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Day 39 Loch Moidart - Loch Aline - Ardfern


I woke up yesterday morning having had a brilliant night sleep, it doesn't always happen at anchor. I think that sometimes I am like a young mother who only half sleeps lest the babies cry. I got up and made some tea and Linda woke who can I say was less than busy tailed. She apparently had been up much of the night fretting about the strong winds that had come in in the early hours of the morning.

We soon left we were heading for Loch Aline, for us this is part of our return journey and our plan to be in Dublin on the 27th for Richard and Charlotte to join us. We had been to Loch Aline before with Nigel and Sally and it is a good choice. When we left Loch Moidart we ran straight into headwinds and so we had to motor out until we were abeam of Ardnamurchan Point. Once we were there we were able to pull out the sails and had a fantastic if somewhat robust sail all the way to Loch Aline.

I never really too any photo's because we had been there before so apologies for that. Linda had a ½ leg of Pork in the freezer so that went in the oven and Sea Rose joined us for dinner. At dinner Nigel told us how his crew had all been up during the night with the strong winds whilst he merely turned over and went back to sleep.

This morning we were to set off for a very small anchorage called Puilladobhrain, it is said to be very pretty with a good pub and a bridge to the mainland which is called "The bridge over the Atlantic" silly really. We decided to press on as twelve miles was not enough and would leave us a very long leg for the next day if we were to keep to our timetable. We headed for a bay near Craobh Haven and we called them twice more to see if a berth was available but they were having none of it. Of all the marinas we have called most have been accommodating and even if they are fully they call us back or take a future reservation, Craobh Haven was blunt. We don't have any space until October.

The sail was thoroughrly unpleasant. The Firth of Lorn was full of horrid chop and the winds were strong and cold, there was nothing to redeem this days sail it has to rank amongst the worst of the holiday. When we arrived at the anchorage it was a lea shore, choppy and rolly and completely unsuitable. This is one of the difficult things in Scotland, wind sometimes follows the mountains on the shore so you are not quite sure in advance what the wind direction will be. We pressed on.

We called Ardfern, we didn't want to go there if we are honest we just wanted somewhere to drop the hook for the night in peace. but it was getting late now and all we wanted to do was tie up. Yes they had a space for us, we were to berth in front of a large white flybridge boat on the outer hammerhead.

We arrived and as we made our entrance the boat in front of us went straight into our berth. aagh. I called them on the radio it was about a quarter to five, they said that they would sort it out and I was to stand by. We circled for ten minutes and so I called them back and was told that they had cleared space at the other end of the hammerhead (Which we could not see) so in we went, quite a tricky berth with a nighty degree turn required to get in past a dog-leg. We were tied up and boy were we grateful.

Sometimes you get days like this, the winds were not strong, the sea was not rough, but added together and coming from the wring direction meant that is really was unpleasant. Hopefully better luck tomorrow as we are heading for Islay.



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