I should have mentioned in my last post. I previously mentioned that since The Isle of Man we had been separated from Nick in Daydream, firstly as he needed to get his crew to a railway station and there was a possibility of delays due to weather, then he had dental problems. He left Daydream in Troon for a week or so and returned home to get treatment. Nick returned to Troon with Ken Milburn as crew and set off to catch us up, but after reaching Tobermory, Nick with the previous discomfort starting to return made the decision to turn back towards the Caledonian canal and head home via the shorter route. We are keeping in touch and hopefully I can give updates of their progress as they return home. As of Wednesday they had gone up Neptunes Staircase were heading through Loch Lochy.
Back to us. We left Rum at 11.00 on Tuesday heading for the Kyle of Lochalsh. We set off sailing quite nicely across to the SE corner of the Isle of Skye and up the Sound of Sleat. Eventually the engine had to take over the job of pushing the boat along as we approached the pinch point of the Kyle of Rhea. We arrived at the commercial port of Kyle of Lochalsh with its visitor pontoon outside one of the several hotels in the town. The town was obviously the main crossing point to Skye in the days before the bridge was built. The Railway Station platform ends on the pier. The Royal Scotsman train was sitting in the station. We had. Stunning sunset with the sun illuminating the hill of Skye just across the water at gone 10pm in the evening.
With gales forecast for Thursday and Friday we set off for the Isle of Rona to head to the well sheltered anchorage of Acarseid Mhor. For the first time on the trip we set off in warm sunshine. A bit of breeze picked up as we were leaving, but died again for the rest of the journey. The sun didn’t last long and the clouds returned. Not long after passing under the Skye road bridge and heading up the Inner Sound multiple dolphins appeared some way off on the port side. I estimated 30-40, it may have been more, some leaping high out of the water. A small group noticed me and came racing towards me. Chasing alongside the boat and riding the bow wave. More joined and I had them accompanying me for a while. A little further on, Foreness was called up on the radio and advised he was heading towards an active military range. The safe route involved moving to within 1 N mile of the coast of Raasay. It turned out that we were heading into a submarine practice area.
Looking back I realised a mist was getting closer and before long I was putting waterproofs on. I did however get a brief glimpse of a White tailed Sea Eagle. We cut between Raasay and Rona and found the hidden entrance to the delightful Acarseid Mhor.
We had a short trip ashore and a short walk on the rugged terrain of Rona. Apparently there is a museum of the Islands past that if the weather allows we may try and find later.
I will hopefully add more pics later with a video of the dolphins.