Round Britain for the RNLI Blog

Although the lockkeepers start work at 8am they had a lot more boats at the bottom of the staircase wanting to come up than at the top wanting to go down and so they started locking up first and they continue locking up until they run out of boats and so there was a wait to get down. I went to get a cup of coffee from one of the restaurants and watched the boats locking up. There was a couple with a yacht with the man holding the stern rope and the woman holding the bow rope and the woman was having trouble . I offered to help and she accepted my offer immediately so along with the man I walked their boat into the next lock. It turned out that she was pulling the boat from the front so I suggested that she let her husband do the pulling from the back and she does the steering from the front so she wouldn’t have to do any hard pulling. I watched them do the next two locks with great success and they were both hugely grateful. They too were going round Britain but they were retired and they was doing it just for themselves and had no schedule at all.

Eventually it was time for locking down. I shared the lock with a 100ft barge that provides accommodation for 12 occupants on an activity holiday whilst transiting the canal. This barge was 130 tonnes and had no special equipment and yet they had no trouble mooring and going through the locks.

At the bottom I entered Loch Ness and got a rude introduction to the largest body of fresh water in the UK. The wind was up at F4-5 and the loch had waves. OK, they were only 2-3ft but having no tides and no swell they were very short and it made for an uncomfortable ride. I thought while I was on Loch Ness that I would have my chartplotter on sonar and so all the way up the loch I was looking out for the monster. Believe it or not I didn’t see anything that could have been Nessie but it was fun watching the depths at over 200m. You know that there is more fresh water in Loch Ness, which is 22 miles long one mile wide and 200m deep, than in all the lakes and reservoirs in the UK! Incredible.

I was “buzzed” by no fewer than a fighter and two Hercules aircraft on the loch.

About two thirds up the loch on the north shore is Drumnadrochit marina and Urquart Castle… the widest point on the loch. The little marina has no toilets or showers but offered good shelter and is a convenient stopping point on the loch. It is also the location of the RNLI’s very latest lifeboat station and I was welcomed on my arrival by Martin Douglas, volunteer crew and press officer for the station. After tieing up he gave me a super tour of the station and then took me back to his house for a tasty meal of homemade chowder. I made use of his broadband to upload photos. Thanks Martin.

Back at the boat I settled down for the night but it wasn’t a quiet one. The marina offers complete shelter except in northeasterlies and that is what we had so all night the boat rocked and water slapped making it a restless night. I shouldn’t complain… the weather has been bad on this trip as you know but I have not had a rocky night until now. Not at all bad.

Next day will see me descending the rest of the locks and then heading for Seaport Marina where I will be staying at least 2 or 3 nights. I have some collecting arranged for Friday and I have a couple of small repairs to make on the boat and engine. More on that later.