Inverness Bridge on the way in at midnight

Now in a cold wet and windy Inverness reflecting back on a fantastic week of sailing with John Furneaux.  Our last day involved the longest sail of the trip so we were both too tired last night to do any celebrating of the end of this leg.  I'll miss John he is excellent company.

The only bit I haven't mentioned was the town of Wick. Sorry no photos yet.  Wick was basically rebuilt and redesigned by Thomas Telford into a fishing port that could handle huge amounts of Herring. Over a 1000 boats sailed out of this little port at one time following the herring ( silver darlings) round the coast. Now sadly Wick has declined badly and seems to have little industry and a heavy cloud of dispair over it - even in the sunshine. Lots of telfords warehouses and dwellings and factories are still there, and apparently they are all lsited building, unfortunately they are mostly empty and are decaying.  Come now Alec Samond surely this place is worth a bit of investment, its fascinating to look round but really sad.

The island of Stroma

From Longhopes the trip down to Wick across to the mainland and the Pentland Firth can be a bit of a challenge but we seemed to hit it right which enabled us to sail near to the Island of Stroma. And by special request from John Williams we photographed it from all angles but this was the best we could do - the boat was bouncing around a bit. So John here is Stroma - a dark beautiful  place with a slight atmosphere of the mystical (bit like the wife then John!!)

We called into Longhopes for our last night on the Orkneys and found a bar where the landlord open and closed as he felt he needed to - very relaxed Mancunian (City supporter!) who is looking for someone to help him start bed and breakfast and walking holidays!!! The pub is the building behind the boat. The blue boat belongs to a helpful guy named Bert - a mine of information.

Stromness is like going back in time. Small paved streets and houses with a view to die for. Quiet place and definately one to return to

Scrabster was a noisy short stay where we tried to get some sleep before setting off to see the Old man of Hoy and thro the sound into Stromness. We stayed for four hours until we couldn't stand the noise of the port dredging any longer and decided to take a slow sail across to Hoy Sound

Cape Wrath in the late evening was awesome - it was calm one minute then the tide charged off in the other direction with us in tow.

On route we even had time to make bread

I have had a fantastic week of sailing with good company and great views. The sailing in Scotland is just unbeatable.  After the problems with the engine I was determined to get back on track but unfortunately it meant missing Stornaway and a Munro on Skye.  John Furneax has been a great crew and we've had a testing but enjoyable time . Our first stop was Tobermory ( again) and then onto Skye. We sailed thro Kyleakin and stayed over night on Skye at a small marina.  From Skye it was straight North - calling for an overnight in Loch Inver. Starnge place this as its one of the busiest fish landing harbour in the UK but it seems tiny. It also has a Fisheries Patrol boat parked just off shore checking all that go in. All the trawlers were from mainland Europe and the crews in the bar that night seemed to be using many different languages - The harbour officers comment was "Well we sold them the quotas!".

After two nail biting weeks wondering if the boat would be fixed Corpach Boat Builders managed to rebuild the top end of the engine. So today we escaped from the canal and headed for Tobermory

The weather as you can see has changed a great deaL instead of the usual five layers of clothing I am down to a t shirt and trousers ( nearly shorts but we decided that was a step to far and would tempt the bad weather back.
Next leg is to see how far North we can get before we need to stop ......

Where the boat was left and should still be - at the bottom of Neptunes staircase at Caol.  Must shift some of the stores over to the port side she has developed a definate lean to Starboard.

The resumption of the trip seems to be on the cards for 21st or 22nd of May. By then the lads and girls of Corpach Boat yard will have hopefully refurbished the engine's head and will have got all the bits (engineer type techy speak!) back in the right place.

In the meantime I am enjoying the warm fire; red wine ; and comforts and company of Home. Thanks Helen.

To John Williams - the answer is yes I will !  To Alan Yearsley - yes you can come if you want.  Fancy the bit with Scarpa flow in?

Just got home to a great meal and a shower that I can stand up in which doesn't need a £1 coin to work.  I haven't been away that long but the level of appreciation I feel for a toilet that doesn't move cannot be described. Yet I still love sailing!  This week is really about the logistics of fixing the boat; being with Helen; and looking up friends - who will no doubt rib me about my adventures.  Hopefully I'll be back on board in two weeks time and I'll be arranging with those that had planned to come a new date  for their trip.
Watch this space for developments.

My thanks to the guys at Scottish Canals for their kindness and help - particluarly John, Alec, Micheal etc . Also thanks to Corpach Boat Builders for your virtually immediate help, even though I know you are pulled out with other work .

The engineers have been and gone. I have to accept that this is going to be a longer ( and more expensive) trip than I thought it would be. The head of the engine will now need to go off to a Volvo dealers to have a new injector sleeve fitted and for the edge to be scimmed.  So , its back to Wales for me tomorrow via the train service..  I leave the boat in the hands of Corpach Boat Builders and hope they can fix it in the near future.

I put a comment on Facebook about anyone know any cheap moorings in Scotland and beleive it or not I got a positive reply - which I'll follow up when I come back from Wales. By coincidence it sounds like a place which Tim and I were advised to visit but we didn't manage to get there from Tobermory.  In Craohb Haven Tim and I were told of a bay of Loch Sunnart  where there's a retired Doctor who is very into alternative technologies - and his daughter now turns out to be a friend of a friend. 

The trip in Buffer has come to a temporary halt in the Caledonian Canal in a beautiful bit of Scotland. The engineers will have another go at solving the problem with the engine tomorrow ( Saturday just before a bank holiday!) and I'll then know if its a complete stop and return home or a minor but costly gap in the current schedule of the trip.

The head casket has gone but there is also a problem with an injector; the bit that fires the diesel into the cylinder. Apparently it's come adrift in a sleeve that sits in the engine block. The engineer is trying to regrind it by hand to make it fit to withstand the compression in the cylinder – he's a very positive guy and is hopeful. The alternative is to take the head off again and send it away. The latter option means a long delay, and for me a return home. I will have to find a temporary home for Buffer until she's fixed and then continue the trip later in the year. Every problem has a solution its just finding it and sorting it, and that is what will eventually happen .

It was perhaps an omen that Helen sent me a link of a canal cruise ship it passed me today – see pictures. It was a tight fit but it didn't mark my paintwork.

My apologies to James who comes on Sunday – looks like a walking holiday unless the engineer comes good on Saturday. I'll let all other crew members for later in the trip know of any rescheduling once I've sorted things......

well in some ways today was a success and some ways a failure.  I left Buffer this morning with the engineer working on putting the engine back together and headed off to climb Carn Mor Dearg - which is the Munroe next to Ben Nevis. On route it quickly became apparent to me that the conditions were exceptional. the skies were blue and there was no haze - you could see for miles. It had to be ben Nevis - I may never get another chance to see the views from the top as good as they were today.
The climb is long and hard but not technically difficult - its just a slog.  When you get two thirds of the way up you hit snow, which is often ankle and knee deep. This slows progress and is very hard. I was taking loads of Photos as it was a truely exceptional day.

At the top there were : Dutch; German; French; some eastern europeans and some scots and me.  The silence of the group was probably in reverance for the stunning views.  We sat round in some form of mountain playgroup until a group of Irish arrived.  They were FFFFing and Blinding about the climb and were so funny we were all laughing.  How do the Irish manage to turn everywhere into a party!?

The way down was hard and my knees and ankles were screaming at me to stop so I did, at the pub at the bottom - only for a shandy. It was here I reviewed my photos and found I'd been recording to some temporary memeory instead of the card and I'd lost the lot - disaster.  The views are however etched on my memory as being something very special.  Sorry!

Ben Nevis hopefully the next posts will be from the top.

The start of Glen Coe and the Corran narrows

On the way up to the narrows

This is the second time of typing and I dispare at technology sometimes - or am I just being an idiot?
The Trip has had many ups and downs so far . The main ups have been the fantastic views we've had in sharp sunshine . The downs include: Tim going home; head winds ; and the blown head gasket on the engine. This may work out expensive. No one said this was going to be easy and its one reason why its a sponsored trip for Hope House. ( Just Giving page - ian papworth.)

Never mind there's the walk up CMD to do this week sometime ( depending on engineers schedules!)

The sail up here was in two bits. We picked up a mooring near Balacush bay for a cheap overnight after a hard day sailing South from Tobermory ( yes head wind) to turn North east up to Fort william ( yes wind changed to a head wind.)

The second bit of the trip was through the Corran narrows and up to Fort William under the bright glare of Ben Nevis shining with the snow on it in the sun.

Once onto the canal waiting pontoon we notice a strange noise and smell. Investigated further in the canal revealed a blown head gasket with the cabin filled with fumes.

Thats life! Watch this space how this developes