Pure Magic
PROGRESS
Andrew and Hilary Clark
Thu 2 Jul 2009 21:56
|
57:24.7N 06:11.07W
We are now berthed in Portree, the main town of
Skye, on its east coast opposite Raasay.
We left Tobermory yesterday on another windless
morning with a glassy sea. Rounding Ardnamurchan Point, we passed the islands of
Muck and Eigg, with Rum towering above them in the distance. The pilot books are
full of dire warnings about the requirements on boat, crew and equipment for a
vessel venturing north of Ardnamurchan. As we motored on, I had the sense that
the benign conditions we were enjoying were a siren's call, luring us further
from home, where some future tempest could taunt and punish us for our
recklessness. And so it might.
Our planned passage took us through the narrow, and
very tidal, Kyle Rhea. As we did not have time to complete the journey on that
tide, we looked for somewhere to await favourable conditions. We turned off the
Sound of Sleat, and entered an anchorage behind a small rocky island, described
in the pilot book. These anchorages present an interesting challenge; many (like
this one) have numerous half-tide rocks that you need to thread a course
between, non of which are marked, and the charts are based on ancient surveys
undertaken long before the pin-point accuracy of GPS and the like. We made it,
and anchored in total shelter and perfect peace.
We have been struck repeatedly by the scale of
the nature hereabouts. Huge tracks of country and mountain lie untouched
and unspoilt by man's interference, with infrequent and isolated signs of
habitation. Where there are signs of human endeavour, such as the fish farms,
they are dwarfed by the surrounding landscape. The backdrop to our anchorage was
a mountain soaring 546 meters above our heads. As we sat in the cockpit with an
afternoon cup of tea, three young seals detached themselves from the group
inhabiting one of the off lying rocks, and swam past the boat to play rough and
tumble in the shallows. In the evening, when the seals and then elders had
departed to go and raid one of the nearby fish farms, young deer came down to
feed on the lush vegetation at the water's edge. And the evening light provided
and everchanging kaleidoscope of patterns on the mountains and sea. And all the
time the silence sounded a crescendo of peace. Just pure
magic.
 This place was called...........no, on second
thoughts, I will keep it to myself.
This morning, the seals were back, and looking well
fed. 
So we set off to complete our passage here. Up through Kyle Rhea, past the Kyle
of Lochalsh, and under the Bridge to Skye. Just as we were about to enter the
narrow passage south of Raasey to come here, a torrential rain and thunderstorm
descended on us from the hills above, and for 10 minutes we were in a complete
white-out. Even the radar was swamped by the intensity of the deluge. As it
clearded, there in front of us was a tug towing a barge! A taste of things
to come? |