Tarbat Ness to Inverness

 

It was a day of variable weather as a succession of fronts passed over us, or we passed under them. Some of them were classic warm fronts with the wind backing in front of them and veering behind. Sometimes the wind shifts let us sail our course, sometimes they headed us. We needed what wind there was to make time to get to the tidal gate at the Chanonry narrows so we went further south than the track

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One of the intermediate stops we had thought about was Cromarty. We really wanted to get straight to Inverness but it didn't sound very inviting anyway. According to visitmyharbour they charge flat rate £20+ which is expensive for a small boat like Robinetta and have no facilities. They don't make enough money to afford to dredge and their own website says they are acting as though they were in administration. Other 'features' are the heavy oil industry works in the firth. As we passed by, the latter was the main visible feature. By now, the wind was slight and on the nose so we furled the jib and centred the main.

 

South of Cromarty Firth the ness that Fort George stands on comes out to form an end to the Moray Firth. The sun was getting lower and we just caught it on the fort. Five minutes later it was in shadow. It was a huge barracks, full of troops to maintain the authority of the Hanoverian monarchy. The channel here is buoyed to mark the Riff Bank. We could see that we had already missed slack water and the tide was running out. One day after neaps we were not too worried, but glad we were still at the start of the ebb. As we turned south we got a favourable westerly wind and gained a knot by setting the jib. At the point the tide was pushing quite hard west and getting round we dropped to less than 3 knots, I looked carefully at the chart to try to find a way to sail - it would be a long trip under motor only against that tide. It looked like we could turn into the bay between Fortrose and Avoch and then get some wind crossing back south again later. As we cleared Chanonry Point the wind came in from the south west and gave us 4.4 knots all the way along the bay!

It was full gloaming by now and the sunset over Fortrose was stunning. There were about ten yachts on the Chanonry Sailing Club moorings. It looks like a lovely place to keep a boat. At the other end of the bay a single yacht was at anchor outside Avoch. It looks like a great place to anchor to wait for the Caledonian Canal sea locks. From Avoch onwards we needed to be careful. The Inverness Firth is shoal except in the channel and it was getting moderately dark. The half moon and the remains of the sun made things quite clear. That time when the lights on the buoys are clearly visible but there is still light to see by is really helpful in a strange place. We turned on the port and starboard running lights and our anchor light - our 'steaming' light configuration and put on life jackets. The last thing we needed was to step off the boat and miss the pontoon in the dark, but if it happened, I wanted all the chances we could have.

Out of the bay the wind dropped and we stowed the main and the jib and brought in the bowsprit. We were going much more slowly now but making progress towards the Kessock Bridge. We needed to do a dog-leg to avoid a shoal and got confused by red and green lights which we eventually decided were on the bridge. The red aircraft warning lights on the top of the bridge didn't help either as they made strong reflections on the water. Ignoring the distractions we turned where Mr Garmin told us to and then made for the green on the south shore. From there it was OK to head towards the central span of the bridge.

Under the bridge the channel markers for the River Ness were clear. The Clyde Cruising Club recommend giving the first red a 50 m offing and that worked well to get us into the river. The Marina opened on our port beam before we knew it was there. In fact it isn't there on our plotter - it only opened in 2008. It is on the Navionics charts on the tablet though.

Alison did a grand job piloting onto a free berth and we tied up and turned in.