#lochness – 4 Kidneys and a Wonky Leg

Day 81 18th July. It’s a hot one!

Jul 19, 2022luffin21 Comment

The day started with a flat calm after a very quiet night at anchor in Urquhart Bay. After breakfast we gently motored off past the beautiful Urquhart castle that even at 10 o’clock in the morning was teeming with visitors. Heading down the Loch towards Fort Augustus, we were in no hurry and there were very few boats about to disturb the view.

There were a few interruptions to the peace and quiet as a pair of jets screamed down the glen at low level.

We did spot someone, presumably a sponsored swimmer with a support boat making their way up the loch, rather bravely straight up the middle. I know you can drown in a puddle but this person had 700ft of water below them!

Just as we were thinking of stopping for lunch a bit of a breeze sprang up. A nice opportunity to sail in good conditions, so lunch was eaten on the move, as we raised the sails and turned the engine off. The wind was coming straight up the glen so it did involve a few tacks to get us to Fort Augustus. Well thirteen actually.

Such a difference to 5 weeks ago when we were bashing into 40 knot winds on a murky grey day.

Mooring up on an almost empty pontoon, we strolled into the village and found a small bar/restuarant “The Boat House” overlooking the end of Loch Ness and as mad dogs and englishmen in their various boats came past in the midday sun, we relaxed with a few drinks under the shade of a tree.

It was too hot to do anything energetic for the rest of the day so we relaxed at the boat, reading and chatting.

The pontoons had filled with boats during the course of the day. I’m guessing it’ll be a busy day in the locks tomorrow with no guarantee when we will be able to move on.

Day80, July 17th, Around the world in 80 days.

Jul 18, 2022Jul 18, 2022luffin21 Comment

Philias Fogg made a wager of £20000 to travel round the world in eighty days and of course he won his bet surmounting many challenges along the way. When we started this trip there was no such wager in place, but there was a target for the amount of money we might raise for our chosen charity, the Wessex Kidney Patients Association. We hope that by the end of the Journey in Sept that target of £1000.00 will be reached or even better surpassed. Please share this blog far and wide.

Nuff said. Today we were up early ready for todays trip into Loch Ness. We blagged our way into the first Loch up of the day which was not until nine thirty, with us were four Norwegian boats.

It was first time through the lock flight for all of them, so having done this once before we were the “experienced ones”. We were put in first, not the best position, as the front boat gets all the turbulence from the water gushing in and sure enough it wasn’t good, the boat was pushed around badly and the crew struggled to keep it under control.

There were a couple of large commercial tourist boats in the canal sections which were a bit of a squeeze to get past. Two more swing bridges and a lock later and we entered Loch Ness. The wind either goes up or down Loch Ness and today it was up, straight on the nose as usual, between 25-30 knots. Still, there was only 6 miles to go so we plodded on while the Norwegian boats set sail.

We anchored in 3.5 m of water close to a small wooden jetty, and over the course of the afternoon and evening the wind died to nothing.

It was a lovely quite warm evening as we watched the sun go down before bed. On to Fort Augustus tomorrow!

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The Wessex Kidney Patients Association is a charity that helps patients and their families deal with the upheaval caused by Kidney disease. If you enjoy reading our blog please consider giving to this cause . Many thanks Louise & Martin

Day 44. 11 th June. Loch Ness on a bad day.

Jun 12, 2022luffin22 Comments

We’d anchored overnight in Urquhart Bay, and as a belt and braces measure, I downloaded an anchor watch app to my phone and tablet. I was pretty sure we weren’t going to drag but there were some big winds forecast overnight.

Thankfully no alarms went off, we didn’t move and we both slept soundly. In the morning we reviewed the weather and decided to leave early for Fort Augustus about 12 miles South West of us. That decision turned out to be a bit of a mistake! As we came out of the lee of Urquhart Point, there was an 18 knot wind on the nose and a small choppy sea, The speed went down to 5 knots increasing our passage time to about 2 and a half hours, more or less what we expected, so no problem. Well five hours later we arrived at our destination having experienced steadily increasing winds, a nasty 40 knots for most of the last hour. Out to sea such winds would have kicked up very big waves, fortunately in the confines of the loch just a moderate choppy sea. Oh and did I say it was raining for much of the time, so visibility wasn’t great either.

On the bright side, we’d still arrived in time for lunch.

We also have an explanation for the depth soundings. Our depth gauge for some reason starts again at 200 meters, so if it’s 207 meters deep It will say 7 meters. Bit odd but there it is, not the thermocline, not Nessie, just odd electronics.

Day 43 Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness exhibition centre.

Jun 11, 2022luffin21 Comment

Last night I had gone to bed early, as I had not slept well the previous night and was dog tired. I went out like a light, only to be woken by Louise telling me there was a lifeboat alongside. WHAT! Blurry eyed I poked my head up through the hatch, were we drifting, sinking, in a dangerous place? Evening gents said I, anything wrong? To 4 blokes in yellow drysuits and crash helmets. No one replied, just admiring your boat. Oh right O, I’ll go back to bed then, I said, to muttered apologies for the disturbance.

The day broke sunny and calm, but with a forecast of showers later in the day. We had booked tickets to go to Urquhart Castle at 9-30. As we were arriving by dinghy, we were met by one of the castle stewards. As we chatted, we asked about the depths we’d experienced the day before and he said there were no under water undulations and couldn’t explain it.

We spent about 2 hours touring the castle and had a cake and coffee before heading back to the dinghy, where we were met by another steward who asked about our “unexplained anomaly” clearly our story had got about the staff. This chap seemed to know his Nessie stuff and suggested we should go to the Loch Ness exhibition centre to talk to Adrian Shine, (probably the worlds authority on Nessie). This seemed a bit extreme but having come all this way it did seem a good idea to at least visit the Exhibition which we did. A very good and thought provoking place, most of which debunks the idea of a real Nessie, and reveals the deliberate hoaxes, and explains at least some of the misinterpreted photo’s that have appeared over the years. Adrian had gone home, so we didn’t manage to talk to him.

We found out that other boats have had similar experiences and although there is nothing proven it could be an effect caused by the thermocline (a layer in the water that separate warm and cold water) deceiving the depth sounder. We’ll stick with Nessie, it’s more fun.