - we headed up inside Lismore and Shuna- past Dallens Bay- on the way towards Corran. Decided against Dallen's Bay and stopped inside a wee bay on the NE end of Eilean Balnagowan - off Ballachulish. Looked a bit stony/gravelly but held fine. Another decent spot with good shelter from South - NW. Nothing but geese and seagulls nesting nearby. Definitely a good place to wait for Corran. (Corran was a terrible disappointment, compared with the Burnt Isles - or Cuan..)
On Loch Ness after Fort Augustus, we managed to sail for a few hours - tacking our way up to Invermoriston, looking for somewhere to shelter from the NNE winds. Not easy on Loch Ness.
There is an anchor symbol there, so we dropped the hook in 15m of water - and put out all 40m of chain. The wife was less happy as you could almost have walked ashore!
However we had shelter and there was no wind change. Next morning was like plate glass! Bonny.
That's the Scottish bit done, though the slog from Inverness along the Moray coast was very monotonous. Not the most attractive bit of water to cover.
However, over here is a lovely place to be sailing. Like the Uists but with mountains on steroids.
Rocks and skerries all over the place, lots marked, some not. Loads of boats out sailing / pottering / ferries dashing about. Felt like Hope Street in Glasgow it was so busy.
I've got most of July to explore here, so I'll report back with some more snippets.
(And the stories of the Vikings taking all the better looking Scots lassies back home with them must be true
)Graeme , (John & Hamish)
