Fairwinds 2005

Day 26 - Ullapool - Altbea - 28 miles

We got our anchor at one thirty after a leisurely morning breakfasting, reading the paper and recovering from Little Wolves. The band were fishing off the pier when we left, but didn't notice us waving.

We had a great sail down to Cailleach Point (on the end of the peninsula between Loch Broom and Little Loch Broom) then rounded the point and beat up Little Loch Broom for a look at Scoraig, a long established New Age type community which has survuved and prospered. We thrashed up the loch towards a grey threatening gloom hanging over An Teallach and Dundonnell, then tacked and reached past the houses, new slip and boatshed and dozens of boats hauled up on the hard. Windmills spun above many of the buildings. I would love to have landed and met the inhabitants, but without an invitation it would have been too much of an invasion of privacy. Feeling like voyeurs we sped past and headed out towards Greenstone Point goosewinged.

Slowly the wind began to die away and an irritating Northerly swell began to roll all the wind out of the sails. We doused the genoa and motorsailed for a while, then I ventured unwillingly onto the wildly gyrating foredeck and rigged the pole. The seas were big and misshapen all the way round the long curve of Greenstone Point - an uncomfortable, lumpy, cold ride.

Eventually the sea began to smooth as we entered Loch Ewe. Altbea only appears at the last minute - you begin to wonder if the chart is lying. It's a bit of a desolate place on a cold night, but a fine sheltered anchorage in the by now all too familiar North East wind. No yachts there at all, and only about three moorings in the whole wide sweep of the bay. We anchored right in front of the hotel, but with no desire to go ashore. Spag bol and Irish coffees and so to bed with the wind still whistling in the rigging and the alarm set for an early start.