May 12th and 13th…Cruising gently…

The weather up here changes with almost every glimpse. We wake up to sunshine and blue skies, but also certain that things will change…

Heydays slides away from the mooring, and we glide along Loch Lochy (did they run out of ideas for names?) for the short hop to Laggan at the start of Loch Oich. We’re in no rush…just enjoying the scenery of the beautiful Highlands…

We keep the cockpit tent up, as a foil against the wet squalls we know will come, and we are motoring today with no chance of a sail…

We alternately bake in the sunshine inside, but then are grateful as the rain and even some hail lashes through like some kind of demented banshee.

Ian and Maureen on Andiamo are ahead of us and we have agreed to meet up again at Laggan at the other end of the Loch. We were planning to stay this side of the locks, but they let us know that we need to go through to the available moorings…

While the locks are easy to handle, some of the deeper ones present a challenge to throw ropes up to the lock keeper.

Ian and Maureen on Andiamo are moored on the pontoon next to us and we have a lovely early evening on their Jenneau. Yee Tak and Maureen continue reminiscencing about their school days, including a few bars of the old school song. Maureen’s mum also taught at their old school in HK (St Paul’s Convent School in Causeway Bay) and taught the elders sister of Yee Tak’s best friend.

The bag is the same as their old school uniform….

We all agree to cruise in company as far as Fort Augustus. It is easier for the lock keepers and the swing bridges, if they can get a few through at a time.

We look smugly at the weather out over the Hebrides, and congratulate ourselves on having dodged some nasty stuff by changing our plans.

The day opens up quite dramatically with mist and clouds on the hills above us, and we nose out into the start of Loch Oich. This is the highest point of the trip, from now on, the locks will be down hill.

Loch Oich is part of a river system, and meanders slowly north east. A cruise boat passes by and we’re grateful not to meet it at the narrowest places. The locks now are simplicity itself, as we motor in at the high level…no need to flex biceps, straining to throw ropes…

We radio ahead and wait for a while until the swing bridge opens. This is all very efficient and the bridge radios ahead to the lock…

The canal is easy motoring, and we’re enjoyingthe scenery…but we’re looking forward to getting back on the open sea at some point, and feeling the old girl heel into a decent breeze.

Finally we reach Fort Augustus, and moor, just as the hail breaks and hammers on the roof and decks. We stay just at the top of the flight of 5 locks…further away from the general mass of tourists. We marvel at the fact that we will be right in the centre of lots of unknown people’s holiday snaps.