Friday, 19 July 2013

Wednesday to the sail back on Thursday 18th July

Wednesday 17th July

Still camped at Kentra Bay as we didn't fancy sailing as weather looked like it was closing in but in the end it remained dry but a lot of low cloud and mist about with the odd warm patch.

Sam and I had a go at fishing off the rocks for mackerel but no luck so we went hunting for worms (very hard to find at Kentra) and tried our luck fishing for trout in the brook that ran down into the bay. I had five fish on the line before finally landing one, it was just a bit bigger than a large whitebait! It was great fun and very relaxing and most of the fleet joined us watching and chatting on the river bank until the midges and horse flies drove them off.

When I eventually succumbed to the last bite from the really vicious horse flies I went looking for muscles instead and picked a bag full on the rocks just along from where we had moored in about 15 minutes, too many for me so I gave the excess to Dave and Julie. I reckon I had them from the rock to cooked and inside me in under 20 minutes. Poached in a bit of red wine with garlic and onion they were delicious!

I dined out in the evening at the Mellors who had invited Kate and I to their tent for chilli, nice to see the in-laws.

Thursday 18th July

Last sail today, set off just after lunchtime as the tide was rising so not too far to roll the boats down to the sea and sailed around to the south entrance to Loch Moidart. Kate sailed us in whilst I navigated, quite testing at times as lots of rocks and narrow channels but we reached the castle near the head of the loch without any problems and stopped for a bite to eat and explore. 

The loch is beautiful with steep wooded sides and rocks and very quiet, just us under sail going out the north entrance until it got a bit too shallow and tricky so we motored for a while to clear the entrance.

The wind dropped unfortunately so we had to motor most of the way back except for a few short sails and one short attempt with the spinnaker for a while. Just us the odd dolphin, seal, gannet and usual passing Manx Shearwater.

We eventually made the beach at Arisaig just after 8:00pm and pulled the boats up above the tide before dashing to the shower and then the pub for dinner. What a difference in weather to last year when we had to put two reefs in at one point.

Friday 19th July

Well that is it, time to pack up and go home, however, a nice end as Sam and I spotted an Otter fishing out in the bay just as we got up and watched it for about 15 minutes before it went into rocks out of sight, our second otter sighting of the trip.

We also met Paul again who we met last year at Arisaig with his "Camel" Landrover and he gave us all a much appreciated pull off the sand onto the hard where we could easily load the boats onto the road trailers to take home. Thanks Paul.

The journey home was long and uneventful in hot sunshine all the way.



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