Day 29 - Lochmaddy

It's a nice day and we have a touch of the light and variables - the calm before the storm if the inshore forecast is to be believed. After a leisurely breakfast I go ashore and wash my boot socks and a couple of pairs of socks and underpants in the gents in the ferry terminal on the pier. For any cruisers thinking of following suit, I can highly recommend it - twin sinks with plenty of hot water. Also picked up a few leaflets and chatted to the very nice lady in the tourist office.

As we had missed Berneray yesterday we decided to visit it by bus instead. An excellent wee minibus took us to the Sound of Harris ferry slip and we walked back along the beach and through the village until the next bus came along and picked us up. It gave us a chance to examine first hand and without panic Bays Loch and the surrounding waters, which the locals allegedly navigate by instinct alone. Hamish Haswell-Smith tells a story about a Bernaray man who was carrying some folk from Harris to the island when he hit a rock. Outraged, his passengers cried:

"You told us you knew every rock in this area", to which the worthy boatman replied:

"Sure I do, and this is one of them"

Berneray is beautiful on a day like this - long white strands fringing turquoise water, the rocks like a handful of carelessly dropped pebbles in the sound and the Harris hills rising beyond. The Youth Hostel is unique - a pair of thatched 'black houses' with all (or most) mod cons.

When we got back to Lochmaddy Kathy went shopping and I checked my e-mail in the local centre, as once again there was no O2 signal here. We had a quick pint in the Lochmaddy Hotel then repaired to the boat to prepare to return to the hotel for showers and a meal out.

When we got back to the pier we found Westbound Adventurer on one of the moorings.. She is a Sigma 33C belonging to Westbound Adventures, the sailing school Kathy and I did our first RYA courses with. We stopped off on the way back to the boat for a chat with the skipper, Lawrence McBride. He takes occasional courses for the school, and has just become the proud owner of an Albin Vega.

Armed with clean underwear and shampoo we returned to the Lochmaddy Hotel. Showers are expensive at £3.00, but an endless supply of fluffy white towels is provided - and anyway we just put it on the bill with the meal and paid with a card. The meal was good and excellent value, and the pudding - lemon posset - was superb.

Lawrence and some of his Competent Crew candidates came into the bar later, but by this time we were deep in conversation with the couple off Eos, a steel 31ft Van der Stadt on the mooring inshore from us. He was a freelance shepherd from Kent, so they were able to take relatively long chunks of time off at certain non-sheep-critical times of the year to go cruising. They had been intending to go to Orkney but after a day or so in Kinlochbervie waiting for the infernal North-Easterlies to change they had abandoned hope and gone round the Butt of Lewis and Westabout to Taransay.

So another pleasant pub evening . . . plans for the morrow fluid, depending on weather and headstate on rising. The inshore forecast is saying 5-6 SW, which is close hauled or worse for going South, but the outlook is worse with F7 being mentioned.

4:14 PM - Aug. 12, 2005 - post comment