Day 75 Sunday 29th July Tobermory to Inverie, Loch Nevis, again!

Vega
Irving & Cate Benjamin
Sun 29 Jul 2012 00:26

At 0830 I slipped the berth, leaving Cate to doze, in heavy rain which looked set in for the day, heading for my final rounding of Ardnamurchan Point (are you sure I don't get extra sprigs of heather for that?).  The wind was 12-18k from the NW, so once round the point I was able to sail for the next 4 hours under Genoa alone, making a steady 4-5+knots. The rain abated somewhat from time to time, but nonetheless by the time we picked up a visitors mooring in Inverie Bay it was in a fairly heavy downpour, and not conducive to a dinghy ride ashore.  I had called ahead and booked a table for 2000 at the Old Forge, so we waited as long as possible before setting off for shore, our full oilies over our going out clothes. The pub was already busy, with traditional music in full swing (fiddles, squeeze box and bodhran), and we stripped off the wet outer layers and found a table (and a pint of Raven Ale, and one of Beck's Blue).  After a meal so generous we could hardly finish it (venison carpaccio, mussels, scallops) we sat back and enjoyed the craic.  I could not resist joining in after a while, found the Old Forge's guitar and sat in with the group, now expanded by a young woman with guitar, a snare drummer with more enthusiasm than sense of rhythm, a lady fiddler and two girls with ukeleles! While I was playing, Cate was fighting off the attention of  drunken locals, and replenishing my supply of Raven Ale!  The song and music went on until who knows when - we left at 0030.  We had neglected to bring a torch, so had some difficulty finding our dinghy and getting safely aboard, but at least we had remembered to leave an anchor light  (my new LED lantern) on Vega, so we knew where to go. The outboard started well, and stalled half way over, so it was fortunate that it was a dead calm night and easy to paddle the rest of the way home, the phosphorescence in the clear water sparkling round the paddles. We retired happy after another memorable Old Forge night.

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