Summer Isles to Loch Ewe

 A grey day. Both Alison and I struggled to raise our spirits with so little colour in the world.

They say a bad day on the water is better than a good day in the office. I have some really good days in the office, so I can't agree. But today had its charm.

We had a lie in, and probably missed the best part of the day, weather-wise. Early mornings seem to get the clearest skies around here. After a diet day, a cooked breakfast seemed like a good idea so we finished the black pudding and bacon, adding a tomato, eggs and fried bread.

I checked the creel - it was perfectly clean and the black pudding I'd put in as bait was still there, untouched.

We debated taking Worm for a row - going to Tanera Mor was a bit far but we could take pictures of Robinetta at anchor. But we couldn't summon up the energy in the grey.

So we set off for Loch Ewe about 10am under motor with no great expectation of a breeze.

The nice thing about pessimism is it the opportunity to be pleasantly surprised. We weren't far across Loch Broom before a gentle F3 sprang up. The perfect wind for a gaff cutter - a broad reach pushed us along at 3.5 to 4 knots. That cheered us up!

The horizon gave more reasons to be cheerful. Harris and Lewis sat on the western edge of the world, with the mountains of Uig rising up to the south and the Butt of Lewis just visible to the north. The east was a feast of mountain peaks from north to south. All colourless and faint in the distance but giving shape to the day. Impossible to photograph. I should get out my watercolours and have a go, but my recent attempts have been so awful I don't have the confidence to try.

On the water seals would pop their heads up now and then and again we saw a guillemot with a chick.

We started to lose the wind as we neared Greenstone Point. Alison suggested trying the fishing line. I didn't need any persuading. I had fitted the cod lures and hooks I bought in Lochinver and had hopes of a pollock.

As the wind lessened Alison started getting impatient. I wanted to give the hooks a little more time so we waited until the distance to go was a round number of miles - 2.4 cables. I hauled in the line. It felt heavy but there was no movement so I wasn't hopeful. But the end of the line was silvery. So Alison got a bucket ready. We'd hooked five fine mackerel, two on one hook!

Then it was back to motoring. I filleted one of the mackerel and fried it to have with break and butter for lunch.

We curved into Loch Ewe. Loch Ewe is most famous for the gardens of Inverewe but it was also an important mustering point for the Arctic convoys in the second world war. There is still a large NATO refuelling depot here although there were no warships today.

Bessie Ellen

There are several anchorages in the Loch, offering protection from different directions. Like most of the anchorages around here, most are in 5m or more. We wanted protection from the expected SE winds, but we also wanted a short distance to the headland of Rubha Reidh tomorrow to catch the morning ebb around it into Loch Gareloch. In the end we plumped for Camus Glas, right by the jetty for the Inverewe gardens. Its a pretty spot with good protection from the SE and shallow. It's also covered by the 2015 version of the Antares charts so we could rely on the soundings. As we approached we could see Bessie Ellen already at anchor at the outer edge of the bay. We exchanged waves as we passed behind her into the shallows.

Safely at anchor, I filleted the remaining mackerel and we decided to make a curry with garlic and some packet marinade we had on-board and some Greek style yoghurt. In the end I only used half of the fish so we have some left for tomorrow. It was really nice, accompanied by boiled new potatoes and cauliflower and a little white wine.

After dinner we fired up BBC Sounds on my phone and the bluetooth speaker. I checked out the Proms but it wasn't what I wanted so we listened to Radio 4's 'Add to Playlist' - a programme I've meant to try but never listened to before. Very Radio 4 - more talk than music but a delight. Then on to last Wednesday's Folk Show from Radio 2 and then, as I finish this post, last night's Travelling Folk from BBC Scotland.

If you are reading this and detect a different tone to my usual posts, its deliberate. If you didn't notice then I haven't managed it! Alison is interested in putting more personal thoughts into the log so I had a go.