5 Kingdoms SC Griffin Charter
Alison Scutt Hutton Henry
Week one began as we slipped Mallaig in order to make the north-going tide through Tight squeeze Kyle Rhea. Even though we had calculated under the our air draught, the passage under the Skye bridge Bridge is always tense. Thus, it became a leisurely cruise part sail, part under engine to our first stop in Loch Carron where we dropped anchor for the night.A visit ashore by tender led to us seeing some of the entrants for the NC500 [mile] Skye Road Trip pass-by on motorcycles whilst we basked in the sun outside the village’s busiest pub. Leaving in the morning was delayed as we had snagged a large very old chain with our anchor (we did feel we had a very good anchorage overnight!) But with the help of some local open water swimmers we were set free and took a sunset sail up to Rona to be greeted by our first pod of dolphins. Just inside a Eilean Garbh (‘Rough Island’) we picked up a visitor’s buoy in the most peaceful of coves for our meal aboard in the beautiful Acairseid Mhor. The route The island has just two houses, both connected to a sheep farm. In the morning a walk ashore led us to Church Cave, where couples have previously climbed to take their vows of marriage.We ascended to the table top of the mountain for spectacular views and where the local farmer feeds the Sea Eagles and Golden Eagles each week. With a purchase of some fine venison shot and butchered by Bill the Island Manager we went on our way to Loch Ewe for our next stop, but not before we had the company of more dolphins, puffins and gannets diving the sea all around us. A slightly longer sail and time to raise the spinnaker to the furthest North in Scotland most of us had been towards the town of Ullapool on Loch Broom. A busy town with many tourists in campers filling the pubs and restaurants, led to an excellent meal close to the quay and local beer to help refresh. The fish lovers amongst us declared the location a must for future visits. Our sail back south to the Isle of Raasay was somewhat delayed by the flocks of different sea birds diving a large school of fish at Gairloch Loch.This was interrupted by yet more dolphins jumping fully out of the water and in the company of several Minke whales; between the heads of the occasional seal looking up to see what the commotion was all about.
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