We organised for an engineer, Neil Morrison to come out from Uig on the North of the island. He came ,dismantled the engine, and left in the dinghy with Gordon and the cylinder head in my big IKEA bag.

(Editors note -I wasn’t actually in the IKEA bag, the head was).

A replacement was ordered . However, it’s now the weekend, nothing will be done till next week sometime,  and Neil’s wife was on the cusp of giving birth to their first baby any time now!

Gordon cleaned up all the disassembled parts and flushed the engine through with diesel in preparation of reassembly.

 

 

There was nothing else to be done but get on with daily life on board Camira, that meant going to the laundrette to stop the dirty clothes fermenting in the laundry bag in the bilge and haircuts. Oh, Gordon has now fixed the outboard which should make our many trips ashore a bit easier.

  

We had to make arrangements to get the batteries charged as they had been run flat when Gordon and Tommy were trying to get the engine started that first day.

I made a call to the harbour master and asked if he knew if the RNLI guys had a charger and he thought they did so offered to come and pick us up off the boat with the batteries. Oh, I forgot to mention that we also ran out of gas last night as well, so when Colin the harbour master came to get us we took the gas canister ashore as well to try and get a refill. After depositing the batteries with the RNLI, we found out from Colin that it was a couple of miles walk to get gas at “Jan’s Vans”, I think this is their equivalent to B&Q. I think Colin took pity on us as we walked off canister in hand and so decided to offer us a lift. Everyone in Portree is very obliging.

Next morning, Thursday 9 August, We headed off. We were planning to go to Plockton, it’s seemingly a lovely wee place and Gordon had been there in the 80’s on his motor bike during Scotland’s illustrious world cup campaign. So off we went at about 8am, feeling pretty shattered after our sleepless night but off we went anyway. We were sailing down, heading for the Raasay narrows when two things happened: a pod of about fifty dolphins swam alongside and all around the boat, jumping as high as our foredeck and swimming in our bow wave, it was amazing! Gordon didn’t get to see much of this as the wind died and shortly thereafter so did our engine……. with a whoosh & a bang! With no wind and no power we were now drifting towards a lateral marker with a rock behind it…great, just what we needed. (Ed Note Louise still enthralled with Dolphins at this point even though she might be swimming with them soon!)

 

There was nothing else to do but call up Stornoway coastguard and ask for some assistance from any local vessels. A yacht that was in the vicinity came to our aide and towed us back to Portree, so thank you very much to the skipper and crew of K Vector III.  She was a yacht on a skippered charter and 2 visitors from Germany who thoroughly enjoyed the whole episode. We e-mailed our thanks that night to the charter Skippers  company .

Gordon did all the usual checks and replaced filters, bled system but to no avail. We were on a mooring buoy that couldn’t have been further from the shore, so into the dinghy we went to get some help. Would you believe it, the outboard for the dinghy decided to pack in on us as well so rowing it was, lol. 

Anyway, we got ashore and talked to a few people, and a lovely man called Tommy form the RNLI came out to the boat to help Gordon, he wasn’t even on duty, I think he had just passed by on some other business. They both worked away at it for a couple of hours and were unsuccessful, however they determined that it was most likely the cylinder head gasket had blown and salt water had got into the oil somehow. Not a small job!

Tommy very kindly gave us one of his moorings to stay on FOC, closer to the pier head, right next to the RNLI lifeboat, as it looked like we were going to be here for some time.

Tommy is a fisherman in his day job and has two moorings for his boats. Gordon commented that he thought our boat weighed about 5 tons and would this be ok for the mooring? Tommy’s said with a bit of a grin on his face, he thought it would be ok, his boats are 32 ton!

We were towed there the next morning by George from the RNLI.

 

Wednesday 8 August, off we went for a wee sail up to Portree on the Isle of Skye, just in time for their Highland games.

 

Approaching Portree with bloodied heather

   

Portree Harbour moorings and surrounds

  

This is around the time lots of things seemed to go wrong…

Kick off was at the games. All these big muscle bound men were in the arena thing ready for the throwing of the hammer. All was going well until one of the Polish competitors let the hammer slip just a fraction of a second too soon. WELL, there was this huge gasp from the audience as the hammer made it’s way over to the judges tent where there was this wee lady sitting writing up her notes completely oblivious that she was about to get clattered by this 26lb hammer. First Aid, ambulances etc. were all called and she was whisked away. We heard later that she was ok, it was mainly the stock that hit her, so thankfully not as bad as it looked.

     

That night, there was this boat moored up just along from us called Conmara, from Stornaway who liked to keep his radio (as in Radio 4 and the like) on all night at full volume. In all fairness I didn’t hear it but it kept Gordon awake till 3.30am.

Next night the same thing happened, however we were both kept awake this time. Now, what happened next is not usual boat etiquette, Gordon tried shouting over to get the man’s attention…… didn’t work, he then got his flash light and tried shining it in the widows of his boat….. didn’t work, there was nothing left to do but get a couple of kilos of Jersey Royals out and start firing them at the boat. You would have thought this would get the owners attention, however Gordon’s aim was abysmal, only one bull’s-eye out of the whole bag! We now refer to that night as the ”Tainted Tattie Attack”

 

It’s now Sunday 5 August and we are still in Raasay. Kevin and Alec decided to beat up into the wind to either Loch Gairloch or 5 miles to Portree today.( Turns out it was Portree) We on the other hand decided to stay and see if the weather picked up a bit.

As per earlier post we didn’t manage to get the dinghy out yesterday evening as it was a fairly strong wind against us to row ashore. Although gusty just now, the wind has let up a bit so we plan to get the dinghy out and go see what the Island has to offer. Last night apparently we had a visitor on deck …….an otter came up our mooring rope, the guys on Doucier were watching it.

We could hire bikes just up from the moorings to get about the island a bit better, so off we went, all in it’s about 14 miles long so there and back was about 28 miles, a nice wee bit of exercise.

  

Picking up the bikes and making pals

  

 

 

We cycled up to Calum’s Road which was built by one man many years ago. He built it single handed as after many attempts to get the council to build one. After many empty promises from them nothing was done. He thought if there was a road there it would attract more people back to the island as many had left for other more accessible islands and the mainland. so he set about building it. The road goes from Brochel Castle to Arnish and is 1.5 kilometres long. Not a long road, but let me tell you, it’s in better nick than the road on the rest of the island which was eventually built by the council. A fantastic feat – one man and his wheel barrow and a lot of work. You can read about it in the book of the same name.

  

It’s a fairly hilly route but Gordon just about managed to keep up with me, that is, until he fell off. In his defence, he was going at a fair pelt down a gravel road carrying a bunch of heather in one hand and steering with the other. The heather now sits proudly on the bow of the boat indicating that we sailed round Ardnamurchan point. Gordon is not quite as proud as the cuts and grazes on his leg and arm .

        

Next port of call was either going to be Loch Gairloch or Raasay .  Raasay won the toss. It was N or NE winds of 4 or 5, occasionally 6, so Raasay was not as far to go and also none of us had been there before and wanted to visit.

Leaving Kyle of Lochalsh it was a fairly gentle breeze as we sailed out under the Skye bridge, but as we got on a bit, the wind got up so we had quite a lively sail into Raasay Sound. No mishaps, but one or two “tense” moments in a couple of strong gusts.

 

Skye Bridge and Cammusfearna ( I think I’ve almost spelled it correctly) the cottage where Gavin Maxwell stayed with ,and wrote about Midge the Otter in Ring of Bright Water

    

Under the bridge and up into the Sound of Raasay. Beginning to pick up a bit now.

We picked up moorings in the bay. we didn’t manage to get the dinghy out as it was a fairly strong wind against us to row ashore and a bit lumpy for either crews to visit the others boat. Left to our own devices we had the seafood mentioned yesterday. Kevin and Alec had to make to with tatties and something ! lol but not before completing his exercise routine on the foredeck.

  

Louise preparing on deck due to the swell – didn’t stop her having a wee vino though?

 

I wonder if Kevin knows he’s not facing East ?

 

Another boat joined us later that evening, Doucier . If you look off her stern you will see the dinghy we sold to them earlier in the year. It was brand new and unused but too small we had it inflated in our back garden and they tried it out on the grass. Its a small world, turns out not only the world but also the dingy as well, they sold it on in due course too !

  

Sunset over  Raasay Sound & Skye

Well, here we are again – plans didn’t go as we thought but that’s not unusual in sailing. We stayed on at Lochaline as Kevin and Alec decided to head there instead of Salen. It was good to catch up with them and planned to sail along with each other for a few days. On leaving Lochaline on Wednesday, we then headed to Salen in Loch Sunart. It’s a beautiful part of the country. Salen now has new pontoons which were welcome as it really started to blow up on arrival there. (French boat sunk off Isle Oronsay the same night).

   

   

We had dinner in the hotel up the hill, the name escapes me however, maybe one glass of wine too much. However, it was a good night.

 

 

We left the canal on Wednesday 25^th July and headed out to Askaig Bay which is just before Loch Melfort and just after Croabh Haven. We had a couple of nights on a swinging mooring there and had a nice dinner in the Loch Melfort Hotel one of the nights. It’s a lovely hotel if you are ever passing.

 

 

 

 

The weather took a turn for the worse so we went into Croabh Haven, notwithstanding the West Highland Week racers were coming in the next day.

Did the Laundry but the spin driers were goosed as you can see.

 

 

Next day we bumped into Barry and Sheila from Largs. It was nice to see them and have a chat, yes, you guessed it, over a glass of wine. Sounds like there is a lot of drinking going on, but in actual fact, we have been very abstemious. Anyway, they headed home and we decided to stay there another night. All things considered, it was much quieter than I thought it was going to be given that there were about one hundred racing boats in the marina.

 

Saturday 21 July 2012

Filled up with fuel and set off for Ardrishaig, which is the start of the Crinnan Canal. Cathy, at the Sea Lock told us about the Assisted Passage they were offering through the canal. I thought it would be good to give it a try but Gordon was a bit dubious about it and thought we should just pay for a pilot to help us through, however they insisted that there would be assistance at each lock so we decided to give it a go and made arrangements for that to happen next day. Spent the night in the Ardrishaig basin and had an early night in preparation of our trip through the canal the next day.

Sunday 22 July 2012

Set off in a bit of a rush as Cathy originally said they would take our lines through lock 2 in about 45 minutes, however, ten minutes later she said “right Camira we are ready for you now”. So as usual, we got ready in jig time and set off, not wishing to upset the apple cart. However, we were in with another two boats with huge and I mean huge sterns, which incidentally, they were not very good at controlling. We ditched them after a couple of locks and a few expletives from Gordon in favour of travelling with another two boats. This was much better as one of them was a bit smaller………………….. Then the shenanigans started. The assisted Passage seemed to end from lock 5 to lock 11 and if it were not for one of the other boats we picked up on the way, having four teenagers on board, it would have been a bit of a disaster. Notwithstanding the whole transit was a bit of a trial for us. We had engine failure four times, so, swiftly pulled out the kedge anchor in case we needed to throw it off the back of the boat, thankfully we didn’t but on a few occasions we glided into the locks with no power at all. When we thought it couldn’t get any worse, while in one of the locks, our stern line got snagged on the cleat and the stern of the boat wasn’t going down in time with the water pouring out of the lock. A hasty dive into the cabin for the knife and a swift swipe at the rope by Gordon and we were free. Well, in a manner of speaking, we were then left with the problem that the back of the boat has a will of its own in a lock with another two boats where the owners are frantically trying to hold you off whilst giving you sympathetic looks.

We moored up on a pontoon on the canal but then decided to go into Bellanoch Basin Marina and steal, for want of a better word, someone’s berth as we would have shore power to dry our clothes. Oh yes, I forgot to say it was raining as well for most of the day. We didn’t get settled for another couple of hours as we had visions of the berth holder coming back in and asking us to move. He didn’t and it took till about 21.30 and some Gin for Gordon to start to relax.

 

 

Tomorrow is a pretty awful day, mist and all sorts, so we are spending the day in the canal and having a look at fuel filters and other such things to see if we can sort out the engine problem. Hopefully we will have a good night sleep and feel a lot better than we do tonight. Goodnight from him and goodnight from her.

We spent another two nights in the Canal. We were asked over for drinks to another boat called Rhumor,who had travelled through with us.The owners Lindsay and Terry were very hospitable and we had a nice evening chatting over a glass or two of wine.

Next day Gordon cleaned the fuel filter & bled the system in the hope that it was that that gave us the problems, I went for a run along the canal, yes that’s me in the distance.

 

 

On my way back I spotted Andy Taylor in the Marina, he is the guy who put Gordon through his Day Skipper, so we went along to his boat, Brandy of Troon for a coffee and to meet his wife Brenda.

 

  

Initial Pre-retirement Cruise – 20 July 2012 – to be determined

(Editor’s retrospective note – retitled “Albatross fecking Albatross”)

Well, here we go….setting off on our trip, to where? We don’t know yet,

For how long? We don’t know yet.

All this will depend on the weather and possibly other factors that will transpire as the journey goes on. If only we had known.

We met our friend Ed at the marina to get a rigging instrument that me might need on our travels. It seemed fitting that there was someone there to see us off and wish us well, so thank you Ed, even although that wasn’t the reason you were there. In fact, we offered Ed the chance to come out for a spin in our boat the next day as his usual sailing companion had family commitments; he declined due to dog sitting duties. However, had he changed his mind, he would have found an empty pontoon as we made a spur of the moment decision to head off. So, thanks for seeing us off but sorry for letting you down if you had changed your mind.

We set off at 2.50pm and made our way to Loch Ranza on Arran, but on arrival all the mooring buoys were taken. As the forecast wasn’t great we decided not to anchor but to make our way up to Portavadie which was another two hours away, but hey ho! What’s the hurry, we have all the time in the world now. Arrived there at 10pm and had some delicious trout that Robert had given us. In fact Gordon thought it was the best fish he had ever had. Whether that’s thanks to Robert and the particular trout or my culinary skills in the galley, I’m not sure. (Editor’s note- it was the trout)