Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing.

Onward, the sailors cry!

Carry the lad that’s born to be King

Over the sea to Skye.

Harold Boulton

It was gone too soon.  We departed Culduie without the sun but it was windy and dry so far, so made the most of it by raising the sails. This was going to be a long day at sea as we wanted to get down to the Knoydart Peninsula so we could take a mooring at Inverie and get ashore.

It was important to plan trips ashore as it’s too easy to remain on-board but that means you miss really connecting with the places you visit and a bit of activity is healthy.

It was windy enough to sail, almost too windy and we were constantly trimming the sails.

We reached the Skye bridge and I was slightly anxious when the skipper stated his intention was to sail under it! However I trust him and indeed we did which actually felt pretty cool.

The land blanked the wind once through so we motored on a bit before anchoring just round from Kyleakin to have lunch and wait for the tide to turn to carry us through the Kyles.

Two hours later it was time and we sped through the narrows, a wee work boat on our port side accompanying us. The tide spat us out at the other side and now there was no wind but thick fog had set in. It was quite eerie motoring along with such low visibility and we had to remain on the lookout for pot buoys ( they have ropes attached leading down to the creels that if we went over, could cause the rope to be entangled in our propeller and stop the engine or worse). Other boats seemed to suddenly appear out the gloom too so it was quite tiring keeping a close watch.

We finally reached the Knoydart Peninsula, the constant mist had soaked us, again,  and when we hooked a mooring buoy in Inverie Bay the skipper asked if I fancied a pub tea at The Old Forge. Hell yeah!