Day 31 Arisaig - Loch Nevis
Yesterday we got up quite late after a very peaceful night at anchor in Arisaig. I worked for most of the day as I need to place orders on Mondays and after raising orders they start bouncing back at me with amendments as so many of the items are obsolete and superseded. Modern technology is wonderful and with our boat "wifi" and digital telephones I was able to raise orders, answer customer phone calls and speak to suppliers. It is not the ideal way to spend a holiday but it is a small sacrifice to enable us to go on this great adventure.
In the evening we ate the claws of the monster lobster, it was so huge that it would have been gluttony to have eaten so we had saved them. They were delicious and Linda produced a wonderful salad to go with it. Later we were treated to our first sunset of the holiday, how magnificent. For most of the holidays we have either been in the shadow of large mountains or it has been cloudy.
There is bad weather on the way so I have booked a berth in Mallaig from Wednesday, the bad weather is actually due on Thursday but the weather is so changeable we decided it was better to bag a place early. There are few places of refuge here, most places are exposed from on direction or more and without local knowledge it is tricky. In the sailing instructions an anchorage that is open only to the north carries the warning not to anchor there in strong southerly winds. It is very unsettling when you don't know the area. So today we are heading to Loch Nevis for the night it is only four miles from Mallaig
We have booked a buoy from the "The Old Forge Inn", it has terrible reviews, the owner is it seems can be very moody and he has fallen out with the whole village and such is the state of things that it is reported that they are trying to buy him out to get someone else in, anyone in fact! We have to go! The reports of the food are very good but also expensive.
We had been at anchor for a few day so splashing out on a meal is okay particularly as the mooring is free with a meal, so let's have an evening entertainment and see what all the fuss is about. Our depth sounder had stopped working on the way into Arisaig so I had decided to retrace our track using the wonderful Antares charts on my iPad. The only problem was that to get out we had to wait for the tide and that meant waiting until 5pm and The Old Forge stops serving food at 8pm.
We pulled up the anchor and set off, soon the depth sounder came back into life at almost the exact same point where it has died so I have concluded that it cannot measure the depth when over soft mud. We left without incident and arrived at Loch Nevis in just about the right time 19:20. The loss of my wide angle lens has deprived me of some fantastic photographs of the most outstanding landscapes. I am hoping the Fuji will soon fix it.
We arrived at the restaurant and were welcomed and taken to our table. The owner was absolutely fine, he immediatly offered us aperitifs which we declined but said we wanted a bottle of wine, he seemed happy with that. My reading of the situation is he doesn't like people penny pinching when they take spaces in his restaurant. The restaurant is styled as the remotest [sic] restaurant in Britain and I can understand the locals annoyance that they can't come in and get a bite to eat because there is nothing on the menu less than £20 and there are no other places to eat.
Linda ordered the venison stew, which frankly was a disappointment but I had fillet steak which was wonderful. We both had desserts and all was fine until we went to pay the bill.The owner who was now eating his own dinner had charged us £5 for sparkling water from his "gun" i.e. carbonated tap water. It left a sour taste so we took the philosophical view and didn't leave a tip. had we not been charged £5 for tap water we would have left a 10% tip, so he shot himself in the foot, but we had a nice evening.
In the evening we ate the claws of the monster lobster, it was so huge that it would have been gluttony to have eaten so we had saved them. They were delicious and Linda produced a wonderful salad to go with it. Later we were treated to our first sunset of the holiday, how magnificent. For most of the holidays we have either been in the shadow of large mountains or it has been cloudy.
There is bad weather on the way so I have booked a berth in Mallaig from Wednesday, the bad weather is actually due on Thursday but the weather is so changeable we decided it was better to bag a place early. There are few places of refuge here, most places are exposed from on direction or more and without local knowledge it is tricky. In the sailing instructions an anchorage that is open only to the north carries the warning not to anchor there in strong southerly winds. It is very unsettling when you don't know the area. So today we are heading to Loch Nevis for the night it is only four miles from Mallaig
We have booked a buoy from the "The Old Forge Inn", it has terrible reviews, the owner is it seems can be very moody and he has fallen out with the whole village and such is the state of things that it is reported that they are trying to buy him out to get someone else in, anyone in fact! We have to go! The reports of the food are very good but also expensive.
We had been at anchor for a few day so splashing out on a meal is okay particularly as the mooring is free with a meal, so let's have an evening entertainment and see what all the fuss is about. Our depth sounder had stopped working on the way into Arisaig so I had decided to retrace our track using the wonderful Antares charts on my iPad. The only problem was that to get out we had to wait for the tide and that meant waiting until 5pm and The Old Forge stops serving food at 8pm.
We pulled up the anchor and set off, soon the depth sounder came back into life at almost the exact same point where it has died so I have concluded that it cannot measure the depth when over soft mud. We left without incident and arrived at Loch Nevis in just about the right time 19:20. The loss of my wide angle lens has deprived me of some fantastic photographs of the most outstanding landscapes. I am hoping the Fuji will soon fix it.
We arrived at the restaurant and were welcomed and taken to our table. The owner was absolutely fine, he immediatly offered us aperitifs which we declined but said we wanted a bottle of wine, he seemed happy with that. My reading of the situation is he doesn't like people penny pinching when they take spaces in his restaurant. The restaurant is styled as the remotest [sic] restaurant in Britain and I can understand the locals annoyance that they can't come in and get a bite to eat because there is nothing on the menu less than £20 and there are no other places to eat.
Linda ordered the venison stew, which frankly was a disappointment but I had fillet steak which was wonderful. We both had desserts and all was fine until we went to pay the bill.The owner who was now eating his own dinner had charged us £5 for sparkling water from his "gun" i.e. carbonated tap water. It left a sour taste so we took the philosophical view and didn't leave a tip. had we not been charged £5 for tap water we would have left a 10% tip, so he shot himself in the foot, but we had a nice evening.
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Loch Nevis - I needed a wider angle lens! -
The Old Forge Inn ahead.