Drascombe Lugger Braveheart
Western Isles Cruise 2011
This was a Drascombe Association rally
that I had eagerly anticipated as it was going to be our first chance to sail
the waters around Ardnamurchan and hopefully get out to some of the Inner
Hebrides which lie within a reasonable
sailing distance offshore. We would be on our own (well apart from the other
boats) and away from the comforts of civilization for a week. This is what in
my mind Drascombe cruising was all about.
The initial plan was fairly
straightforward – travel to Kentra, meet up with the others attending the rally
and then set off for a week’s sailing. We would leave home on the evening of
the 26th of May and return on the 4th or 5th
of June, making the most of the week we had both taken off work. The route to
be followed would be contingent on both the forecasted and actual weather and
as such it would not be finally decided until we had arrived at Kentra.
During the two weeks leading up to
the rally the weather was pretty mixed and the forecast for the week of the rally
it did not look good at all. With bad weather forecast for the first weekend, Tom
Colville who was the organiser wisely decided that we would initially sail on
Loch Sheil which is a large (17 mile long) inland loch near Kentra and which
would offer hopefully better sailing conditions than the open sea until the weather system
passed. Weather allowing we would move the boats to the sea on either the 29th
or 30th of May.
While Loch Sheil is not the sea it is
still in the middle of one of Scotland’s great wildernesses and would we hoped
offer the same feeling of exploring new places.
Never one to miss an opportunity to
stay somewhere better than our tent ( the tent being just one step above
sleeping on board on the cockpit floorboards), Kathleen quickly pointed out
that there would be local accommodation in Acharacle at the head of the loch. It
cannot be said that I do not take a hint when one is dropped!
With the change in plans we were able
to book into a local B&B which was recommended by Tom Colville for the
Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. This given the forecasted bad weather would
offer some degree of comfort for the crew (and captain) when we were not
sailing. As it turned out the degree of comfort was up in the luxury bracket –
great recommendation Tom Colville!
Thursday
26th May
Getting home early from work I had
the car packed with our sailing gear, a week’s food and the numerous bits of
kit that we take out of necessity or “just in case”, by the time Kathleen got
home. With Braveheart behind we set off towards Ardnamurchan and our planned
overnight stop at the Inn at Ardgour on west side of Corran Narrows on Loch
Linnhe.
The drive up to Corran was as always
very scenic and despite the bad forecast dry and sunny. This was a great way to
start our holiday and hopefully the weather would not be as bad as forecast.
Friday 27th
May
After a leisurely breakfast we set
off along the single track road – grandly called the A861 leading to Acharacle,
only 25 miles away. The line of the road
follows the route chosen by Thomas Telford who was involved in building the
road to Acharacle from the Corran Ferry in the 1800’s. Telford also built the
bridge across the River Shiel, this was replaced by a new bridge in the1930’s.
The parish church in Acharacle was built in the 1820’s to a standard design
known as Telford churches.
The name Acharacle comes from the
Gaelic Ath Thorguil or Torquil's ford, following a battle in 1120 at a nearby
ford across the River Shiel, between the Celtic-Norse warrior Somerled and the
Norse invader Torquil. Here, Torquil was killed in the battle and his followers
ousted from the area.
Acharacle is typical west Highland crofting township. It lies at the western end of Loch Shiel and is surrounded by stunning scenery.
Acharacle is typical west Highland crofting township. It lies at the western end of Loch Shiel and is surrounded by stunning scenery.
The weather while not as nice as the
day before was still reasonable – dry warm and with light winds.
At Acharacle we pulled in front of
the village store to try and find (in order of importance) 1) morning coffee, 2)
the launching point on to Loch Sheil 3)
The bed and breakfast.
Objective 1 was quickly achieved as the local baker sold not only pretty
reasonable home baking, but also carry-out coffee. Objective 2 was again easily achieved as the launching point was
only a few hundred yards from where we had stopped, down a narrow access track.
Objective 3 proved to be even more simple
once we had launched Braveheart as we were staying next to the road we had just
driven in on, only a few hundred yards back from where we had stopped.
Being the first boat to arrive and
seeing how little room there was to rig and launch we decided to put Braveheart
into the water and get the car and trailer out of the way before anyone else
arrived. As most if not all of the boats on Loch Sheil are used for fishing, we
were of some interest to the local anglers as we rigged Braveheart and once
launched tied her up to the local fishing jetty.
Once she was afloat and moored, we
went off to find our accommodation, the Ardshealach Lodge.
The lodge as I mentioned above was only a few
hundred yards from the centre of Acharacle and therefore not far from slipway
where we launched Braveheart. Set in its own
beautiful gardens with views down to Loch Shiel and out to Ben Resipole,
the lodge proved to be an excellent choice of accommodation. We were given an
upstairs room with a view across the loch and to the hills beyond.
Once we had
unpacked we went for a wander around Acharacle and then back down to the slipway to meet up with the
other boats which were starting to arrive.
For a pre dinner walk around the
local area we had an interesting if very wet walk out towards Kentra and after
cutting across a moor land we came back via the River Sheil to the road bridge
at the end of the Loch.
After showering
and changing we walked back to Acharacle to eat at the Loch Sheil Hotel which
sits right in the center of Acharacle. While the food was OK it was nothing
special but it was probably going to be better than my home cooking over our single
burner stove on which we would be dining during the forthcoming week.
Saturday
28th May
Saturday morning came along with the
start of the forecasted bad weather. With the wind behind us, the rally set off
at a brisk pace down Loch Sheil (from the Gaelic Loch Seile). Loch Sheil is 17
miles (27km) long and averages ½ a mile in width. It was featured as the 'Black Lake' at Hogwarts Academy
during the filming of the Harry Potter books. Its nature changes considerably along
its length, being deep and enclosed by mountains in the north east and shallow
surrounded by bog and rough pasture in the south west, from
which end the 4 km River Shiel drains to the sea in Loch
Moidart near Castle Tioram.
Loch Shiel
is only marginally above sea level and was in fact a sea loch a few thousand
years ago when sea levels (relative to Scotland) were higher.
The plan for
the rally had developed to two days sailing on Loch Sheil until (hopefully) the
weather system had passed, after which we would move the boats to the sea at Kentra
on the Monday morning. Given the size of Loch Sheil, most of boats would stay
overnight down the loch, while we would head back up the loch to Acharacle
where we were spending another night at Ardshealach Lodge. We would then sail
back down the Loch on Sunday morning to meet the other boats which would be
sailing back to Acharacle.
After
sailing 5.9 miles down Loch Sheil with a strong westerly wind behind us and
with heavy rain starting, it was time to find somewhere sheltered for lunch,
before we ended up too far down the Loch!
Lunch was a
fairly wet affair, after which we said goodbye to the other boats and headed
back up the loch. Graham Russell who had come up only for the weekend and who
was also staying at Ardshealach Lodge with his wife Kate, was sailing back with
us.
It had been
our intention to sail back up the Loch, however the wind had risen while we had
been sheltering over lunch to near Gale like conditions and even with only our
reefed jib and mizzen we were over powered.
With all sails dropped we reverted to our outboard, which struggled to
give us any headway at all. The strength of the wind was such that unless we
were heading straight into the wind we were simply blown sideways. This meant
that to cross the wind at the head of the loch we effectively had to “ferry
glide” otherwise we would have just been blown sideways across the loch.
With our 6hp
Mariner running at near maximum revs it took 2 ½ very wet hours to motor back
approx 5 miles to Acharacle, not counting the hour we spent on the magical “
Green Isle” looking at the oldest the
oldest existing church in the diocese of Argyll & the isles which dates
from the time of St Finnan.
St Finnan
(Finan, Finnan the Leper, Finzean,)lived between 520 and 600. Celebrated
as the great evangeliser of the area of West Lochaber and all around Loch
Sheil. St Finnan’s Isle on Loch Sheil - the Green Isle is believed to be the
most famous and is certainly the most important: the oldest, the oldest
existing church in the diocese of Argyll & the isles complete with cemetery
and - famously, the ancient bronze bell!
Arriving back at Acharacle it was time for a shower and a change of
clothes before we enjoyed an excellent home cooked meal at the Ardshealach
Lodge, followed by coffee with Graham and Kate in the residents lounge.
Total
miles sailed for the day 12.
Sunday 29th
May
The rest of the rally had arrived
back at Acharacle by mid morning. As the weather was still pretty bad we had
decided that it was not a day to sail down the loch to meet the other returning
boats. Instead we had enjoyed a long lie and a lazy breakfast.
The consensus of opinion was that Sunday
would be a day off as it was too wild to do anything on the water, so dressed
in our walking gear Kathleen and I went off to explore the Ardnamurchan peninsula.
Parking at Kilchoan we spotted the Cal Mac ferry which should have been bound
for Coll and Tiree taking shelter in a bay south of Tobermorry on the sound of
Mull.
Walking from Kilchoan on the south
coast of the peninsular, we walked in a 16 mile loop – partly on roads, but
mostly across the wild landscape across to the west coast and then back around
to the car. During our whole walk we did not have a drop of rain which was a
pleasant change from the previous day.
For lunch we found a sheltered beach
on the western coastline and while the water boiled for our tea we watched huge
rollers running in and dumping on to the stones in front of where we sat.
Returning to Acharacle later on afternoon tea was called for so we
enjoyed coffee and cake in the small
gift shop behind the Loch Sheil Hotel.
That evening Tom Colville had
arranged for a Rally dinner at the Ardshealach Lodge so after pre dinner drinks
12 of us sat down to a fantastic 5 course meal.
Total
miles for the day 0
Monday 30th
May
We woke to slightly better weather
and with blue skies showing on the horizon it was decided that we would move
all the boats to Kentra and launch into Kentra Bay.
As there were 6 boats to move it took
until early afternoon for everyone to recover their boats de rig them, move
them to Kentra, rig them and dry launch them on to the exposed sand. With high
tide not due until 4pm we had ample time to stow everything on board again and
park the cars and trailers nearby. As the tide came in each boat gradually
started to float and soon we were able to follow the marked channel out into
the bay.
With the wind from the west blowing
what was probably a force 4 we made good passage to the mouth of Loch Moidart
where we planned to moor for the night. Entering Loch Moidart we were treated
to the stunning sight of a near perfect rainbow forming an arch over the loch
and with both ends clearly visible it looked as though a pot of gold would be
there for the taking. As the forecast for the following day once again
suggested high winds we motored in a dying wind down to the foot of the loch to
find a sheltered anchorage.
That night we camped along with 20
million midges and the crew of the other Lugger on the rally on a small
un-named island opposite the mouth of the River Sheil. The midges were a
particular trial for Kathleen who reacts badly to each and every bite. As the common midge appears
to find her blood particularly attractive she really did suffer that night.
Total
miles for the day 7.3
Tuesday
31st May
Early on Tuesday morning the wind
picked up and we woke to find the second Luger missing. During the night it had
dragged its anchor and had headed off on its own adventure. Luckily it had
blown inshore and could be seen in the distance in the shallow waters further
down the loch. With the tide dropping quickly, Braveheart set off in pursuit,
landing her skipper back on her before she was hard aground.
By mid morning the wind was howling
and horizontal rain was dampening our spirits. While the rain eventually died
off, the wind blew in varying strength throughout the day. Venturing back out
to sea was deemed to be unwise so we motored across to the south side of the
loch to go for a walk – (we were doing more walking than sailing so far!).
While we were away two of the bigger Drascombes ventured down Loch Moidart to
see what the sea conditions were. Their report when they came back was that
there was a large sea running and conditions prevented them venturing further.
By evening the weather forecast was
predicting further high winds from the west!
That night we had a tremendous
campfire, burning all the fallen timber that we found on the island. The smoke
and flames at least kept the midges away! And a bottle of red wine helped to
minimise the effects of the bites that were sustained.
Total
miles for the day 2.0
Wednesday
1st of June
Awaking to another stormy day we
decided that enough was enough and that spending our precious holidays being effectively
storm bound on an island the size of a few tennis courts was not much fun. We
had also now burned all the available wood so there would be no campfire
tonight and there was no more wine – something which as ship’s quartermaster I
took responsibility for.
Revising our plans we decided to look
for a suitable place to haul both Luggers out of the water as venturing out of
Loch Moidart did not appear to be a great idea given the prevailing conditions.
At low tide we walked across the narrow channel which ran between our own
island and another larger one and after crossing a private causeway which
provided the access to / from a large house we reached the nearby A861. Heading
east down the side of the loch we walked along the side of the road for 3 miles
or so until we reached the River Moidart. Here there was a potential haul out
beach but unfortunately is was totally unsuitable for either of our cars.
Further justification for going back to running 4x4 vehicles!
Back on the island (we just managed
back across before we were cut off again by the tide), we reconsidered a
previously identified potential slipway a short way up the River Sheil. Motoring
across the Loch we left Braveheart at anchor while Kathleen and I set off on
foot to investigate what was shown on the map.
It turned out that the slipway was
owned by the local estate and once we tracked down the estate manager
permission was given for us to use it. The slipway was however steep and I
could see the clutch on the car taking another bit of abuse when we pulled the
boat out, however it was a viable option.
Having made our minds up that the
slipway was useable and with the day rapidly slipping away Kathleen set off to
run the 6 miles or so back to the car while I took the boat back to the island
to pack up our camping gear and say goodbye to the others.
By 8pm we had Braveheart on her
trailer and we were packed and ready to go. While this may seem a bit of a cop
out, with the forecast for continued mixed weather for the rest of the week,
spending the remainder of our holiday on the island was not an attractive
proposition should the weather not pick up.
As it happened the weather did begin
to moderate on Thursday allowing the bigger Drascombes to venture out to the
islands albeit for an extremely quick visit. Had we stayed on it is doubtful if
we would have made the trip out as large seas were still running and with a
completely open boat it may not have been the most sensible time to sail
offshore (yes I know Luggers have sailed to Australia and across the Pacific
and Atlantic).
So it was off back down the road. As
we were too late to cross the ferry at Corran we headed north to the A830 (the
Mallaig Road) and took the longer route home via Glen Finnan, Corpach and Fort
William, finally arriving back in Lenzie at 2am on the Friday morning.
Total
miles for the day 1.0
Summary
So all in all it was not the most
successful trip we have made, but it was still enjoyable! We had some great
times (visiting the Green island on Loch Sheil, walking on the Ardnamurchan
Peninsular, blasting down Loch Sheil under full sail and sailing out of Kentra
Bay and along the west coast of Ardnamurchan), we also had some not so great
times ( Kathleen providing a meal for every midge in the surrounding area,
being stuck on a very, very small island in the rain for too long), but that is
life! All in all it was a good holiday, next time though we will take some
better weather with us.
Total miles sailed for the week 22.5
Total
miles walked – estimated at 45 (It was therefore a walking holiday with a bit of
sailing)
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