The weather went a bit pear shaped on us in Portree.
You might remember we went there with the purpose of picking up a pilot book so as to head out to the Outer Hebrides. Well, that never happened. There was a gale forecast a couple of days later and had we gone out that way we would have been stuck there for a fair bit of time.
I know there are worse places you could be stuck but when you go out that way your only choice of overnighting is by anchoring. This could also have been ok, but it wouldn’t be my first choice in that kind of weather. So, all change, we decided to make our way back “again”, but this time with the intention of going to some of the other Islands I haven’t been to before. Well, not quite true, I have been to them, just not sailed to them.
We left Portree and had a great sail back to Mallaig, a nice force four all the way. It’s quite a sight sailing under the Skye Bridge, past Eilean Ban where Gavin Maxwell lived with Midge the otter and wrote Ring of Bright Water.
We only spent one night in Mallaig before going to Salen again.
Kev cleaning Krystal’s Gel Coat
Editor’s Note nice to see the skipper taking his turn, I remember it was usually me
We were meeting up with our friend Kevin who was out with Steve, his friend from America. We stayed in Salen for three nights to allow the gale to pass. Not that it lasted that length of time, but after that kind of wind the seas are pretty rough so it’s best just to sit tight for a day or so to let things calm down. Steve had to get back to N Ireland so he left us on the Monday and the rest of us decided to make our way there as well via Kerrera (again), Jura, Islay and then Rathlin Island, my 1st sailing footfall to Northern Ireland.
While in Salen, Gordon got his fishing rod out. Now to let you understand, Gordon it the type of person who kills nothing, flies, spiders, any kind of beast, we even have a boat spider that I have to live with. I think he has a bit of the Buddhist Monk about him. Anyway, here he is catching a mackerel.
He was just about to let it go however, I think if you go to the bother of catching it you must eat it, there the problem begins, I certainly couldn’t kill it but equally so neither would Gordon. There were a couple of men at the end of the pontoon also fishing so I ran along and asked one of them if they could come and kill it for us….…how embarrassing. Anyway he did, Kevin gutted it and we had it with some lemon juice and salad as a starter that night ……..delicious.
