The plan was to head up in the direction of Ullapool and anchor in the Summer Isles and head in to Ullapool on Thursday to pick up Barry and Mike who are joining me for a few days. The thought of anchoring at the Summer Isle became less appealing with te weather forecast hardly matching the name of the Isles. Wind gusting to over 30mph and lots of rain.
We set off from Gairloch this morning in what has become standard dress for much of this trip, full waterproofs. I did have an extra layer under my coat. Once clear of Badachro harbour, almost immediately a Harbour Porpoiise put in a brief appearance. That was about all the interesting wildlife for the rest of the day. After leaving Gairloch we turned NE with the wind directly behind. With the wind directly behind us the horizontal rain soaked the cockpit and the hatch board had to go in to keep the cabin dry. With rain virtually the whole way, there was no shelter. Everything that I normally keep sheltered by the spray hood was soaked.
We went through some sort of naval exercise. Several mine sweepers and a Royal Fleet Auxiliary cruising up and Down. The minesweepers were all merry Les’s holding their positions. There were some strange vhf communications between “Coach” and “Road Runner.”
Fortunately the wind wasn’t as strong as predicted but it wasn’t a pleasant journey and very few photos. The wind got stronger as we reached Ullapool, but once in the harbour the pontoons were quite well sheltered.
