Day 44/45 - Fraserburgh to Lossiemouth to Inverness

Day 44 - Fraserburgh to Lossiemouth  - 13th14th June, 2017

Final look at Kinnaird Head

Fraserburgh had grown on us during our weeks stay but finally we had the right conditions, on paper at least, so we planned to leave at 07:00 for a push to Lossiemouth as we now needed to get on.  We had already put off our guests arrival time at Inverness by a day. 
It was a fairly good day for once.  No dramas at all and I even saw our first whale go across our bow as if to look at what we were.  The swell had calmed down considerably given the horrendous conditions of our last attempt.  What little wind there was on the nose - what else is there?  The tide however never seemed to give us anything once we had cleared Kinnaird Head.  The tidal atlas only gave about 0.5 knots anyway in our favour and I think we were probably too close inshore for it and even may have had back eddies from all the small bays on this part of the coast.

The Entrance to Lossiemouth

Our trip of 42 miles took us about 10 hours in the end and we finally arrived at Lossiemouth with RAF jets overhead practicing some bump landings at RAF Lossiemouth.
The facilities were very good and had a laundry which we took advantage of whilst in the Steamboat Arms for a beer.  It appeared we were the only visitors.   The almanac gave a minimum depth of 1m but where we were in the Eastern Marina at a Low Water of 1.2m we were about half a metre in the soft mud - not really a problem.
Lunar Sea at Lossiemouth

Day 45 - Lossiemouth to Inverness

Again we needed an early 07:00 start because Low Water was at 09:20 and I wanted to be sure we had enough water. The alarm on my phone didn't wake us as the battery had run out!!
I woke at 07:00 with Julia saying it was 9 o'clock, I must have been dreaming as she swears she didn't.  Luckily, somehow we managed to get away in 10 minutes as at one stage I only had 0.5m under us - a little too tight for me on a falling tide, but to delay would have meant problems with tides at Inverness.
During the 33 mile trip we reached our furthest North at 57 degs. 45 mins. (at 3 degs. 20mins West). We had been told that there were Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises in the Moray Firth and to Julia's delight we sighted quite a few Porpoise and 5 Whales, albeit at a distance except once when one came up and blew about 2 boat lengths on our Port side, unfortunately we had been looking forward for it so never managed to get any good photos and only just saw its huge back.

Julia's Weather

There was little useful wind yet again so apart from the stunning scenery it was an uneventful trip.
Mick and Linda Lawrence had travelled up overnight to join us on our Caledonian Canal section and were on the pontoons to greet us when we arrived.  As they had driven up we made use of the transport to stock up with food and drink.

Fort George to the East of Inverness Firth

Approaching Kessock Bridge


Toasting our arrival at Inverness

Beer at Last

Lunar Sea at Inverness










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