Route Canal
In yesterday’s blog post I fatefully predicted ‘…very light winds and a motor sail up the Forth of Lorn and Loch Linnhe, past Fort William to the sea loch at Corpach’. The discerning reader may have detected an element of disdain, a kind of dismissive attitude that this salty sea dog does not need to worry too much about the mere Forth of Lorn and Loch Linnhe.
We set out from Oban harbour in modest
attire and rather later than required by the rather casual ‘passage plan’ which
had already put back our departure by a couple of hours, based on an assumption
that we could simply push through an adverse tidal flow by motor sailing. We exited
the harbour and rounded the headland to face 25 miles per hour wind on the nose
and steep choppy sea conditions. Our nonchalance continued for five minutes or
so until we were cold and slightly damp from spray, then we took it in turns to
go below and dress more sensibly. For Pete that meant extra layers top and
bottom and full oilies (sailor’s waterproof salopettes and jacket). For Mark that
meant putting some long trousers over his shorts and a fleece jacket to
complement his tee-shirt. After a few hours conditions improved but our
progress towards Fort William was behind schedule. It is 26th June 2021.
W
e approached the ‘gateway’ of this passage, the narrowest section of Loch Linnhe at Corran, where the easily overcome one knot flow against us unfortunately accelerates to three knots as it is squeezed through the constriction. This narrow point has a car ferry running across which is a shortcut for tourists and commercial traffic heading for Mallaig. The ferry basically runs constantly on demand across the narrow gap. We had planned to tackle this gateway when the flow was only one knot but our lackadaisical approach and late set off meant we were facing a full three knot flow.
Now Mark looks after his boat’s
engine. It is serviced regularly and checked daily. The throttle lever has never
been pushed further forward than 45 degrees, in order to avoid stress on the
engine. On this occasion, Pete was steering towards the Corran gap and becoming
increasingly concerned about the tidal flow against. By luck he kept to the shallower
west side on the approach and came across a powerful back eddy so that the boat
actually started to gain speed. The ferry was busy lowering its ramp and
letting the homeward bound tourists escape to the south, along with fish tanker
lorries full of langoustines bound for the promised friction-free trade with
our European neighbours. Pete was feeling smug about the bonus speed gained
from the eddy, but this came to an abrupt halt as the boat entered the crux of
the obstacle and entered the main flow. The speed of the boat over the water
was a good 6 knots, but the GPS revealed a terrible truth, our speed over the
ground was reduced to a mere 1.5 knots. Now, babies playing on the nearby sandy
beach have been reported to crawl at this speed. The skipper of the ferry was
by now loading his northbound traffic and looking forward to what is no doubt a
highlight of an otherwise predictable sea-faring life back and forth across the
500 metre Corran gap. Pete started to whimper in despair as a horrible tragedy
began to unfold. The skipper began raising his ramp in preparation for cast off.
Pete considered bailing out by turning back and accepting an ignoble retreat
downstream. Mark came to the rescue by pushing the throttle lever to an unprecedented
60 degrees, but lifted the hatch to inspect the engine and commented that this level
of engine performance could only be maintained for a short period. The whole scenario
on the boat was reminiscent of an episode of Star Trek from the 1970s.
meanwhile the skipper of the ferry was applying full throttle and began to
steer directly towards the no doubt sassenach yacht that was foolishly trying
to overcome the full tidal flow of the very Scottish Corran gap. For the next
three minutes Pete held his breath and tried not to look over his shoulder at
the oncoming ferry too often, as that might make him look nervous. The boat gradually
began to make more speed over the ground as it passed beyond the narrowest
point and the ferry passed harmlessly behind with the passengers looking on
with some concern for the struggling yacht, but we imagined the crew grinning viciously
at having put the willies up the English invaders. Back into the wider loch
everything became more relaxed, the throttle was pulled back to 30 degrees and
Mark claimed not to have had a moments concern. Pete went below to make toasted
cheese sandwiches and life on board returned to its cheerful routine as we
covered the last couple of hours of progress up the loch to reach the entrance
to the Caledonian Canal at Corpach.
The entrance to the Caledonian Canal
is controlled by a sea lock. The sea lock can only operate for four hours either
side of high tide so we faced a wait of a couple of hours. The water depth by a
small pontoon seemed insufficient so we came up against a wood panelled sea
wall to wait for the tide. A vertical ladder led up to the dock about ten
metres above the deck of the boat. Pete took a couple of long lines and climbed
up to find that the dock was under renovation. The ladder ended with a two-foot
gap slightly overhung by the newly replaced non-slip surface platform. With no
railings yet in place and nothing to grab on the platform itself, the next move
involved an undercut grip on the steel girder and a slightly desperate roll
onto the platform. It should have been captured on Go Pro. The boat was secure
and mark stayed on board to bring it into the lock in a couple of hours’ time.
Pete was not prepared to reverse his outrageous manoeuvre and so sat under a
tree to wait and was thus perfectly positioned to capture on celluloid the entrance
of Kindred Spirit to the canal.
Dad put TROUSERS ON??? It must be freezing 😂
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