Now available in my Flickr Set

Left Loch Creran at 8am and retraced our route back to the mouth of the loch. This time we passed through at high tide, rather than low tide, and so more of the dangerous rocks and reefs were hidden under water. Once out into the Lynn of Lorne we made good progress with just the headsail. Drizzle all day and visibility was poor, sadly. We did have our best seal and porpoise sightings today, with both of them up close to the boat.

Arrived from Loch Linnhe to Loch Leven about 12:30 and Michael braved us through the narrow straits undwr Ballachulish Bridge against 4 knots of tide. We could have waited a few hours and had less of a tide to battle, but with the timing and the weather we were keen to get on our way back down south. Met by Will and Alec when we arrived at the pontoon. Then there was the cleaning, tidying and packing the car…

Left Ballachulish about 3, stopping in Tyndrum about 4 for excellent and massive fish suppers and Irn Bru. Headed over to Durham to stay the night with Emma, Eve and Fin, which is a lovely way to end the day.

Visibility is bad this morning on Loch Creran. The clouds are low over the loch and it is hard to see any of the mountains that are around. We’re getting ready for an 8am start so that we can reach the entrance to the loch at high water, around 9:30, to make our way back to Ballachulish.

Wonderful sail most of the way from Oban to the entrance to Loch Creran, on the Lynn of Lorne. Good, steady sailing with bright, dry weather. Had lunch on the go before heading into the somewhat tricky entrance to Loch Creran. Michael had planned our arrival to be about 30 mins before slack water, but even then there was a 3 knot tide at one point: disconcerting when we were taking care of the navigation to avoid rocks in the narrow channels. Once through the entrance, and with an extra 30 mins passed, the tide dropped off and we pit the sails out again for a fun sail up the loch. We topped just over six knots close hauled, which was lovely.

Picked up a buoy at Barcaldine Marina. We’re meant to put £10 in the honesty box for the night on the buoy but that would mean inflating the tender and going ashore, then deflating it and lashing it back onto the deck: we may send a cheque later. Gorgeous calm warm evening with nice sunset. Made some red Thai vegetable curry with (surprisingly successful) boil in the bag rice. Very tasty, if a bit mild despite the extra two chillis I added.

Opened some Dundee cake to ‘have with coffee’ but I’m really looking forward to having it with whisky before bed 🙂

Lovely evening, warm enough to have our red Thai vegetable curry on deck, with some red wine, and watch the sun set.

A typical Scottish evening then!

From Oban to Barcaldine on Loch Creran.