Mallaig to Plockton

Heading north from Mallaig and planning to run between the mainland and the island of Skye, you have a tidal gate to consider. You can see the narrows at Kylerhea below:

The Kyle has some pretty serious tides to contend with, running at up to 8 knots. With our normal cruising speed of around 6.4 knots that could be a challenge. Even flat out we would barely be making way against the stream. So, timing is everything.

Arriving at the narrows just as the tide was turning in our favour meant a late lunchtime departure. The fog outside the harbour had other ideas....

Everyone told us that the Sound of Sleat was stunningly beautiful. Should we go in the fog and only see it as a radar image? No. Not what this cruising lark is about. After all, we have no time pressure to get anywhere at any specific time. We popped into the harbour office to pay for our moorings and heard a slightly panicked radio call from a little yacht asking to come back in as it was too foggy out there. He had no radar, could see the fog banks rolling around yet still headed out (single handed too). No comment. 

It was not looking promising but sometimes, the world smiles on you. Today looked like being one of those as pretty much at the right departure time, the fog lifted and the sun came out so we quickly prepared the boat and headed off. Naturally about 10 minutes out another fog patch settled on us. Then, just as we entered the famed Sound of Sleat, it cleared and the sun came out:

You can just see the fog bank behind us, and there it stayed for the rest of a glorious journey, sitting on the flybridge enjoying some of the best views you can ever get (in our humble opinion). Here is the little ferry that runs across the narrows:

You can see how the car deck is on a turntable arrangement so that it can be placed at right angles to the slipway whilst the ferry itself sits facing into the tide to hold its position. Very strange arrangement but much needed here. The island of Skye is big and dominating - see how it makes the poor little light tower look so insignificant:

Entering Loch Alsh itself, you get a wonderful panorama of water and hills:

Which was being enjoyed by an anchored superyacht, Hampshire 2:

Owned by the Ineos boss, supposed to have cost a cool $100 million and with a posing tender garage forward as you can see where the RIB comes out sideways on a hoist and is then dropped into the water. We thought that our crane was pretty neat (it always gets plenty of folks watching when we are launching or recovering the RIB) but it looks a little puny in comparison. Have a look at Superyacht website for more information on this expensive lump of boat.

As we approached the famous Skye bridge, we noticed a motorboat leaving from the Kyle of Lochalsh pontoon. We recognised it as belonging to Hugh McCaig, the man we had met a few times in Mallaig when he berthed next to us. There are not many motorboats around in these latitudes so here is one for you:

Hugh is the man behind the well known Ecurie Ecosse motor racing team and he had kindly given us a bottle of their own label whisky which is sitting in a locker awaiting someone who would appreciate it to share the first couple of drams. (Keith, this might just be you). The label carefully confirms that the whisky has been "personally passed" by Hugh McCaig. For non-native English speakers, just work it out somehow. By the way, they also have their own gin, named Ngin of course.

Going under the bridge seems a bit special:

Although it must have upset this poor lighthouse when it was built:

What used to be the dominant structure in the area is now a bit insignificant albeit quite pretty (for a lighthouse) and well painted.

The run up to Plockton was simply more lovely scenery but many many more pot markers to avoid. To get to the Plockton moorings, you have to round this island which has its own dinky lighthouse - this time not quite so overwhelmed by the surroundings:

Entering the Plockton anchorage, we soon figured out that the visitor buoys were, as expected, a little weedy for our heavy old boat. We anchored outside the harbour area with lovely views to the town and of a rather smart yacht on a rather large mooring buoy too:

The rather nice yacht was from Gordonstoun school, full of youngsters whose parents were paying rather handsomely for the privilege too we guess. Quite a wonderful setting for an evening at anchor after such a great trip (bar the initial fog). Rarely can you do that sort of run on the flybridge in Scotland so we felt very spoilt.

Numbers and Maintenance news:

The trip was around 5 hours and mostly calm. On the fixing things front, nothing new. The stabiliser pin went in perfectly happily (as it should after getting all those new components), the big Lugger ran quite happily and the crew didn't make any whining noises either.