Inverness

This morning we passed through the last few locks and bridges of the Canal, and made the short journey to the marina at Inverness. We have very much enjoyed our few days in the Canal with its magnificent scenery and changeable weather. I have of course been fortunate in having an excellent crew to help navigate the difficulties with the many locks. We have also been fortunate to have the help of Jay Cresswell, a local gaffer who knows the Canal well.

The picture shows Sian and Ant: Bonita is floating in fresh water in the last lock - the water beyond is salt. The boat in the background is Indian Runner.

We manoevered Bonita into a suitable but rather cramped marina berth with ropes as we never would have done it under engine. We then went to explore Inverness. It is 

 a lively town with lots to see.

We came across this more-than-life-size stature in a park. It represents Faith, Hope and Charity. Despite the labels, Hope is the one on the right holding the anchor. The anchor wouldn't actually be of any use, as it is missing the stock, the horizontal piece at the top. The anchor however is an old symbol representing Hope in the face of difficulty and uncertainty.

Sian and Ant have now sadly run out of time and Bonita stays at Inverness waiting for new crew.

Loch Ness

This morning we worked down a tier of locks in Fort Augustus and entered Loch Ness. We mostly had very light winds and a lot of gentle rain. Even without the monster stories, Loch Ness has an impressive grandeur of its own. Despite their being so little wind today, we were interested to see there were lots of patches of disturbed water on the surface of the Loch without any apparant cause. Presumably these are the result of water moving up and down from the great depths due to fresh water inflow or thermal movements. Or maybe a shoal of monsters.

The picture shows a fairly typical scene today looking down the loch with the hills emerging from the mists.

This is Urquhart Castle on the edge of the Loch. There are lots of ruined castles in Scotland, but this one has been turned into a popular tourist attraction. It occupies a magnificent site with a commanding view down the loch. The castle is  hundreds of years old and was involved in many of the wars in Scotlands history. It was finally blown up and ruined in 1692

This evening we are in Dochgarroch just after the exit from Loch Ness. Usually we have found the locks and bridges stop working at 5pm or even before, but as we approached this lock just before 6, we found two cheerful and helpful lady lock- keepers who were happy to let us go through this evening. 

We tied up just below the lock in company with Indian Runner, Moonriver and Sequoia.

Fort Augustus

Finally we got through the bridge at Gairlochy this morning. The mechanism to open it is still broken but they devised a way to move it by jacking it up so a few boats could go through. There seemed to be lots of Scottish Canal staff there working on the problem.

The picture shows us going past this venerable but troublesome bridge. We then had a fine journey down the canal. We had a fair wind and sailed down Loch Lochy and Loch Oich. Lock Oich is the highest point in the canal, about 100 ft above sea level. We had intermittent rain all day  with an exceptionally heavy rain squall on Loch Oich.

However the scenery in the Canal is spectacular and we were pleased to be making progress at last. We are now at Fort Augustus, about half way down the canal, and on the edge of Loch Ness. The lock keepers go home at 5pm so we can make no further progress today. We had a pleasant supper in a restaurant overlooking the Loch.

Banavie

We are still stationary in the canal, but this morning saw groups of schoolchildren setting off in kayaks. With exams over, they are doing their DoE gold expedition, kayaking the whole length of the canal and camping and cooking by the water. It will take them several days to reach Inverness.

The kayaks were loaded with stores, and at the locks they empty them out and carry everything around the lock. Character building stuff. Shortly after they set off down the canal it started raining, and rained heavily for most of the day. We felt a bit sorry for them.

After the rain eventually stopped we had a jolly evening on the Dutch lifeboat Hilda, entertained by Ron and Mieke, along with Barbara and Chris and Roger from Indian Runner.

Ron played the accordion and we sang a variety of sea shanties to mentally prepare ourselves for the hoped for journey down the canal tomorrow.

Caledonian Canal

We are still in the Canal at Banavie, we have not moved and are unlikely to be able to move until Monday when they will have another attempt to open the swing bridge. When we went round the UK 10 years ago, Bonita went round the top, via the Orkneys. This time, planning some complicated crew changes, I thought going through the Canal would be quicker and more reliable. Well, maybe not. We are envious of the little boats that were able to get under the bridge by lowering their masts and have enjoyed fair winds today on Loch Ness. This morning we said goodbye to Alastair who had helped so much with cruising around the islands but had sadly run out of time. He left on the train from the minature Banavie station. Sian and Ant have generously said they will stay with the boat until we get through the Canal..

We went to Fort William today on the train and looked around and did some shopping. It turns out that Fort William is twinned with the city of Hiroshima in Japan.

The Caledonian Canal seems to be twinned with the Rideau Canal in Canada. Both are well known to our friend Trevor who now lives in Ottawa, but apart from that there seem to be few similarities. 

The Caledonian Canal was designed and built by the Scottish engineer, Thomas Telford (1757-1834) and was a very substantial undertaking for the time. Telford was one of the most eminent engineers of his day, and the first president of the Institute of Civil Engineers. Less well remembered than his more mercurial contemporary, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, it could be argued that his contribution to engineering and the general wellbeing of his society was just as great.