Joan and John Smith in Hard Tack had moved across the Loch much more quickly than me and had cleared the lock at Dochgarroch before the British Waterways staff had fineshed for the day. Jim and Margret weren't so fast though and I rafted up alongside Bali Voe III for the evening. We shared a beer and I learned more about their lives. They were both retired geography teachers, though this was not his original choice of career. A car accident when he was thrown through the windscreen as a youngster had left him without vision in one eye and ended his career in the Merchant Navy. It doesn't seem to have put paid to his time in the sea though. They have covered a lot of miles between them.
As we waited for yet another set of locks to open we all had coffee on Hard Tack. It was so spacious and later Joe and i talked about the reasons why boats have become so much larger. It occurred to me that apart from increased affluence and expectations,it may well be the influence of the poor suffering wives who put to sea with sailor husbands. There is such little space on a boat the size of Hylje and its a lot to make a woman suffer the lack of space as well as the greater fear of adverse conditions on the water. There are always exceptions to the rule and there are a good many great sailing women who have more courage than many blokes but there is a clear caricature of the man who sails and the woman who goes with him.
It was only about 8 miles to the sea, but it took us nearly 5 1/2 hours. the tide was then wrong for setting off eastwards along the Cromarty Firth. i resolved to go into Inverness marina with Joan and Joe who we had caught up with.Waiting in the final sea lock we all saw another osprey. It was fishing in the shallows of the estuary and was hovering in its flap-flap sort of way. they are such large wings and it seems much more awkward than a Kestrel when its doing the same thing.Its legs hand down as well which seem to add to the awkwardness.
Overall, it had been an interesting trip through the canal. We all agreed it lacks the wildlife interest of following the coast.It involves a lot of motoring though.A lot of it is straight line stuff and there is not a lot en route to make you want to extend the stay. Plus points are the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff who seem to all have good senses of humour though.
Whilst waiting at one of the lock entrances i saw a couple of ducks waiting for their mates to return in their canoes!
Inverness Marina is only just beyond the last lock and before you pass under the Kessock bridge.
.It was the venue of the Inverness boat show today and the place was heaving with lifeboats, stalls, helicopter displays. This was its second year.
There was a chap on the whale and dolphin tent who I talked to about the difference between common and bottlenose dolphins. He had a life size blowup of a bottlenose dolphin and he confirmed the differences i had deduces between the two. It seems common dolphins tend to be in the west coast so i am unlikely to see any more of them. they are also more pelagic than the bottle nose ones who seem to be quite territorial There are loads of these in the Moray Firth and it seems i will be very unlucky if I don't get to see some.
From here I want to go to Findhorn for my next stop. I have heard so much about the place over the years but have never been there. It's about a 6 hour sail from here.
For those who are reading this blog and didn't read the first page or have forgotten it I said that i was trying to raise some money for the RNLI and RSPB and provided a couple of links for people to make some contributions. I get emails from these sites saying that nobody is contributing so if you'd like to think about going to the links and giving some money that would be great. Ta
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