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Foreign

Scotland 2014 – Part 3

By Sheetar 24 July 2014 23 July 2014

Day 8, June 3:
Got up around 7am, had breakfast on the boat, then departed from Fort William around 8:30. Made it to Gairlochy locks at 9:30am. We were apparently the first folks through the Moy Swing Bridge since the lock tender cranked furiously to get the bridge open for us. Pretty neat to see that work. We made it to Laggan Locks by 11:30am and made a quick stop to drop recycling before heading on through Laggan Avenue, a beautiful pine tree lined section of the canal. I had some time to relax and knit since we had sailed this way before and I knew what to expect. We hit Cullochy Locks at 2:00 after a short stop at the Great Glen park to have lunch at their pontoon. The morning’s rain had mostly stopped by the time we were far enough from Fort William and it was shaping up to be a really pretty day. From what we heard from others, it ALWAYS rains at Fort William, so our experience was pretty well average. We also stopped at the Well of the Seven Heads again (it’s a pretty spot to tie up) where we were greeted by two swans and a batch of cygnets! Papa swan was having nothing of our being there and demanded bread from the boat. He almost didn’t let Doug off the boat since they were right up against the stern with their cygnets – there was some hissing and lunging involved. We made Kytra lock at 3 and took our time getting to Fort Augustus by 3:30. Doug made a spectacular parallel parking job (at the end of the time lapse below), and the boat behind us was so impressed that they recruited Doug to help with locking down. The Lisa, the large sailboat behind us, had a crew of four seniors (pensioners if you’re British), and Doug was more than happy to lend a hand for such a lovely vessel. We met the crew later for a pint or two at the Lock inn and hung around with them till about 10pm. A great time!

Day 9, June 4:
Got up early to catch a shower before the facilities filled up. The shower facilities at Fort Augustus stink like wet sheep, but are still usable. No other facility was quite as clean as the Gairlochy facility (except Caley’s marina), so I was a little bit spoiled I suppose. We did a little backtracking this day because we had made such great time to Fort Augustus. We took our time getting going in the morning and got underway around 9:15am. Made it to Kytra Locks at 9:45 where we saw Linda again and got another gold star for proper life vest use. Went through Cullochy at 10:45 after a short wait for another boat coming through. Stopped again at the Well of the Seven Heads for a rest and a snack then turned back around to Cullochy Locks where we stopped and got out to see the Bridge of Oich. We went through the lock at 1:30, then made it back through Kytra by 2:30 where we stopped to set up a little barbecue lunch with a single-use barbeque tray. The lock tender’s dog was pretty interested in what we were doing and came over for some head scritches. We made it back to Fort Augustus and went right down through the locks, having made it just in time for an opening. Going back down that staircase is definitely quicker than going up. We tied up at the bottom at 5:30, took a walk, had a pint at the Lock Inn, then it was back to the boat for a Doug-cooked meal, fajitas!

Day 10, June 5:
We slept in a little, but were up for breakfast by 8:30 and pulled away from the pontoon at 9:30 into a drizzly, foggy, but very calm Loch Ness. Loch Ness is probably one of the longer segments of the trip, so we only made it to Urquhart Bay Harbor at 12:30. We stopped there to make lunch and then we were back off into the fog at 1pm. The fog was finally starting to lift a little, but it had gotten pretty chilly. It was still raining when we made it to Dochgarroch Lock at 2:30. Shortly after leaving Urquhart Bay Harbor, we picked up two stowaways – two Mallard ducks had flown over and landed on the roof! We fed the very friendly ducks a slice of bread and they hung around with us for about an hour, preening and drinking rain water off the roof before flying off. After Dochgarroch Lock was the Tomnahurich bridge, and then we slowly sailed back into the Caley Cruisers marina. A crew member came out to refuel the boat, then we tied up and were all settled with the bill by 5:30pm. Made dinner, packed up, and relaxed for the evening.

Day 11, June 6:
Got up, had breakfast, and handed the keys to the boat back over. The VERY kind staff at Caley Cruisers offered to take us to the train station which was really VERY nice of them! We hopped a train at I think 9:45am and took the four hour trip back to Edinburgh. Pretty uneventful train ride, and we were both kinda bummed to be leaving such a great week behind. Back in Edinburgh, we took a cab to the Grassmarket Hotel (it was MUCH warmer in Edinburgh and neither of us were interested in walking with our big backpacks. The room wasn’t quite ready at the hotel, so we had a pint at the White Hart Inn, and then got settled in our room. The room was a lot smaller than the previous room (three sides of the bed were flush up against the wall), but it really didn’t matter since we were just going to be sleeping there. Headed off to see about finding some whisky to bring home (two half-liter bottles in addition to the Ben Nevis 10). The shop keeper even let Doug fill his own bottle out of the casks lined up on the wall. Walked around a bit since we hadn’t seen much of the other side of Edinburgh beyond the train station, and ended up at the Cloisters again for dinner. Back to bed early since our flight was supposed to be at 8am.

Day 12, June 7:
Woke up to get ready for our flight when Doug realized that the flight had been delayed two hours. Instead of rushing to get ready, we took our time, had breakfast at the bar next door, and settled up with the hotel at a leaisurely pace. Hopped a cab, and made it to the airport with plenty of time since the flight had been delayed further – the inbound flight was late, so the departing flight on the same aircraft was running behind. We finally boarded and headed back home, sad to leave such a great vacation behind.

Final Thoughts
We had some lessons learned on packing and grocery shopping that I’d like to share in case anyone reading this is looking for tips.

Things to Pack:

a deck of cards
clothes pins for hanging towels up
binoculars to help sight buoys and wildlife
a flag to represent your country or persuasion of piracy
male to male headphone cable for your mp3 player to plug into the jack on the stereo
inverter for the cigarette lighter port on the dash

Things we forgot or almost forgot to buy first round included paper towels, tissues, salt and pepper, sugar, cream, tea, and coffee. Keep a journal or ship’s log! It helped me go back and write up the blog posts and is just a fun way to remember what happened over the trip, even if it’s just a few lines about how neat the Moy Swing Bridge was or how far you travelled that day. Don’t plan too much – the bridge/lock openings don’t run on any sort of schedule and it works best to take them as they come and not worry about time. We had PLENTY of time to get there and back and could’ve even taken longer getting out to Fort William with no problem. Overall? I’d do this again in a heartbeat! I didn’t at all like the one big Caribbean cruise we went on (too much structure, too little to do on the boat in between ports), but this really had the right pace of sight seeing and relaxation time. Too much relaxation time (like at an all-inclusive resort) is SO ANNOYING to me – I like to go-go-go and see everything there is to see, but at the same time those go-go-go vacations never really feel like a vacation once you get home. This felt like a vacation and, I keep saying it, but it was really just the right mix of time to relax and running around seeing the sights. We’ve already started looking at taking boating holidays in other places around the world since this seems to be a pretty popular thing to do in Europe and there are a bunch of no-license-required waterways that allow novice boaters to have at it. So, that was our Scotland vacation! Can’t wait for the next one.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Foreign

Scotland 2014 – Part 2

By Sheetar 3 July 2014 24 July 2014

Before starting the section on the cruise of the Caledonian Canal, I wanted to add in a little overview of the canal and our boat. The boat we took was the Isle of Skye, a 34 ft cruiser with one bedroom. I’ve seen smaller apartments, so the size worked out just fine, even if Doug’s feet hung off the end of the bed (he’s also really tall, so his feet hang off the end of most beds). Our cruise was along the length of the Caledonian Canal, built by Thomas Telford, completed in 1822. By the time it was completed, the railroad had largely taken over and boats had gotten too large for the canal, so it was pretty much useless as its intended purpose for commerce. Today, it’s used only for pleasure craft, full of hire boats, cruises, kayakers and canoers as well as hikers who walk the towpath. It was a 60 mile journey for us from the Caley marina to Fort William. We didn’t do the locks on the ends to go into the Atlantic Ocean or North Sea since both ends involve a long flight of locks and aren’t included in the boat hire agreement.

Day 4, May 30:
Got up and had breakfast at the hotel (included in the cost and always a great breakfast). Gathered our things and got a cab to the marina which was pretty close by, but quite the hike with bags and across some busy roads. Checked in at the marina with Caley Cruisers earlier than expected, so they got us started right away on the overview video which goes over the route including some of the tricky spots to navigate as well as basic safety procedures. They’re really proud of the video and it does a great job of explaining things for the novice boater (me). Husband is a captain on a rather large boat currently off the coast of India, so navigation is nothing new to him, but that particular vessel was, so he paid attention to the handling instructions (turning to port, using the thruster, etc), and I paid close attention to the instructions for the lines and locking procedures. After the video was over, a staff member took us over to the Co-Op to get groceries for the week. The fridge on the boat is about the size of a college dorm fridge, so it wasn’t quite enough for the whole week’s groceries, but enough to get us to Fort William. We kept it pretty simple – sandwiches, pasta and sauce, a seasoned/ready-to-cook chicken package, and bacon and eggs for breakfast. We did plan on cooking on board most of the trip with an occasional meal out. Once we got back and got everything settled on board, they brought Bob over to run our handling and on-board safety briefing way earlier than expected which was SO nice. It was really great to be able to set out earlier rather than wait for everyone else to show up and leave as a group. Bob was a captain on a tanker ship, so he was immediately comfortable with Doug and instructed me to untie and Doug to grab the helm and take us out. As we motored down the short bit of canal before the first bridge, Bob gave us instructions on speed, RPMs, the depth of the canal, passing other vessels, etc. We waited a few minutes for the bridge to open and motored on through, then Bob had Doug execute a turn in the narrow canal which went perfectly. I then got instructions on how to tie up using their preferred method and tied the boat up alongside the dock at the other side of the bridge. Bob called the office to be picked up, we signed some paperwork saying we were properly briefed about lifejackets, safety procedures, handling, etc, and we were left to go on our way to the first lock! I have to admit, even if Doug was not already a licensed captain, I’d still feel really comfortable about taking the boat out with just two of us on board. Doug got out our Captain and First Mate hats (he’s a nerd, in case you didn’t know yet) to make the trip official. With Bob back on land, we untied and headed up to our first lock, Dochgarroch lock and after a short wait because the lock tender was at lunch, we went through without a problem. Sailed through Loch Dochfour and then into Loch Ness. The day was beautiful and sunny, and Loch Ness was like glass – completely still and tranquil. It’s apparently not a common occurrence, so we took advantage of the day to stop at Foyers and hike up to the falls. Caley Cruisers only allows stops at Foyers during good weather, so we were given the thumbs up when we dropped off Bob. The hike was pretty long and steep, but it was GORGEOUS even though Scottish Hydro had reduced the falls that day to a mere trickle. The view out into Loch Ness was stunning too. Hiked back down and cruised the rest of Loch Ness. We had Fort Augustus in our sights and arrived at about 6pm. Tied up, took a nice walk around town, had dinner on the boat, a little whisky, and then settled into bed.

Day 5, May 31:
We had breakfast on board again and had a bit of a wait in the morning to start our way up the 5 locks. We finally got going around 10:30am. After going under the bridge, we went through the first lock on the boat as usual and then got out to tow the boat up on foot. Our instructions per the lock tender were that I was the carrot in the front, and Doug the mule at the back. The person at the back does the majority of the pulling, and the person up front steers, keeping the boat parallel to the lock walls. It was a busy morning, so the lock was packed with sailboats and other hire boats. I even remembered to put the Little Cyclops camera on the railing so we have a neat time lapse of our journey through the locks!

After we were at the top of Fort Augustus, having answered a ton of questions from curious tourists and heard an earful about the importance of Scottish Independence from a lock tender, we motored off to Kytra lock which was a pretty tall step up. The lock tender there is named Linda and she handed out gold stars for proper life vest use. Shortly after Kytra was Cullochy Lock and then the Aberchalder Swing Bridge which we sailed under with plenty of room. We made a short stop at the Invergarry Castle ruins at 3pm. The ruins are right by the dock, so it was just a short walk. Back on the boat and another stop at the Well of the Seven Heads to grab a few supplies at the store there and see the monument. Heading onwards, we sailed through Loch Oich and then under the Laggan Swing Bridge. We arrived at Laggan Locks at 4pm for a small step down – the locks had all gone up until this point. Then a short sail through Ceann Loch and Loch Lochy, and we made it to Gairlochy Locks at 6pm to tie up for the night. We really wanted to hustle and make it to Fort William that evening, hence the short stops, but the hold up in the morning at Fort Augustus really set us back. It wasn’t terrible since the view at Gairlochy was beautiful! The mountains were still covered in snow and the air had a pleasant chill after a long day in the sun. It was definitely getting colder, the further on we went. Not parkas-and-mittens cold, but throw-on-a-fleece cool. Also worth noting is that the facilities (showers/bathrooms) at Gairlochy were IMMACULATE. I’m almost glad we stopped here for the night instead of blazing through to Fort William because it really was serene, and we got to watch a group of hikers brave the cold water of the canal for a swim. They didn’t last long, and there were a lot of high pitched squeals at the temperature of the water. Dinner and a show!

Day 6: June 1:
We were up early and ready for the lock tender who let us through first thing at 8:30am, and through the bridge there as well shortly after. We sailed right on by the Moy Swing Bridge (the only original bridge remaining, still needs to be hand-cranked open), and made it to Fort William at 10am. The early start definitely made up for the prior day’s delays! The stopping point is at the top of the Banavie locks, near Fort William, not directly in Fort William, so in order to get into town, you need to hop the train (which is what we did for £4.20 for the two of us) or call a cab. The train really only runs through that stop a few times a day, so even if it’s cheaper, it’s not incredibly convenient. It was Sunday, so not a lot was open, but we had time to burn walking around the town. Had lunch at the Grog and Gruel which was a little overpriced, but wild boar burgers, so I wasn’t complaining. Great selection of cask ales too! It started to drizzle, so we headed to Morrisons to grab groceries for the rest of the week, and then hailed a cab back to Banavie ( £9, really not bad). Found the lock tenders and hooked up power for the night, refilled our water tank. Had a few Strongbows and took in the scenery – the top of Banavie locks is a really pretty view of the Nevis range, even with the drizzle. The rain did let up, so we took a LONG walk to try to find the Tor Castle ruins. We never did find them, but we did find a passageway under the canal – it lets rain water flow under the canal and even has a roadway fit for cars! Really an incredible feat of engineering when you think about just how large the canal is.

Day 7: June 2:
We got up at 7am and had breakfast while it POURED rain. We grabbed a cab for the Ben Nevis Distillery and made the 10:30am tour. It was a great little tour, and yet again, we were told how important it is that Scotland gain its independence since the British tax on whisky is something in the neighborhood of 80 pence per pound sold. It was sort of interesting how vocal the guide was about the topic given how controversial the subject seems to be. The whisky taste at the end was delightful and we decided to bring home a bottle. By the end of the tour it had mostly stopped raining, so we took the foot path to the Inverlochy Castle ruins. The path continued on to the heart of Fort William and since the weather was nice, we went ahead and walked into town. Had lunch at Crofters which was really affordable and good. Even met a woman from California who sat at the table next to us. Finished lunch and a chat with the Californian and went over to the train station to see about seats for the Jacobite Steam Train. We had checked online the day before and it seemed to be sold out, but the site said to show up since they may have tickets available to purchase that day, cash only. Sure enough, there were TONS of seats available and the train was hardly full at all. The train ride was two hours to Mallaig with a short stop at Glenfinnan. There wasn’t a whole lot to do at Mallaig once we arrived there, and it happened to be raining again. We did stop for a pint at the Marine Bar and Doug had fish and chips at Jaffy’s which he proclaimed to be the best he’s ever, EVER had. We hopped back on the train after the almost two hour stop at Mallaig and arrived back at Fort William at 8pm (remember, it’s still broad daylight at 8pm). The whole trip was beautiful, seeing the hills roll by, the Glenfinnan Viaduct, sheep, lakes, brief glimpses of the coastline. Stunning. And, a great way to spend a sort of gloomy, drizzly day. We grabbed a few more necessities at Morrisons and then hopped a cab back to Banavie for our last night in Fort William.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3