issue 1 – 10th July

Apologies about the silence over the last few days. It been a combination of long days, lots going on, weather too rough to write anything at sea and in places poor internet connection. Since my last post we have covered quite a bit of distance, and reached our most Northern point on the trip.

This post is not complete, but i thought I would publish it now to give an update on where we are. We are currently at Stromness on the Orkneys after 2 sunny days and 1 wet exploring the Mainland Island we are sitting out strong wind and rain before moving on South. I will update and republish this post as time and internet connection allows.

Thursday 4th July – A very wet, windy and rainy day in Ullapool

Not a lot to report here. Ullapool is a very nice town and small marina built behind a breakwater adjoining a busy commercial harbour. It was quite noisy at night with a Norwegian ship that is used in the Salmon farming industry to clean the fish. It was just the other side of the harbour wall opposite. There was a constant drone coming from it. Then in the early hours one of the fishing boats moored just behind us started up, ran its noisy engine for some time. It eventually cast off seemingly using full power to manoeuvre from the harbour.

It had rained all day. We did get out a couple of times when the rain eased slightly, but each time it started again and more wet clothes to try and dry. My long term friend Barry and his son Mike, traveled up to Ullapool to join me for a few days. Mike had previously joined me in North Wales from Pwllheli to Conwy. Three of us with wet clothes became a bit of a challenge with the boat full of condensation. Unfortunately the cockpit was facing the wind and rain, so just opening the hatch meant we got rain in.

Friday 5th July – Ullapool to Loch Nedd

We awoke to a better day. The wind had eased considerably and the rain had gone. It was still overcast, but considerably better than the day before. We headed out of Loch Broom and threaded ourselves through the Summer Isles, a group of small Islands. The seals all looked rather indignant that we were spoiling their peace.

We continued on and spotted a pod of Common Dolphins chasing after Foreness. Soon they were playing in the bow wave, leaping out of the water in front and behind. After a while a group peeled off and headed towards Jeddo to the delight of my crew. I will add the video at a later date.

We continued on passing Stoer Light House and then the towering Old Man of Stoer came into sight. A spectacular sea-stack. Once past there we made our way towards Loch Nedd, that turned out to be a idilic steep sided Loch providing excellent shelter with loads of space to anchor. Once anchored we went ashore for a “stroll” up the steep road to the small village of Nedd. Once past the few houses we came to Moreland and a small group of Red Deer stood staring at us. They were obviously use to seeing people as they didn’t run off. Whilst returning to the boats the rain returned.