Fort William

  

Pushed on today as wind, tide and golf all aligned. Timing and planning is everything in this game. Today the tide and wind were set fair for 3pm. This left a morning 'golf spot' as Sam was quick to point out. As it happens, and as with the last course, on Arran, it was a stunning walk. Got a ferry back from 0ban to Kerra then spent an hour trying to fix something before, finally, leaving at 4 pm. 

Sailed 34 miles to Fort William. Saw seal lions, several dolphins a whales spout. Dramatic, dark and moody scenery. Great sail. Arrived quite late (9ish) and had to tie up to a grotty old harbour wall next to the entrance to The Caledonian Canal. The problem with this was that we'd arrived at high tide and, as the tide goes out, the boat goes down and the ropes get tighter. Question is 'how long do you leave the ropes ? ' Bear in mind that, if you get it wrong, the deck gets pulled out. Long night for me. 

As we touched 8.5 kts  past amazing scenery and with howling winds and Alexandra Louise shouldering the waves and in her stride,  I made the mistake of answering a blocked number on my mobile. Dunno why I answered because Ive made a point of not. Its 'my holiday' but I've had 3 calls from different people from Lloyds Bank in 5 days so thought that this may have been something fresh. Silly me. Of course it was  Emma, a new name, from the bank. The exact reason for Lloyds Bank having such an interest is not that I am a stockbroker. It is because my redundancy money has just gone in and the bods at he bank are trying to earn a bit of commission by selling me 'something' on the basis that they are helping me. Their dilemma, I suspect, is how to capture me before I have blown my loot on diesel, scallops and whiskey. They will need to move fast ! Today's blog has suffered inevitable delay because I fell asleep, looking at a harbour wall with ropes like iron bars. I've also had a 'full on morning'.