Jean Says: After 72 hours without getting off the boat, it's hard to get the legs to work normally again. The first fifteen minutes of getting from the boat to the centre of Plockton felt like trying to walk across a large inflated air bed. Once the legs began to function normally, we did a circular walk past Duncraig Castle, an imposing castle like house that's being refurbished as a guest house. It looked like a mini Hogwarts, and would make an amazing venue for a big party.
We're so glad that we didn't miss coming to Plockton. It's a tiny Narnia, in a Lord of the Rings setting, with toy town cottages, and exquisite little well tended gardens fronting onto the sea. The abundance of palm trees gives it a very continental feel. Plockton has a shop, two hotel, a pub and above all, ten welcoming and sturdy mooring buoys for visiting yachties like ourselves.
The Plockton Hotel, also a thriving pub, was hosting a Scottish music night, so our entertainment for the evening was sorted. I was surprised at the number of foreign tourists coming into the pub. There were several groups of young suave Italians and young Americans all eating there, as well as the standard retired Northern Europeans that you always find in Scotland in May. I don't know how Italians manage to look really stylish in the same stuff that we all wear - jeans, T shirts and maybe a casually draped scarf. I spent rather a long time trying to work out what the secret ingredient was, but could only come to the conclusion that it's youth, poise and uber trendy glasses. I'll be making an appointment at the opticians as soon as I get home.
We found ourselves sitting next to two chaps who were also going round Britain on a Halberg Rassey. They'd set off from Dartmouth on the fifth of May, and had managed to avoid some of the bad weather that we'd experienced. They're planning on sailing round the top, so we may bump into them on the way down the East coast and will look out for them. They won't be the only other people on Halberg Rasseys that we'll be looking out for. We're thinking of attaching a large rear view mirror to Bella Rosa, just in case there's a certain Danish Halberg Rassey called Cecilia, also circumnavigating via Cape Wrath. If she had AIS, we could check, but unfortunately, she didn't appear to have it. Oh dear!


Plockton - iPad drawing




Jean in a nautical T shirt in Plockton. None of the Italians were wearing one........hmmm





We're now in The Kyle of Lochalsh, which was only an hour and a half sail from Plockton. Getting there involves sailing under the relatively new Skye road bridge, which is 29 metres above the highest astronomical tide. Our air draft is only 16 metres, but we still held our breath when we passed under it. The facilities here are limited, but there is a nice solid pontoon, and a Co-op which must have one of the best locations of any supermarket in the whole of the British Isles. I never thought I'd get excited about visiting a Co-op, but we haven't been able to stock up on fresh food since we were in Tobermory, which was at least a week ago. Isn't lettuce wonderful!

Uh oh....... Here it comes.......





Looking back on the bridge from The Kyle of Lochalsh