Back at Sea

[Kyle]We got the first locking down out of the canal the next morning. Footprint was now back in sea water.

We made our way against moderate headwinds down Loch Linnhe, through the Corran Narrows and around the corner into Loch Leven. We went under the bridge at Ballachulish hoping we would get lucky enough to find the mooring ball we had used in April still free. It was not, so we did our best to find space between the tightly packed mooring balls. No luck.

We tried the next little bay over, closer to the bridge and the anchor dragged in idle reverse. We pulled it up to find it covered with kelp and a very surprised looking crab.

Next, we went up the loch one more little bay to the only other spot in the whole loch that looked shallow enough to anchor on the chart. There were no other boats or even moorings there, which made us suspect the holding must be pretty poor. We tried the anchor anyway and it held fast the first time. Whoo, hoo!

The anchorage was large and we were pretty far from shore but, for staying on the boat, it was a great spot. We were on a shallow bank in a wide stretch of water between two uncharacteristically low islands of gravel and grass that must be the remnants of a glacial moraine. The islands are full of nesting sea birds, mostly gulls, who wheel around crying to each other in the updrafts on the windward side. We had long views of the glens both up and down the stunning loch. The lack of protection from the wind kept our wind generator spinning. That and the bright sunshine meant the batteries stayed topped up and we had more power than we could use, like for writing blogs and such.


Sailing Scenes
We were now rich by cruising standards: Full fuel, full water, full fridge, clean laundry, a clean boat, three full tanks of propane and all the emission-free electricity we can use. We had a whole free afternoon to just potter around and enjoy the views of our new neighborhood.

Seems like the perfect kind of day for dinner in the cockpit.