Although the forecast is not good, John and Fionn decide that it's good enough to venture out onto the open sea again. More forecast bad weather evaporates as they head west towards Skye but again it's a very tough leg to reach picturesque Portree and then make their way further south along a very grey coastline to Mallaig. But there's still little prospect of the weather improving...have the boys used up all their good fortune already?
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19/32 Stornoway to Mallaig - the weather relents for Shark Bay
What’s on then John?
We’ll it’s just gone six on Saturday morning. We’d been expecting a 4-6 - 4-6 to 7 was forecast, but it’s looking really calm here. There’s minimal wind, all the flags that were really stiff in the breeze are just hanging limply - a little bit of a flutter. So we’re gonna head off to Skye hopefully before this 4-6 or 7 kicks in. It’s a couple of hours - we’re gonna head west - so we always planned to go anyway but it would be following us. But if we get a nice calm ride over that would be even better. So, off to Skye.
Well that was one hell of a crossing! Just tucked in under the cliffs at the very north end of Skye now and we’re sheltered from the wind. When we left Stornoway it looked pretty calm, but as soon as we got off the shelter of the island we got the full force of the 4-6 wind that had been forecast and was definitely there. And all the way every wave - on the beam here, on the starboard beam - for much of the crossing every single wave would just come in right over the side. So we’re tucked in now, probably about half an hour from Portree which is our destination at the moment, but I’m actually gonna go and get changed and have a nice hot cup of tea before we carry on, because I’m cold!
This is what you need after a rough early morning sea-crossing - bacon ‘n’ egg.
Well we’ve landed at Portree on Skye and just been up in town and had some breakfast - stocked up on a few things at the co-op. We’ve been thinking about staying here but in fact it’s very early in the day still - it’s still only about half 10/11 o’clock. We’ve been around the town, seen it - so we thought we might roll on. The weather is… patchy. At the moment it’s sunny and looking nice but even while we’ve been in here there have been some squalls, rain showers coming through. So it’s gonna be a bit of a mixed bag as we go south, but we’re gonna roll on and see what we can see through the islands.
In fact all around these islands around the Scottish islands is great for cruising. Plenty of little harbours you can put into - if you want to moor in a quiet loch it’s gonna be all yours. Plenty of facilities, and wherever you are you can always get shelter from the weather - apart from the rain, nothing shelters you from that! But apart from that, you can always get shelter from the wind and the waves and enjoy your cruising. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re on the eastern side now, the weather’s coming in from the west - nice calm cruising.
We’d hoped to take a shortcut through the narrow channel between Skye and Scalpay that seemed from the charts to be possible.
We’re ridiculously shallow here - we’ve got less than half a metre below the hull, so…
You’ve got shallower to go as well!
Bravery being the best part of valour, or whatever it is - sensibility being the best part of valour - I don’t know - we’re gonna turn around and go back round the outside of the island - if we can find any water underneath our soles to do it in.
Picking up the weed!
Well it was worth trying to see if we could get through anyway, but lesson learnt!
Just beyond the Skye Bridge, which links the island to the mainland, was Kyle Harbour where we planned to top up our fuel tanks again.
Just been to Kyle Harbour to get some more diesel - just a top up really… and no diesel today! The guy’s in Inverness. Couldn’t get him on the radio, rang his mobile and he’s in Inverness, so no fuel. Although it’s only 20 miles down in Mallaig, so we’ll make it, no worries.
So the last leg of the day - a run to the fishing port of Mallaig were, the pilot guide told us fuel and marina facilities were available.
11 дек 2011
