He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The roar of an outboard woke us from a good sleep and the rib’s wake jostled us up. We made ready to depart on the still waters and as we turned out our anchorage, a pair of white tailed eagles stood guardian, perched on the rounded rock above the bay. They were huge raptors, majestic and toned. Always on the look out and ready to soar whenever the fancy took them. One of them must had caused all the trouble yesterday.

It was flat calm so we had no choice but to motor down Loch Broom, passing the high hulks of Ben Mor Coigach and his sister peak Sgùrr an Fhìdhleir, their summits shrouded in thick low cloud.

A distant splash and flash of dark dorsal caught my eye and realised it was quite a large group of dolphins feeding. There was a large tour motor boat following behind us and I was surprised to see him turn directly towards them and headed straight in the middle of the pod. I could see some of the dolphins leap clear of the water and it looked like they were alarmed. This was not responsible behavior from a wildlife tour operator and it seemed their priority was for their customers to get a good view and pictures. However this tour operator is out every day, twice a day all season so maybe the wildlife is used to this disturbance and habituated.

We passed the Calmac ferry steaming her way up the loch and were greeted near the harbour by a large cruise ship anchored out. We called in to the marina to drop off the bikes then took a mooring south of this noisy, busy and slightly smelly harbour.

It was a real marine hub, ferries coming and going, wildlife watching tour boats, fishing boats, cruise ship tenders in and out like water taxis, pleasure boats, sailing dinghies and even a racing trimaran.

Another of our learning centres is based here, under the sweet smelling candle shop but was closed when I popped up.

I took some pictures of the dull, wet and windy harbour to send to my rowing friends and hoped the weather would improve for the following weekend when they were racing our Skiff in the annual regatta. These cute little rowing boats were a great way to bring communities together, be active, social, get out on the water and spread contacts throughout the coastal rowing network. I’d been part of our local club for a few years now and had met people in my local area that I’m sure I wouldn’t have met otherwise, got fitter, socialised and undertaken some endurance rowing events like rowing Loch Ness and up the River Clyde.

It was nice to hang on a mooring and we were looking forward to getting ashore in the morning.