Sailing Loch Ness 17 2 17 (10) 25 1 21
Yeah, after another 2 years I still didn't own a sailing boat but now
younger son P was about to graduate college whilst older son S had had his
graduation sail and had left Europe for pastures new in Japan: and with
children if you do something for one you'll need down the road a bit to do the
same for the other one, only in this case it was the other two because younger
son P already had a partner for life in J his steady girlfriend...
So the next voyage was to be on another of Britain's inland water-courses: the Caledonian Canal which divides Scotland into two halves between Fort William in the south and Inverness in the north, thus rendering west coastal fishing waters accessible to fishermen from the north east without the need to sail the much longer route round the North Coast. A successful hire on this waterway would also give me sufficient sailing experience to be able to hire my next boat off-shore so the law stood at the time, but this predated a change which required all skippers of offshore vessels to prove their competence via sea trials and examination.
But now I hired an RCA 29 footer with 2 cabins plus shower/bathroom to accommodate in reasonable comfort our crew of two couples, my wife A-E with me in the main cabin and P and J in the bows, with the bigger attraction that we should get to sail on Loch Ness, Britain's biggest inland lake of maybe 25 miles length and up to a mile wide.
Picking up the boat at the northern end of Loch Lochy on a Saturday
afternoon we didn’t travel far the first day but got to grips with
understanding the rudiments of its slab reefing system, use of two accumulators
for electrical power and so on, fortunately mooring just north of the pick-up
point so that if anything remained unclear we could next day return for more
advice, what in point of fact actually happened when we ran into difficulties
with the electrics... But we were soon on our way proper negotiating the
various stretches of canal between Loch Oich using the engine and delaying the
hoisting of her sails until we reached the expansive Loch Ness on the third
day. The fun began though with the descent of the flight of 5 locks (?) onto
the southern opening of Loch Ness in the town of Fort Augustus because this
operation in all would take something like 1½ hours, and if one reached the
first locks whilst boats were ascending from the other direction you could add
up to another 1½ hours.
The fun comprised a British Naval vessel an enormous launch perhaps 20
times our size with lots of young seamen aboard who during the 1½ hours' descent
entertained themselves chatting to our lady members of crew, so much so that
when at last we arrived at our destination we were all ready to moor up for the
night with the whole of the 25 mile loch to sail next day, with the advantage
of having all amenities of the town on hand for our evening’s entertainment,
including the Locks Inn with a ample supply of fine Scottish beer. So it was
decided we should celebrate this evening with members of HMS’s Navy, at least
some of the younger members who were reservists taking their annual holidays as
part of the ship’s company… Fun for me too for at the time because I also was
attending night school to gain my Seamanship Navigation exams as these young
men: with a couple of the guys coming aboard our yacht for a night-cap plus the
singing of the odd sea shanty or two!!
Next day then we put to sea in relatively calm weather at the southern
end of Loch Ness whereupon I rigged full sail, only to realise that the loch
would soon change course to lie SW – NE, that is in the direction of the
prevailing wind which turned out to be rather like being in a wind tunnel on
our starboard tack with lightly falling rain too, well keeled over as the wind
took us strongly in hand when son P turned to his Da and uttered the words: ”doesn’t
seem much like a holiday..!”, when his Da just kept quiet but thought “at the
price I have just paid for the hire I am sorry but you are just going to have
to lump it!”
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