Early August 2008 - Rodel, Lochmaddy, Skye and Torridon
From Rodel we moved on for a brief visit to Lochmaddy on North Uist in order to get the laundry done. One of the hotels in the village allows yachties to use their machines/drying lines once the hotel's own laundry is finished. The hotel has wifi, sells good coffee and excellent beer, so waiting for your laundry to dry is no chore. This time it was also enlivened when we were asked to A day's sail took us across to Skye where we anchored off the village of Dunvegan. We stayed here for some time in 2007 so it was a familiar place. This time our stay coincided (by design) with the Skye Highland games in Portree. The games are held on "The Lump" which is a promontory on the southern shore of the town. At one time it was quarried for stone which has left a flat circular area in the middle surrounded by steep banks, all now covered in grass, in other words a excellent amphitheatre for holding the games. Unlike the North Uist games we attended last year, the Portree games insist that the Bad weather kept us in the Dunvegan area for several days after the games. Although we did venture out to stay for a night off the village of Stein on the Waternish Peninsular. Here there is a good CAMRA recommended pub which has a very pretty sign (left) as well as excellent beer and food. The views over the loch, across the Minch to the Uists, with purple heather in the foreground were very special (more pictures), but the blue skies did not last and we scuttled back to the safety of Dunvegan to ride out the storm. The storm thankfully passed quickly, and then followed a week of calm sunny weather. This was only in the north west of Scotland, the rest of the UK had heavy rain with severe floods in some areas. However, it was not good sailing weather, but perfect for exploring Upper Loch Torridon. The loch is surrounded by high mountains, these are very beautiful but even in light winds can create strong squalls of unpredictable direction. Our last visit in June to the less mountainous outer loch was memorable for staying up all night on anchor watch though a gale. This time could not have been more different - there was so little wind that the midges ventured across the water to probe our midge net which was thankfully very effective. Our first stop was at Diabaig (see more pictures) before moving on to the anchorage shown below at West Alligin. The walking was excellent. At one point we met a Swedish couple who were just setting out on a six day hike around the loch taking in all the munroes and other high mountains. They certainly picked the right week for it. We would have liked to do more, but a combination of food running low, and unsettled forecasts caused us to move on. Our plan for the rest of August is to gradually return south inside Skye back through Kylerhea and head towards Ardnamurchan.
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