Caledonian Canal ( 56:50.5N, 005:07.5W)

Moondog
Brian Whitefoot
Fri 3 Aug 2012 11:17

Sunday

Sunday got off to a good start with Martin and me taking the hire car back to the Europcar office at the Inverness Thistle Hotel, ( best regarded as a hire car depot only), and walking back in torrential rain. Fortunately we had adopted Scottish operating procedures and had taken full waterproofs with us for this simple task, and so returned to the boat smug and dry. We even managed to buy a Sunday paper, which the shop keeper double wrapped in two plastic bags as a matter of course; obviously this rain was not unusual.

We waited for a dry interlude before fuelling up and leaving the marina, heading the short distance down the Firth to the Caledonian sea lock. As we approached, and were told by the lock keeper to wait for 15 minutes whilst he set the lock, the heavens opened, mist came down and we were hit by a 20 kt squall. No real drama, but definitely outside the parameters set by my crew, and generally considered fairly unacceptable weather. A little bit of interest approaching the sea lock when it was ready, with a stiff breeze behind us....no idea how they did this in the days of sail. In our case we had the luxury of reverse to slow us down in the lock, and the lock keeper also left nothing to chance.

 I sensed that the lock keepers had long ago decided that this was not a place for the normal game and general hilarity of asking a boat crew to throw their line up to the keeper...invariably without success. This is then repeated endlessly until, by sheer fluke, the crew / muppet finally gets the line up to the keeper. In the case of the sea lock, with wind blowing boats in, the lock keeper simply drops down to us a rope thick enough to hold the Queen Mary, and we secure it to a stern cleat...easy. Obviously there is some form of gentleman’s agreement not to disclose this obvious and simple technique to any other lock keeper on the canal system, since that would of course greatly reduce the amusement, and indeed the job satisfaction for the other keepers.

Once in the lock, the weather improved, and we had sunshine for the brief trip through a couple of swing bridges and into Seaport Marina for the night. A total trip of 2 miles, and all crew were accounted for ....I counted them when I left and I counted them all at the end. At this rate we should be through the Canal just before the winter shutdown.

 

Monday

A sunny day! We were to learn that forecasts are pointless in this part of the world, and from this point on we had a mix of hot sunshine and heavy showers, and very little wind. More or less what the crew had ordered.

The day started with the crew expressing disappointment over the inability to make toast for breakfast, so they disappeared for supplies and came back with a toaster. They also lost one of their number on this epic short walk to Curry’s, but I am bound to silence as to the identity of said crew. In any event, it is a moot point who loses whom in a team of three....., it was good to remember that it is very difficult to get lost on a canal. One crew member also attempted a nautical chat with a very experienced lady sailing back from Norway, volunteering that we were on a Sirius 75, which brought forth great respect and admiration. I felt that this poor lady was not going to take notice of anything else we said when she saw us stumbling around in our Sirius 32

After the team had regrouped and all were accounted for (my respect for Miss Jones taking junior 3 out on a trip has increased enormously...), we set off through a few locks and along the canal. Disaster.....the crew discover that a toaster requires mains power and we have not got a lead long enough to keep plugged in whilst chugging down the canal. Toaster now gets put back in its box and the only place to put it is in the safety equipment locker. The amended safety briefing is now ‘ when abandoning ship, open safety locker, first remove toaster and throw overboard, then get grab bag and flares......’.

To our collective surprise we arrived safely at the Dochgarroch pontoon mooring and tie up without incident.  We then had an excellent meal at the small restaurant in the local post office and met an American family having a great time touring Scotland, but lamenting their current hotel.....the afore mentioned Thistle / car hire depot.

Back to the boat for nightcap and bed, and still not lost anyone.

 

Tuesday

Sunshine for a motorsail down a still Loch Ness....more or less precisely as the crew had ordered.  We had a delightful lunch stop on a small pier in a quiet bay, even having to use a tree for a mooring point...very Baltic!  One of the crew expressed concern that our leisurely lunch would delay us going up the Fort Augustus lock flight, and we might miss it for today. I reassured the inexperienced crew member that this was not possible since they closed for lunch, and as it was only 1.30, we would be at Ft Augustus by 2.45 with bags of time before the canal shut at 6pm.

Oh dear....arriving at 2.45 pm we are told that we have missed the last locking up and the next one will be at 8.30am tomorrow. It appears that the preparation for closing at 6pm begins just before 3pm; how silly to have missed this obvious point. A most unpleasant period for the skipper then follows as we hover on the edge of mutiny. Skipper’s authority and aura of knowledge of all things maritime irretrievably shattered.

Anyway, Ft Augustus is a nice place to stay, and the fish and chips are excellent.

 

Wednesday

8 am, and lock keeper arrives to share with us that a big cruise ship that arrived late last night will take precedence through the locks, so it is going to be mid morning before we start. Brilliant....and the concern now is that this might clash with the preparation for the lock and bridge keepers lunch break at 12.30.

At last, at around 10am we are starting to climb up the lock flight, and the heavens open. Absolutely drenched, and then motoring down the canal in pouring rain....lovely. However, the weather gradually improves, and we moor up at Gairlochy in bright sunshine. This turned out to be a very pretty mooring, and was shaping up to be a very quiet one as well until a hire boat seen earlier arrived, with what seemed to be two extended Italian families on board. At least they did not crash into us as they moored.

We also got an insight into the reserved / dour Scottish character, after spotting a very unusual junk rigged yacht being refurbished along the pontoon. I wandered up to have a look and was looking forward to a chat with the owner ...there had to be a good story about how this junk rigged vessel found itself in Gairlochy, and it was obviously being prepared very thoroughly for blue water adventures. The conversation was brief.....’ Is this a junk rig?’ I enquired with interest, ‘Aye’ was the response, as the owner went inside to carry on his work.

 

Thursday

A sunny morning, and plenty of time to get to Bennavie at the top of Neptune’s Staircase locks, our destination for today. So we decided to spend the morning going back into Loch Lochy and just sailing around in the gentle airs to admire the scenery. Very pleasant and much approved of by the crew.....we rarely exceeded 3.5kts and full sunscreen was required.

What to do for lunch? Then we spotted a hotel on the shore, with a sign pointing to the hotel ‘marina’...this was for us.  Creeping into a bay we finally see a jetty, with no decking, and in uncertain depth. We crept in and tied up to the open beams of the ‘jetty’ and took stock. Lady crew members decided that the balancing act required to walk the open lattice work of beams was not worth the possible prize of lunch. Male crew were more motivated by the certainty of beer, so walked the crazy jetty and made our way into the hotel grounds.

Our amble along the leafy paths was soon interrupted by the sound of gunfire, getting louder as we approached the hotel entrance. The gardener saw us and asked where we had come from. Upon being told we were moored at the jetty he looked at us in disbelief, and volunteered that we were obviously hardy mariners. We took this as a compliment, but did not feel as hardy as the gunfire increased in intensity and volume.

Finally we found ourselves on a terrace in front of the bar, where a group of chaps were firing shotguns out over the loch, whilst others dined amidst the cordite smoke drifting over the terrace and into the bar. Having survived this far we were intent on our beer, and asked the lady at the bar if it was possible to buy a drink, to which she laughed and carried on with her business of taking flowers into another room. Against a backing track of gunfire we ordered from the next girl to appear behind the bar, who was from Eastern Europe and seemed to be suffering some cultural flashbacks triggered by the gunfire, and was barely able to comprehend our order for beer. Asked about the gunfire she just looked nervous and opined that it was ‘new’.

Flower lady reappeared and assured us that it was just clay pigeon shooting.....but we could see no clays and heard no shouts of ‘pull’. Basically they were blasting the seven bells out of the empty loch, and we could only hope that someone was looking out for passing boats....one of which would soon be ours. Having quickly drunk the beer we made a quick exit...so quick that I managed to walk into a closed patio door, mumbling apologies as we ran away.

Back on the boat we had a nice lunch whilst we recovered, and even saw some guys from the hotel come down and look at us moored to the jetty of death......I suspect that we were the first to do so for a long a time, and perhaps the only ones to escape.......

Once back in the Loch we retraced our steps carefully across the newly discovered firing range, back through Gairlochy and up to Bennavie, where we moored for the night. It was ironic that the closest Moondog had come to getting hit by ordnance was on a remote loch, rather than all the firing ranges of the S Coast. The next crew, Cathy and Michael, were staying in a B&B right next to the mooring, so this was a very convenient changeover.

This was the end of the ‘non sailing crew’ leg, and I counted them all again to be sure they were all present and correct for delivery to the taxi.

Friday

This was an uneventful but relaxing day, descending the Neptune’s Staircase flight of 7 locks in the sunshine, and then making our short way to Corpach Basin where we moored for the night before taking the first lock opening out of the sea lock into Loch Linhe on the Saturday.

We dined at an old hotel in Corpach which had seen better days. Very friendly, but very spooky, with a dining room, viewed through a murky window,  set for breakfast for 50 people, but no one was around. Perhaps it had been set like this for the last 10 years....The owner / barman/ cook /waiter organised fish and chips, which were actually rather good, and we ate them alone in a bar which could have been out of a 50’s movie set.

 



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