2024 May 25th Day 57, Portree to Loch Ewe.

Motoring again. ☹️ but at least there was a peaceful evening and, for the third time in three visits, a good sunset to watch. 

Fortifications at the entrance to Loch Ewe, an important refuge
for the fleet and merchant ships during WWII, especially after
the sinking of the Royal Oak in Scapa Flow and before the
Churchill barriers were built to prevent a repetition.

39 miles in 9 hours.

To Tarbet Lagoon, Handa Island.

2021 Round GB Day 32. On from Stornoway.

Beating south from Stornoway,

After a good nights sleep and a shower I found that on Sundays the Stornoway Co-op and other shops were closed (unlike in Stromness), that the forecast was reasonable through Wednesday but iffy from some time on Thursday and that the tide was good to get past the Shiant Islands where tides are significant, during the early afternoon.

So with some wind and more forecast I abandoned my planned rest day and at 10:30 headed out with the possibility of getting down the east coast with time to cross the Sea of the Hebrides to the mainland before the bad weather arrived.

That proved optimistic.

Almost as soon as I cleared the harbour the wind dropped and changed from an excellent north easterly to a dead beat. Then it started to drizzle, I was not happy.

By 14:15 I managed to get 3 miles from the harbour boundary covering all of 11 miles over the ground since leaving the marina. Also the latest forecast was not good. The chance of following "Plan B" was greatly diminished and there was a strong possibility of getting stuck at the southern end of the Outer Hebrides for an extended period - the crossing from there to the mainland crosses some difficult seas with strong tides and needs good weather.

I therefore decided to bail out to the mainland coast so that I could get to the sheltered waters behind the Isle of Skye, on went the engine and I headed for Loch Ewe the closest good anchorage.

"Plan C" as executed - Stornoway to Loch Ewe.

The Polish guided missile frigate ORP General K. Pulaski. A German
oiler behind. Ships of other nationalities including Dutch, French
and British were in the area.

I arrived at the Aultbea anchorage at 19:20 having covered 38 miles over the ground in 9 hours. 

The entrance to Loch Ewe (centre)

The anchorage at 23:00, still over a month from the longest day.

Click here for day 32, Loch Ewe to Shieldaig.

Stage 14, Broadford to Loch Ewe.

My track compared to the original plan, 

I was using the autopilot so my track

(red) is covered by the plan (blue)

The weather remained damp and chilly and with strong winds forecast I decided against my planned stop off in Lochs Torridon and Diabaig and headed straight for Loch Ewe, once a fairly important naval anchorage which still has a NATO refuelling pier for warships. This move would also position me well for possible weather windows to get to Orkney.

Tide was less important for this leg but it was another early start at 05:10 to make quite a long hop with some uncertainty about the wind.

The weather went from nothing to NW F5 and back to westerly F4 in less than an hour and stayed that way until well into Loch Ewe when it dropped away to nothing.

I was largely past the BUTEC testing range before trials started and was disappointed not to see at least the periscope of the submarine reported to be about.

I anchored at Aultbea, further into the Loch than planned at the outer ones looked rather exposed and quite small.

48 miles in 11 hours 20 minutes.

The fortified entrance to Loch Ewe

The south end of Loch Ewe with the NATO fuelling point on the left.

The anchorage at sunset.

Slide show all of my pictures from Broadford Bay to Loch Ewe. Page through by clicking the arrows or click in the centre of the pic to view from Flickr in a new window or full screen:

Loch Ewe to Loch Nedd.