Day 37 Friday 24th June. Loch Lochy to Loch Ness.

I had no clear plan of how far to travel along the Caledonian Canal today and awoke lethargically. I ambled over to the toilet block and waited for one to be vacated. As I emerged I saw that the boats I had been travelling with were preparing to enter the lock as the first lift of the day started at 8.00. I decided to join them and ran back to Hylje. I would have to catch up with breakfast and tidying up whilst under way. The chap with the Pirate was setting out too. His outboard was a very small 2 stoke. It had no reverse and the prop came right out of the water when he moved to the front of the boat.

We all entered the lock successfully and I rafted up with Hard Tack again. When we moved out into the small Loch Oich we all raised our sails to make the most of the light following wind.We all gave up after about half an hour except for the chap in the Pirate, so he got left behind from then onwards. When you are moving through locks like this you really need to stay together otherwise people are kept waiting.

A classic boat seemed to have foundered on the banks of Loch Oich. It still had its sails. Unless some of the perishable bits are taken off soon it'll be a complete lost cause.

 Previously the character of the canal sections have been very open. Now they have become very enclosed by woodland, which I found more interesting peering under the canopy.

At Kytra we all watched an old boat called Swan coming up though the lock. She had been attending the tall ships gathering.Jim who was in a Colvic 26 sailor told me something of the history of the Swan . She had been salvaged after being sunk and was rebuilt in Lerwick.People were critical of the amount of presumably public money that was spent on her, but when she led the tall ships fleet out of Lerwick she had become a big source of pride. Since she started being reused  about 12 years ago over a thousand youngsters have been trained on her. Jim had helped in her resoration. He and his wife Margret are intending to turn left at Inverness and head up to The Shetlands. He is talking about going on to Norway from there.Margret did not seem quite so sure.

There are some great vernacular buildings along the canal and the ones at Kytra were quite charming.There are a few swing bridges we passed through and swallows seemed to be nesting on their undersides. they don't seem to be put off by their nest site moving around.

At Fort Augustus there is a flight of locks down to Loch Ness. As we waited for the lock to be opened for us I watched fledgling swallows landing on the pontoon and scream to be fed. It is unusal to see swallows on the ground like that.

Fort Augustus has a good range of shops and is popular with tourists. One of the attractions is watching the boats pass down the flight.The custom is for the boats to be pulled between the locks by their lines. This can be quite tough when the wind pushes a bow out.There were no missaps though and were were working well as a team now.

At the bottom of the flight there is a wire sculpture of Nessie feeding her youngster.

Once through the last lock was out on Loch Ness for the long straight line route up the middle.After the first hour when there was a light wind astern it meant a slow chug along under a very pleasant warm sun.In conditions like this where the water is flat calm small bow waves travel a long way, so well after boats have passed there are ripples on the water. Its always worth a look at what is causing the wake especially on this loch. No surprises though!