Mallaig to Inverie, Knoydart

Hopefully we have a weather window from now to next Saturday, when the winds will “only” be f4-6. It will take time for the sea state to go down, so today we decided not to risk a trip out to Canna, but to have a short sail into Loch Nevis and pick up a mooring at the Old Forge Inn, Inverie. It took time to prepare for sea after being battened down against the gales in harbour, but we thought we were ready (full water tanks, full diesel, anchor lashed to the bulwalks, bowsprit out with no 2 jib), so set off out of the harbour at 1140.

We were clear of the harbour, in a fair amount of swell, when I realised that the boom was still in the crutches. In still water this would not be a problem. But untying the crutches, then pulling up the topping lifts while Robinetta is being flung abruptly up and down is far from simple, and Julian could not keep his footing as he tried to raise the boom.  We had to head back into the shelter of the harbour, with me holding the boom off with one hand while helming through the swell with the other. I had taken the forwards sail tie off too, so with the topping lifts/ lazy jacks loose there was a bag of main sail free to catch the wind, We were sailing on that, and the already raised stay sail and made good time back into harbour!

Julian got the main lifted up out of the way, then brought the jib back inboard since I had shackled the jib the wrong way round on the Whickham-Martin gear so it could not unfurl... Whoops. Once that was sorted he raised the main sail in the harbour, and we sailed out towards Loch Nevis.

After the drama at the beginning of the sail we had a lovely very broad reach into Loch Nevis, almost surfing down the waves. We got half a mile from the moorings, and decided that we had not really sailed enough, so decided to head further up the Loch towards the narrows. This meant coming much closer to the wind. The wind felt colder immediately, and after about ten minutes we decided to head back to the moorings, pick one up, then go for a walk.

There are supposed to be 11 visitor moorings laid by the Old Forge Inn at Inverie, but the marina master at Mallaig had warned us that they had not been checked since the new owner took over. I could only count six of the uniform type I expect from visitor moorings, but we were the only yacht any where near and there was plenty of space. We furled the job away and lowered the main, then sailed onto the mooring on stay sail. Julian on the helm approached perfectly and I had no problems using our new boat hook to pick up the mooring line, even though it had no pick up buoy on it.

I rowed shore, and we went to the inn to book our dinner (and tell them we were on their mooring) then went for a lovely walk through the woods.

We ate looking out at the moorings, and noticed a buoy that looked different from the others, just inshore of the one that Robinetta was on. We were pretty sure it had not been there when we arrived! When it disappeared we assumed it had been a seal, Once we were back on board Robinetta I noticed something in the same spot again. We were much closer this time and could see it properly. An otter! The first we've seen.

The mooring is not especially sheltered and we are rolling a bit, but it is not too bad and we will be able to stay here over night comfortably enough. The views from the cockpit are certainly worth a bit of rolling!