Half way up Loch Ness

My regular reader might be wondering what's happened in the last few days. Well, we've been rather busy and there hasn't been much internet access either. This means that there are still no photos in this blog but if you go to the sail caledonia web site, you'll see loads. *

I left you wondering (with bated breath, no doubt) about the equipment breakages on the way up to Fort William - as we had approached the narrows at Corran, the wind increased to about 22 knot and the boat was becoming difficult to control. The jib had to be rolled up (taking a reef on the main would have taken too long). The snag is that it wouldn't fully roll up, so we went through the narrows with the jib flapping violently and shaking the whole boat. Having forced the narrows, I was able to lower the jib and then noticed that one of the shrouds ** was flapping in the breeze. The pin on it's shackle had come undone and been lost. 

Down came the main (fortunately before the mast broke) and on came Freddy to take us up to the mooring outside the Lochaber Yacht Club.

There's be no more sailing until the shackle had been fixed.

The next morning, I walked the streets of Fort William looking for a chandlers. There was none. 'The nearest is in Mallaig and it's 40 miles away - but there is a train', said one helpful local. I returned to the yacht club, where I met Hamish, one of the key officials. 'I think I've one of those in my spares box, I'll look for you when I get home.'

Sure enough, next morning he turned up with a suitable spare and Vagabond was soon back in business. It was a good thing too, suddenly there were trailers and boats everywhere as the 20 or so taking part in Sail Caledonia arrived. We were off, a race to the sea locks at the beginning of the canal and our introduction to the art of getting all 22 entrants and the multitude of support boats into a lock at once. We began the ascent.....

 * their suppport staff cen get in a car to find a connection!

**a rope that holds up the mast