Day 37

Day 37

Here be Dragons

We left Stornoway early this morning with the plan of reaching a beautiful anchorage early evening. The journey started out with spirit gracefully pulling away from her moorings and the crew waving goodbye as he was still on the quay. This was intentional as Dan was todays skipper and we retrieved Shaun by Tender where he promptly went to sleep giving Dan the boat. It must be strange to stand on the land and watch your boat sail away.

We set off under motor in search of the wind and made a track that would give us wind for the best part of the passage. Then the weather report came almost laughing at the mocking I had made of cape wrath as a gale waring straight in our path seemed like a good reason to search for a safe haven and that we did. After a visit from a pod of dolphins and a shout that there were buoys ahead that turned out to be the kind that take off fly around and eat fish. That’s right the buoys were in fact Gannets. I am sure it is an easy mistake to make??

We sailed into Loch Shell on the isle of Lewis after only 25 miles as it was our plan for safe harbour. As we sailed in and visibility and the misty weather took hold of the water around us I am sure the Charts should have read (here be Dragon. As if there are still dragons in the world then surely they are here. We Anchored up and sent a shore party in search of signs of flying lizards. Shaun, Tamsin, Yanto and Tony jumped in the tender and climbed the hills that surrounded us. Then through the mist we heard the clacking of what sounded like a Dragon. Dan as skipper shouted the order and we prepared out water bombs only to discover just to late it was the tender returning the boat. Fortunately, the aim of the general crew was poor so the shore party got back on board without incident. (to be fair the weather was not that bad and we knew exactly what we were doing but Dan was the skipper and orders is orders)

We are tonight anchored in a gorgeous loch with no signs of life (except Dragons) it is a beautiful part of the world that most people will never see.

On a self-indulgent note for which a make no excuse. I have felt more at ease with myself today than I can ever remember.

Stay safe, speak soon

Russ