Day 17 Barra - Loch Boisdale
We only went to Loch Boisdale as it is one of the few places where you can fill up without resorting to jerry cans. With Northerly winds and a resistance to night sailing from my crew, we had used a lot of fuel on the way up and now needed a top-up which was a shame as I didn't want to use all the cheap fuel we had bought in Guernsey but that's the price you pay sometimes. We had intended to stop just the one night before continuing our journey up the Outer Hebrides. However after arrival the weather forecast for the coming week looked terrible.
We had been warned that the hotel was not a great place to eat but we decided to go fort a stroll and just have a drink. It was quite sad, the town is very run down and yet it has the Rolls Royce of a marina and a ferry port. We arrived at the hotel and the "bar" was really just the hotel lounge, it was old crumbling and rather lovely like a worn out pair of favourite slippers, it has definitely seen better days. On the wall was a frame and in it was an old advert for the hotel. It turns out that the hotel owned the rights to all the best sea trout fishing and anyone can shoot on the moors free so if you wanted to fish in South Uist you had to stay in that hotel and grand it would have been in its day. It is a sad sight today and if someone had the money to invest… Today the fishing rights have been split off from the hotel and not the hotel is well run down. Whilst in the hotel we were joined by another couple on a boat called Annika and they were both Edinburgh University geology lecturers.
This morning we awoke to more bad weather with rain and strong winds so we decided to stay put another day. We took advantage of the fuel supply and filled up which was a bit of a mission because the fuel station was supplied from some piles so I have to make a fender plank and then park the boat backwards onto the sport we had come out of. We had a bit of an audience but it went well. Being a big boat people always watch, I think that they think that a big boat with just two on board is bound to crash, but honestly if you see some people trying to manoeuvre in marinas you have to wonder why there are not more insurance claims.
That evening we were joined by Sandy and Merryweather from Annika who came for a drink on board.
We plan to go to Tobermory tomorrow and thence to meet with Nigel and Sally who will be exiting from the Caledonian Canal on Thursday having sailed over the top of Scotland and entered the Canal on the other side, well done Nigel and Sally.
We had been warned that the hotel was not a great place to eat but we decided to go fort a stroll and just have a drink. It was quite sad, the town is very run down and yet it has the Rolls Royce of a marina and a ferry port. We arrived at the hotel and the "bar" was really just the hotel lounge, it was old crumbling and rather lovely like a worn out pair of favourite slippers, it has definitely seen better days. On the wall was a frame and in it was an old advert for the hotel. It turns out that the hotel owned the rights to all the best sea trout fishing and anyone can shoot on the moors free so if you wanted to fish in South Uist you had to stay in that hotel and grand it would have been in its day. It is a sad sight today and if someone had the money to invest… Today the fishing rights have been split off from the hotel and not the hotel is well run down. Whilst in the hotel we were joined by another couple on a boat called Annika and they were both Edinburgh University geology lecturers.
This morning we awoke to more bad weather with rain and strong winds so we decided to stay put another day. We took advantage of the fuel supply and filled up which was a bit of a mission because the fuel station was supplied from some piles so I have to make a fender plank and then park the boat backwards onto the sport we had come out of. We had a bit of an audience but it went well. Being a big boat people always watch, I think that they think that a big boat with just two on board is bound to crash, but honestly if you see some people trying to manoeuvre in marinas you have to wonder why there are not more insurance claims.
That evening we were joined by Sandy and Merryweather from Annika who came for a drink on board.
We plan to go to Tobermory tomorrow and thence to meet with Nigel and Sally who will be exiting from the Caledonian Canal on Thursday having sailed over the top of Scotland and entered the Canal on the other side, well done Nigel and Sally.
-
Sandy came prepared.