Fairwinds 2005

Day 27 - Altbea - Rodel (Harris) - 48 miles

Got the anchor at 05.30 and had the engine off ten minutes later. Rigged the pole as we headed out into the choppy waters of the Minch, and we ran goosewinged at six knots plus for hours, surfing diagonally on the swells at up to eight and a half knots, sometimes riding a wave for ten or fifteen exhilarating seconds at a time. The wind blew steadily F4 - 5 NE and the sun shone. Yes, you heard that correctly - the sun shone and the sky was blue - the first time in four weeks we had had a genuine blue sky day. Still cold though, and the wild surfing caused by the big following seas meant we had to hand steer all the way.

We did 32 miles in the first five hours, and now the wind began to strengthen and back slightly more towards the North. During the wilder surfing episodes the genoa was getting taken aback, so I went up on the foredeck to gybe the pole. The motion made it very difficult, so eventually I just dropped the pole and we flew the genoa free to port. This worked OK for a while, but eventually we had to alter course to a dead run. By now the wind wasa strong enough to run at five knots plus under main alone, with only a few miles to go.

Half a mile before the entrance to Loch Rodel we had a problem. We could no longer make our course - the wild rolling meant the main kept getting taken aback, stopped from gibing only by the preventer. The only way to avoid running into the cliffs a few hundred yards short of the entrance was to gybe, but the seas were now much bigger and with no preventer rigged on the other side it would have been inviting chaos. We put the engine on and rounded up into the wind motoring at two knots with 28 knots of wind over the deck. I have to say I have made neater jobs of flaking the mainsail, bit the beast was tamed and we turned and ran downwind for the last half mile before turning into the relative shelter of Loch Rodel.

The anchorage - or more accurately the visitors moorings - are in a pool that is almost totally isolated from the sea. The narrow entrance channel dries completely at LWS. The pilot advises that if the base of the beacon (actually a passing place sign on a concrete pillar) is covered then there is 3.4 metres in the channel. We reckoned we could see about a metre of the base, so there should be 2.4 metres of the floaty stuff available for use. Our calculation seemed pretty accurate - least depth was 1.2 m under the keel (we draw 1.1m) - apart from a couple of worrying plunges to zero that were probably caused by weed.

Once in the pool we went for the nearest mooring but the pickup was wound round the buoy so we picked up the middle mooring, which had a largish diameter polyprop rope already attached in addition to the pickup, probably the property of a local fishing boat that had been using the mooring. The wind was still blowing F5 - 6 so I put an extra rope on for luck, then got an hour or so's sleep.

Eventually I woke and summoned the enthusiasm to inflate the dinghy. We went ashore and walked up to St. Clements' church, the burial place of the MacLeods of Berneray. The church is 15th century and you can go up the tower as well as seeing loads of impressive mausoleums, inscriptions and carvings - well worth a visit. But enough of antiquities now and off to the Rodel Hotel for a couple of Hebridean ales. The bar is deserted and the barman - originally from Inverness - obviously doesn't want to be there - he is moving to Wiltshire. The hotel has been completely renovated, but has lost the character it had the first time we visited it in 1989, when it was essentially a semi-derelict shebeen.

We repair to Fairwinds for haggis followed by fresh raspberries and cream, then I persuade the First Mate that we shold go ashore for a nightcap. This time the bar is heaving and it's standing room only. One pint is enough and we retire to the boat for a good night's sleep.