A
rainy, typically 'Fort William' Day, as we entered the Corpach Upper Locks - then along
the reach to the bottom of the Banvie flight - known as 'Neptune's Staircase' - a rise of
8 locks. A
rainy, typically 'Fort William' Day, as we entered the Corpach Upper Locks - then along
the reach to the bottom of the Banvie flight - known as 'Neptune's Staircase' - a rise of
8 locks.
We hold up trains & the main 'Road to the Isles' as the swing bridges open for us.
The locks are looking resplendent after major
renovation - complete with new granite capstones along both sides. This rise, along with
that at Fort Augustus, are popular with tourists - so there is always someone taking
pictures or watching.
All The locks are
hydraulically operated, and most of the keepers are friendly and helpful - so it is not a
lot of work. One slight oversight of the new works is the laying of a path alongside the
locks with fine granite chippings - which is murder on the topsides - it's a potent
grinding paste, and takes ages to wash off after the locks are past.
There follows a few miles of canal section past the Moy Bridge - still the hand-operated original designed by Thomas Telford. The canal soon enters Loch Lochy for 8 Miles - and we managed a brilliant sail through most of it (though still a bit showery). By now we are playing dodge-the-charterers - a fun game in which yachts and private boat owners develop skills and strategies to avoid being pranged by Hoseason's and Blake's charterers who cruise about seemingly determined to knock their own craft and others at every opportunity :-) We rescued one at Laggan Locks who demonstrated great skill (!?) in turning his boat right around in the lock whilst tying his boat along the lock side!
Through Laggan Locks and swing bridge, and we arrived at
tonight's resting place - the 'Great Glen School of Adventure' - a welcoming timeshare
development with dip pool, showers and laundry facilities.
This sits at the canal's highest level in Loch Oich -
one of the least well known of the 4 lochs which form about half the canal's total length.
Note the waterproofs hung out to dry.
A trick when passing through the canals, is to group up with other boats - and share the fun. On the Caledonian canal, you should always ensure there are at least a couple of charter boats in the group - to add intrigue and excitement! We joined a group first thing, and headed NE along Loch Oich towards Abercalder swing bridge. It's quite fun passing through - and blocking the main Inverness to Fort William road for a while ;-)
Today, we passed through towards the Abercalder lock - which resolutely refused to open. It isn't a lot of fun trying to hold a yacht in a narrow waterway - they tend to drift into awkward places. Since the wind was more or less astern of us, we managed to reverse well back, and keep out of the way - it turned out a huge Dutch barge was coming the other way!
The keeper at Abercalder
certainly packed the boats in. There was a French yacht, one from San Francisco on an
eight year cruise-about, three charter cruisers, a charter yacht and Green Ginger - a
British yacht being sailed single handed - not an ideal crew for canal work. No wonder the
Crinan canal looks small when you've been in the Caley - four yachts would fill the lock
there.
Fort Augustus, at the head of Loch Ness is another multi-lock
flight - of five sections. It has also won Britain in Bloom, and is a major tourist
stopping-off point 'to watch the boats in the locks'. We had quite an eventful passage -
there was a power-cut whilst we were in No 3 - then the road swing bridge at the bottom
got stuck.. Each time, this allowed the lock above us to overflow - causing a cascade of
water over the top - and a lot of wet spray all over us as we were the back boat. You'll
see from the photo all the water pouring over - and spot some of the grockels watching us.
Note also, this morning was hot and sunny - we even broke out the shorts and tee-shirts,
and sweltered a bit.
Loch Ness is over 20 miles long - and we managed to sail about 2/3
of its length. Castle Urquhart stands imposing on a headland, about 3/4 the way along
towards Inverness.
Our passage stopped tonight at Dochgarroch Lock, about
5 miles from Inverness. It's raining again, heavy!
After a nice lazy start, we passed down the Muirtown flight of 4
locks into Muirtown basin to await a locking out into the Beauly Firth in the late
afternoon.
Waiting in the basin, we were behind 'Never Never Land', a large American motor cruiser (1 gallon per mile) on his way to Australia on a 3-5 year cruise - it's OK for some! We've more or less followed him from entering the Crinan Canal.
The large Co-op superstore just next to the canal offered an all-day breakfast that served as a good lunch - then the chance to top up with victuals.
We locked out with
'Rival Lady', a Peterhead boat, at 4pm - and were not held up waiting for the railway
bridge, so cleared out of the canal by 4:45pm.
Down, almost to Kessock Bridge, then back up the River Ness into the little Longman Yacht Haven in Inverness Harbour for the night.
Our trip into Inverness for 'The Best Curry Shop in the Known Universe' turned to disappointment when we found it had been replaced by an Italian restaurant :-( We found another one, just across and overlooking the river - and enjoyed an excellent buffet meal - but as usual at these sort of things, ate too much.