Good Morning
We have now been onboard the Taransay III for two nights and so far so good. The weather has been exceptional! Sunshine all the way. This is our third day and it is absolutely beautiful! We are heading for Banavie this morning so that we can spend some time in Fort William. We will meet 'the Nephew' and his girlfriend before they sail off East towards Inverness on Lord of the Glens.
So far everything has gone according to plan. On Wednesday, 27th May, we drove down to Edinburgh to pick up Alan and Dorothy, Simon's parents. Their flight was early and it was a pretty decent day for them to view the countryside on the way back to Aberdeen. That was stage 1 of this adventure.
Thursday was a splendid day for Alan and Dorothy to rest and recover from their jetlag.
Friday was a day of getting everything organised for the trip - grocery shopping being top of the list! That done we put off time until half past four and we headed off to Aberdeen airport to pick up Richard and Judy (not the TV personalalities) but Simon's brother and his wife. Again their flight was early so this holiday was getting off to a good start.
We enjoyed a lovely meal on Friday night of, Cullen Skink, followed by haggis neeps and tatties, followed by a chicken and prawn salad. I think that everyone enjoyed it and it was a novelty to have haggis in May!
The next day we left a quarter past nine. Both cars loaded to the 'gunnels'. (A nautical term obviously) We made it to Caley Marina by 12 noon and after much hanging about and waiting for our boat (twice) she was ready for us and we had just loaded our stuff and were in the middle of the demo from Derek, the guy from Caithness who works at Caley, when he noticed that the 'dirty tank' light was on. That could have meant that the toilet tank hadn't been emptied - oh, what a terrible thought! Anyway, they took our boat, Taransay III away again and had it checked. Just a malfunction - or that is what they told us!!! Hope we don't have to empty the tank any time soon. This boat is different from Lakota, what goes in the 'pan' doesn't go overboard it goes in a tank on the boat. I know which one I prefer.
After a boat handling practice we finally headed out of the marina following at least six other boats. It was our own little flotilla. We made it up through Tomnahurich bridge on on up to our first lock, Dochgarroch. It was great to be onboard again. We had Derek accompany us to Dochgarroch and then we were on our own. We headed through Loch Dochfour and I nearly got run over by the Jacobite Cruise boat. I forgot the golden rule, you always make room for them they will not make room for you! Anyway, after that close shave I had learned a lesson - make way for anything bigger than us because they are not going to stop! We made it to Urquhart Harbour in plenty of time to enjoy the evening sun and have a lovely barbecue on the quay side. It was a beautiful eveing. We enjoyed a few glasses of wine and by half past eleven the die hards, Richard, Simon and me, headed for bed - you wouldn't expect less of us.
Must go now and watch what is going on.
Signing off
CNG
