Stornoway in the rain and recrossing the Minch

Hiring a car on Tuesday in Stornoway proved to be the best way of making something of the truly awful weather. Rain varied from heavy to continuous drizzle with strong winds and poor visibility, at least we could view it from the relative comfort of a Fiat Panda with a good heater!

We started the day heading out to the Eye Peninsula to the East of Stornoway and were surprised at how much housing we passed. On a good day the views from the lighthouse at Tiumpan Head would have been good but in the mist there wasn't much point in hanging around. Retracing our steps to Stornoway we headed North, first up the East coast then across the moorland to the West coast with a view to heading up to the Butt of Lewis in the North of the island. The Northern part of Lewis is relatively low with extensive moorland. With poor visibility and not very exciting scenery close to we decided this would be a bit pointless and did an about turn, heading South down the West coast to some more rugged and interesting scenery.

We made a stop at Dun Carloway Broch, a circular tapering building built of dry stones in about 50BC as a dwelling. The circular outer wall had two skins, like a modern cavity wall but with a much wider gap tied together with flat stones which also formed staircases between the floors. The entrance openings were narrow and low, on the basis that it is very difficult for an enemy to attack when having to bend down to get in! We got very wet walking up to the Broch so dried out over a sandwich lunch in the car with the heater on full blast! Sue in the visitor centre was most knowledgeable about the Broch and it is testament to the strength of the building that it has survived nearly 2,000 years of Hebridean storms.

In between the walls of the Broch.

Try fighting your way in when you have to approach like this!

We stopped at the visitor centre at Callanish Standing Stones, a Hebridean version of Stonehenge, but opted not to repeat the soaking we had at the Broch and made do with tea and cake instead! One of the brochures left in the hire car talked about a distillery at Uig, a village out towards the West of the island. We failed to find the distillery but the drive through rugged scenery on roads that were single track with passing places for a good part of the way was worth doing. A number of lochs extend a long way inland on this part of the island with fine sandy beaches, all viewed from inside the car in the dry. The campers by the side of some of them did not appear to be having much fun! We had planned to visit the eagle observatory in the South of the island but decided that the likelihood of seeing anything was remote so we made our way back to Stornoway, finishing the day with some excellent haddock and chips from Cameron's chip shop and a film on the boat. Colin, the owner of Cameron's, had been in the trade for many years and certainly knew his business. He lamented the fact that he had to get his fish from the East coast, the fishing boats in Stornoway landing mainly crabs, prawns and lobsters.

Wednesday was forecast to be better weather so we aimed to recross the Minch to visit Badachro in Gairloch. We arranged to go alongside the quay to top up with diesel next to 'Leader', a Brixham trawler built in 1892. We discovered that she was skippered by Ben Wheatley, who we knew from our voyages on the tall ship Stavros S Niarchos when Ben was bosun. Ben now works for The Trinity Sailing Foundation based in Brixham and lives in Stoke Gabriel. We went alongside Leader after refuelling and exchanged details so we could meet up with Ben when we return home. Leader was on her way to Norway in a tall ships race but retired on Tuesday due to the bad weather that forced us into a hire car.

Alongside 'Leader'.

The wind was from the N and NW for our return trip, and a good force 5. We started with just a double reefed mainsail then added a partially furled genoa, boomed out on the other side. With a moderate sea the waves made steering hard work but rewarding, regularly making over 8 knots. Even though the sun was out it was still cold enough for thermals and full waterproofs! We made the 42 mile trip in 6 hours, 7 knots average and anchored in Badachro harbour at 19.30. A pretty place with a reputedly good pub but as we didn't go ashore we didn't sample it.

A quick, but roly trip across the Minch.

We had a couple of days spare before we needed to be in Ullapool and realised that we were close to Acairseid Mor on Rona, one of the top favourite places on Hugh and Nicola's 50 favourite places list so that became our Thursday destination. Only 20 miles away we could get there in the early afternoon and get ashore for a walk and meet the warden, Bill Cowie. The sail started well with full sail and a beat into a westerly breeze out of Gairloch. Outside the loch the breeze gradually faded until we eventually had to go for the engine again.

Acairseid Mor is another natural harbour with a rock strewn entrance and careful pilotage needed to get in. Once in we anchored a 100 metres or so off the jetty in perfect peace, blew the dinghy up and rowed ashore to be met by Bill on the jetty who told us where to walk and to call in at Rona Lodge, his cottage, on the way back to the boat. Bill and his wife are the only permanent residents on Rona and sell postcards with Rona stamps and frozen seafood and Rona venison to help support the management of the island. After the walk Debbie bought postcards and we stocked up with venison burgers and vacuum packed steaks. For once the weather was kind for our walk and the 360 degree view from the high point was spectacular.

Acairseid Mor anchorage.

Rona Lodge.

Rain returned in the evening and continued into Friday, when we set sail Northwards for the Summer Isles, aiming for the 'Cabbage Patch' harbour on Tanera Mor, visited by Libby Purves and family during their trip, recorded in 'One Summers Grace'. The sail was quick, the wind now being in the Southwest, and would have gone down as one of our best if the weather hadn't been miserable, rain and drizzle and poor visibility so all we could see of the coastline was faint grey outlines in the mist. Thank goodness for a good chartplotter!

The Cabbage Patch, Tanera Mor.

We anchored in the Cabbage Patch in the early evening and had a meal of Rona venison burgers, which were great, moist and full of flavour without being greasy. We need to go back for more! In the morning Debbie would have liked to have had the time to go ashore and see if the families which befriended the Heiney/Purves family were still there but we needed to make the short trip to Ullapool in time for some shopping and to get some laundry done so we were off by mid morning and moored in Ullapool in time for lunch.

The Harbour Trust staff at Ullapool were most helpful. Debbie had arranged for a box of Aloe Vera products to be delivered to Ullapool for us. We couldn't go alongside the pontoon to collect it as the place was really busy due to a skiff rowing event taking place so they brought the box out to us on the mooring and took Debbie ashore to visit the laundry.

The skiff racing was a big event. We watched the last race of the day, which was a ladies race starting off the ferry pier to a turning line across the loch and back. The boats looked hard work to row and the winning girls certainly deserved the cheers as they crossed the finish line.

Just after the start.

Still going strong at the finish.

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy