We looked at the weather for the coming week and to avoid getting another on the nose journey we decided to travel most of the way to Inverness, anchoring in Rosemarkie Bay. It looked to be a good day for sailing at least until the wind died just after lunch. We woke to blue skies and it was warm. We left the harbour a 10am and set the sails as soon as we were clear of the rocks at the entrance. We could nearly point in the direction we wanted to go as well which was a bonus. We had a sudden increase in wind strength after about an hour and soon had 3 reefs in the sails, (F4 had been predicted), but no sweat the sea wasn’t too rough and we were making 8-9 kts. We had two separate sightings of whales, probably minkies.

At Tarbat Ness the wind died to nothing in the space of half an hour and we motored for the rest of the way. There seemed to be seals all over the place, popping their heads up from time to time for a look around. We reached Rosemarkie at 5.30pm anchoring in 3 metres of water about 150 metres from the beach. Almost immediately a wind sprang up blowing directly onshore. This wasn’t in the forecast and I was soon checking the forecasts, which had changed, to see if we needed to move. As it turns out it is going to be uncomfortable for a few hours but then as per the original forecast of offshore wind. Hopefully this will be before we go to bed.

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