Monday 18th with a light southerly wind we weighed anchor and set off north from Rum bound for Loch Harport on Skye. It was a fine day and the outer Hebrides appeared on the horizon. Turning into the approaches to Harport we could see Macleods Maidens distant on the port side, three towering rock stacks. It’s still another 6nm to the head of the Loch and the village of Carbost. Here we picked up a visitor mooring and there is also a pontoon. It’s a well sheltered spot in anything other than a northerly I imagine. Venturing ashore over the next two days we made the most of the warm comforts of the Old Inn, paid a visit to the Talisker distillery visitor centre, foraged in the local community shop, and took a bus the half hour to Portree. We did not indulge in the experience of the sauna next to the pontoon where a few brave souls were seen first taking a dip in the freezing waters of the loch before entering the sauna. We also took the opportunity to fill up with water on the pontoon. All in all it is an excellent stopover.
The Cuillins, en route to Loch Harport
Thursday 21st May, with a continuing forecast of strong winds over the next few days we abandoned plans to go further north to Stein in favour of retracing our steps. So we headed back south after first battling a F5/6 and a sizeable sea, tacking out of the loch. Later the winds dropped, so much so that we motored a while past Lochs Eynort and Brittle, the forecast so very wrong ! We turned into the Sound of Soay with the option of the anchorage either on the north side the island or the stunning and unique anchorage in Loch Na Cuilce, at the foot of the Cuillins. Since the thick low cloud was obscuring anything more than the bottom few hundred feet of the mountains and therefore any opportunity to appreciate the awe inspiring scenery, we opted for the former.
Friday, we took the dinghy into the inner harbour and had a short walk around the remains of the buildings and plant of Gavin Maxwell’s failed shark oil processing venture, back in the 1940s. He did however manage to decimate the region’s basking shark population, which has only recently recovered.
Maxwells place on Soay
With a similar forecast to the previous day we headed south again beating into F4/5. Plan A was to reach Loch Moidart 25nm away, however over the course of the next few hours the wind changed from periods of 6kts to a squall of 26kts, and a direction of SE to SW. Alternative destinations were considered hour to hour ultimately settling on Islornsay when the wind again faltered late afternoon with still 14nm to go. So we diverted up the Sound of Sleat and anchored in the bay which provides good shelter from south winds. There are many moorings so boats have to anchor about half a mile from the pier.
Now back at Armadale where SO will stay on a mooring for a few weeks.
The Adventures of Sea Orchid 