Mallaig to Loch Moidart

We arrived late to Robinetta last night. The train should have got into Mallaig at 23:39, but was delayed so did not get there until 00:05. It was not actually raining, but even in August nights are chilly around Midnight, and the air was damp. Multicoloured lights projected onto the cliffs behind the marina offered a patch of cheer, and Robinetta’s LED cabin lights are not bright enough to show how grey the white cabin paint looked as we got the sleeping bags out and fell into bed.

We woke earlier than expected, with bright sunlight flooding through the port holes in a welcome change to the forecast grey. We took our time getting up, but it was just after 8 when we headed for the shore heads, stopping to pay our marina fees on the way. We were told that the harbour chandlers did not open on a Saturday, so we would have to get our fuel in cans from the garage, which did not open until 10:00. Luckily the Co-Op opened well before then, so we were able to get provisions before heading back to the boat for the fuel cans.

After a chat with our pontoon neighbours in Tzatziki we headed back ashore to pick up pastries and coffee from the Bake House for breakfast. We also bought fresh bread from there before getting our 17 litres of fuel from the filling station. Once that was in the fuel tanks we got Robinetta ready to go, only just remembering to fit our new radio before turning the engine on.

Getting the electrics right for the radio took a while, and they were not right when we backed off the pontoon to leave Mallaig at 11:40. We either had the radio or the chart plotter… by 13:00 normal service had resumed. The new Standard Horizon radio has its own GPS so the extra electronics board Julian fitted in 2017 has finally been removed. Not that I expect it to stay gone. The new power connections need refining, and our forward facing depth gauge can not work without that board. The quick fix depth gauge I screwed at the stern has done us for several years now, and we may never go back to the NASA system despite its “new” transducer.

Leaving Mallaig

We were making for the head of Loch Moidart which is only 18nm from Mallaig so we were not in a hurry. As soon as there was a hint of wind Julian got the main sail up. There was barely enough of a breeze to give us steerage way, but we pretended there was and turned off the engine while we ate lunch. After that clouds began to cover the blue and it seemed like a good time to put our oily trousers on. It began to rain, and Julian went below for a nap while I helmed for the next hour.

No wind appeared with the rain, so when Julian came back on deck we decided to get the main sail down before we began picking our way through the rocks and sand bars off Loch Moidart. The shear size of Eilean Shona between the North entrance and the South entrance into Loch Moidart makes it seem like the two are not connected, and from our navigational standpoint they are not. We were aiming for the south of Eilean Shona and the Clyde Cruising Club pilot describes this as one of the most complicated entrances in the area. Having a chart plotter in the cockpit makes pilotage much easier that having to constantly identify islands to take bearing on. The CCC did have some essential advice and a chartlet that let us identify Eilean Raonuill and make sense of the chart plotter display. There were seals hauled out on Roanuill, but the tide was pushing us past the island with its leaning identification pole and we took no photos. After picking our way past other smaller rocky islands we were in the loch and pilotage meant avoiding a sandy spit, which had useful islet called Sgier na Claidheamh acting like marker buoy for its south end before he headed north again toward our chosen anchorage near Riska Island.

As we approached Riska we saw 3 Canadian style canoes, and certainly felt like a worthwhile place to explore that way. Riska is an almost perfectly circular island, totally overgrown by trees, and it looked as though no one had set foot there for years, with fallen trees in the gullies and no obviously landing places. We were at the top of the tide, and there might well have been sandy beaches to land on at low water, since we had to cross a bar to the north of the island which mostly dried at low water springs.

Castle Tioram on the right, Riska on the left

We reached the anchorage at 18:00, and I laid out 33m of chain as we were in 11m of water. It was deeper than we prefer, but the best spot to avoid possible cables on the sea floor. It began to drizzle as I dropped the anchor, and it set in for the evening, so rather than rowing across to look at Castle Tioram we retreated into the cabin for the evening.

Castle Tioram from the anchorage