Day 47/48 - Caledonian Canal - Inverness to Fort Augustus
Day 47. Inverness to Caledonian
After a couple of days at Inverness it was time to enter the Caledonian Canal. It would prove to be helpful to have extra people on board and Mick, Linda Lawrence and Pauline Farrance had joined us at Inverness. Mick and Linda had come by their own car overnight and Pauline had taken the overnight Caledonian Sleeper train, which would eventually sway us to use it ourselves later on.
It is a short 2-3miles trip to the entrance of the Caledonian from Inverness Marina situated at the mouth of the river Ness. I was advised to call up the 'Sea Lock' Lock Master before leaving the shelter of the Marina so that we could get a slot into the Sea Lock and to avoid waiting outside with what can be some strong currents. Advise taken, I called up the Lock Master on channel 74 and we were given a 13:30 lock opening to come in with 2 other boats. Timing is critical as we had to enter, book in and exit the lock to coincide with a railway swing bridge opening just after we left the first Sea Lock. Unfortunately, the third boat in our convey had lagged behind and so the lock was closed and he had to wait about and hour and a half for the next one. A lesson that we should remember during our passage but in actual fact all the Lock Keepers seemed more than happy to help where they could we were to find out.
Booking in couldn't be any easier. We were told that the minimum 'Licence' for the Canal was 8 days and this would cost £20 per metre and that if you wanted to extend this there would be no problem. You just paid up at the exiting Sea Lock (in our case this would be Corpach at the Fort William end).
This licence covered you for all the moorings in the Canal except the occasional ones that were privately owed. A few of these would offer you an overnight mooring if you had dinner in their restaurant for instance. All was included except electricity, if you were lucky to find some at £3 per night. All the lock were manned (in some cases Lady Lock keepers) from 8 in the morning until 6 pm so timing was prudent and sometimes helpful if you found an empty 'reserved member allocated berth' you could be fairly sure they would not be returning until at least the next day as they were the wrong side of a lock somewhere outside these times. In most cases the Lock Keepers would be able to tell you in any case. We given a key for all the facilities along the Canal.
I had had 2 new 'deep cycle' batteries delivered in the morning which I had time to fit to our domestic systems so hopefully that would fix our loss of voltage after such a short time of use. At one point during our adventure, without our engine running, I could only run our navigational electrics for 2 1/2 hours before the loss of voltage started to trip out instruments thus making us run the engine on most occasions. Hopefully, these new batteries would give us a long extension to this. On overnight testing later on this did seem to work properly again and hold voltage for a much longer period.
We now had plenty of time on our side so for the first night we tied up just before Dochgarroch Lock having travelled only about 5 miles and ready to do Loch Ness the next day. This was through the Sea Lock; under the Rail swing bridge; under the Road swing bridge and through the 4 flight locks at Muirtown and under a second road swing bridge at Tomnahurich. Unfortunately, Mick in has eagerness wanted to go for a swim in the second lock at Muirtown. This was trying to throw our Stern line up to the waiting Lock Keeper. It did cause a little worry at the time but luckily only his pride was hurt. We were leaning the hard way about these locks and because we had a compliment of 5, in the future, 2 of us (Mick and Linda usually) would go ashore with our Bow and Stern ropes and walk along with us tying up to the hooks ashore and holding on as the lock filled.
The fun part was watching all the hire boats trying to do with a crew of 2 what we were now doing quite comfortably with our 5. We were to find out that for a lot of these hire boat people it was their first time doing this sort of thing and the Muirhead flight of 4 locks was there first experience of it and I believe, with very little instructions when they picked up their holiday boat. It must have been a daunting task for them but luckily the Lock Keepers were usually on hand to help.
There was not much at Dochgarroch although a chap and his wife did stop us for a chat. He was originally a member of Margate Yacht Club and recognised the RTYC flag and stern markings on Lunar Sea. He used to run a Piano shop in Canterbury and now runs 'Loch Ness Pianos'
Day 48. Loch Ness
This part of the adventure through Loch Ness was supposed to be our highlight. The forecast was for wind SW 3-4 occ.5 and a bit of drizzle, the same for the next 2 days. We should have known this was going to be wrong. How wrong, we would soon find out. After going up the one lock at Dochgarrock there was a short delightful trip along the canal at Lochfour into the Eastern end of Loch Ness. It was like launching the boat off Broadstairs on a bad day. Wind was on the nose having been funnelled down the 22 mile Loch, where, because of the fetch, it had built up quite a lot. I gave it about an hour, do we turn back or carry on? Urquhart Bay was about 7 miles away and hopefully offered a bit of shelter. The forecast reckoned on the wind dying down by 6 pm. With the forecast the same for the following day it made sense to press on to Urquhart Bay. The wind was at least 20 knots and the gusts in the high 20's, at one stage we recorded 34 knots and this was supposed to be a nice calm sail in Loch Ness, not force 8! We eventually made the Bay after three hours of tacking, quite close to shore at times, but still in over 40m depth. The Bay was, luckily for me, as predicted and virtually flat calm whilst the Loch could be seen 'boiling away' with the sight of 'white caps'. We found a mooring buoy, tied up to it and decided to make dinner early and wait for a departure at 18:00 for the run up the remainder of the Loch to Fort Augustus some 15 miles away.
The day was becoming calmer, less white caps in the Loch, however the sun was becoming less inter-dispersed with the drizzle as we left the calm of the bay. The conditions had improved considerably but still 12-15 knots, the sea had reduced and so we could make about 5 knots towards Fort Augustus. The rain or probably very low cloud, we renamed 'Scotch Mist' and it stayed with us for most of the remaining trip.
It was a real shame that the weather, in particular the Scotch Mist had been with us most of the day as the promised view had not been there for us only on the few occasions when the sun came out between the rain clouds. We were thankful to arrive at a pontoon about 21:00 and wander ashore for a pub. There was one called the Loch Inn which we were keen to find but as it turned out 'the Bothy' did exactly what we had hoped for. After the rowdy youngsters had left at last orders the barman literally bolted back the window shutters and locked the front door - I think we had all deserved this.
After a couple of days at Inverness it was time to enter the Caledonian Canal. It would prove to be helpful to have extra people on board and Mick, Linda Lawrence and Pauline Farrance had joined us at Inverness. Mick and Linda had come by their own car overnight and Pauline had taken the overnight Caledonian Sleeper train, which would eventually sway us to use it ourselves later on.
It is a short 2-3miles trip to the entrance of the Caledonian from Inverness Marina situated at the mouth of the river Ness. I was advised to call up the 'Sea Lock' Lock Master before leaving the shelter of the Marina so that we could get a slot into the Sea Lock and to avoid waiting outside with what can be some strong currents. Advise taken, I called up the Lock Master on channel 74 and we were given a 13:30 lock opening to come in with 2 other boats. Timing is critical as we had to enter, book in and exit the lock to coincide with a railway swing bridge opening just after we left the first Sea Lock. Unfortunately, the third boat in our convey had lagged behind and so the lock was closed and he had to wait about and hour and a half for the next one. A lesson that we should remember during our passage but in actual fact all the Lock Keepers seemed more than happy to help where they could we were to find out.
Booking in couldn't be any easier. We were told that the minimum 'Licence' for the Canal was 8 days and this would cost £20 per metre and that if you wanted to extend this there would be no problem. You just paid up at the exiting Sea Lock (in our case this would be Corpach at the Fort William end).
This licence covered you for all the moorings in the Canal except the occasional ones that were privately owed. A few of these would offer you an overnight mooring if you had dinner in their restaurant for instance. All was included except electricity, if you were lucky to find some at £3 per night. All the lock were manned (in some cases Lady Lock keepers) from 8 in the morning until 6 pm so timing was prudent and sometimes helpful if you found an empty 'reserved member allocated berth' you could be fairly sure they would not be returning until at least the next day as they were the wrong side of a lock somewhere outside these times. In most cases the Lock Keepers would be able to tell you in any case. We given a key for all the facilities along the Canal.
I had had 2 new 'deep cycle' batteries delivered in the morning which I had time to fit to our domestic systems so hopefully that would fix our loss of voltage after such a short time of use. At one point during our adventure, without our engine running, I could only run our navigational electrics for 2 1/2 hours before the loss of voltage started to trip out instruments thus making us run the engine on most occasions. Hopefully, these new batteries would give us a long extension to this. On overnight testing later on this did seem to work properly again and hold voltage for a much longer period.
Exit from Inverness Sea Lock
We now had plenty of time on our side so for the first night we tied up just before Dochgarroch Lock having travelled only about 5 miles and ready to do Loch Ness the next day. This was through the Sea Lock; under the Rail swing bridge; under the Road swing bridge and through the 4 flight locks at Muirtown and under a second road swing bridge at Tomnahurich. Unfortunately, Mick in has eagerness wanted to go for a swim in the second lock at Muirtown. This was trying to throw our Stern line up to the waiting Lock Keeper. It did cause a little worry at the time but luckily only his pride was hurt. We were leaning the hard way about these locks and because we had a compliment of 5, in the future, 2 of us (Mick and Linda usually) would go ashore with our Bow and Stern ropes and walk along with us tying up to the hooks ashore and holding on as the lock filled.
The canal towards Dochgarroch - River Ness on Left
There was not much at Dochgarroch although a chap and his wife did stop us for a chat. He was originally a member of Margate Yacht Club and recognised the RTYC flag and stern markings on Lunar Sea. He used to run a Piano shop in Canterbury and now runs 'Loch Ness Pianos'
Day 48. Loch Ness
Eastern entrance to Loch Ness
This part of the adventure through Loch Ness was supposed to be our highlight. The forecast was for wind SW 3-4 occ.5 and a bit of drizzle, the same for the next 2 days. We should have known this was going to be wrong. How wrong, we would soon find out. After going up the one lock at Dochgarrock there was a short delightful trip along the canal at Lochfour into the Eastern end of Loch Ness. It was like launching the boat off Broadstairs on a bad day. Wind was on the nose having been funnelled down the 22 mile Loch, where, because of the fetch, it had built up quite a lot. I gave it about an hour, do we turn back or carry on? Urquhart Bay was about 7 miles away and hopefully offered a bit of shelter. The forecast reckoned on the wind dying down by 6 pm. With the forecast the same for the following day it made sense to press on to Urquhart Bay. The wind was at least 20 knots and the gusts in the high 20's, at one stage we recorded 34 knots and this was supposed to be a nice calm sail in Loch Ness, not force 8! We eventually made the Bay after three hours of tacking, quite close to shore at times, but still in over 40m depth. The Bay was, luckily for me, as predicted and virtually flat calm whilst the Loch could be seen 'boiling away' with the sight of 'white caps'. We found a mooring buoy, tied up to it and decided to make dinner early and wait for a departure at 18:00 for the run up the remainder of the Loch to Fort Augustus some 15 miles away.
Urquhart Bay from our mooring later in the day
Urquhart Castle
The differing views of Loch Ness
It was a real shame that the weather, in particular the Scotch Mist had been with us most of the day as the promised view had not been there for us only on the few occasions when the sun came out between the rain clouds. We were thankful to arrive at a pontoon about 21:00 and wander ashore for a pub. There was one called the Loch Inn which we were keen to find but as it turned out 'the Bothy' did exactly what we had hoped for. After the rowdy youngsters had left at last orders the barman literally bolted back the window shutters and locked the front door - I think we had all deserved this.
Scotch Mist on our Spray Hood and Scotch at the Bothy
Comments
Post a Comment