Lossiemouth to Inverness

Moondog
Brian Whitefoot
Tue 17 Jul 2012 14:49

As the RAF woke up Lossiemouth with the arrival of four Tornados, we got ready to leave for Inverness ( 57:29.5N, 004:14.0W), by going  to the harbour cafe for bacon sandwiches. My nephew Thomas also arrived from Aberdeen to join us for this last day on the east coast. We could afford a leisurely morning, since we wanted to arrive at the entrance to Inverness Firth around 5pm at slack water, and then have the tide with us through the Kessock Bridge into Inverness. In truth the tides were not too bad here and it did not make much difference what time we left, but this was as good a plan as any.

The trip was very pleasant, and as you work down this last piece of the Moray Firth you really feel that you are moving inland as the Firth narrows. To our great surprise we were also blessed with a reasonable amount of sunshine.  As we approached Fort George and the entrance to Inverness Firth we lost all wind, but at this point the trip basically turned into a mini safari as we drifted as close as we dared to the big deserted beaches near Fort George to look at the seals basking on the sands. Memories of the Essex and Suffolk coast as we drifted along in 2.5 metres of water. It was worth it though as the seals all came out to investigate ; so long as we kept quiet they seemed happy to just watch us drifting by.

When we were not watching the seals we were joined by Dolphins jumping around and swimming under the boat, and we continued to see Dolphins all the way into the marina. Adrian was the official wildlife photographer, and hopefully I will be able to post some of his  proper pictures shortly, but in the meantime I have attached some of the pics showing us surrounded by puzzled seals.

The trip down Inverness Firth was very pretty, and in still water we had great reflections of the surrounding countryside in the water. It was then just a case of going under the Kessock Bridge and turning left into the marina.



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