A horrendous early start to the day. Alarm at 4 and on the boat at 4.30. Grey and drizzle was not a good start.
A quick whizz to Fort William where we joined Neptune's Ladder which is a flight of 9 locks. We were second batch to go through and by the end of the day we had got to know the other 8 boats pretty well as we went through the lock system together. The canals were really slow and we weren't allowed to go over 5 knots but the Lochs were flat out. Had it been a lovely sunny day, it would have been fantastic but as it was really cold and raining, it was very miserable. Our first experience of rain hitting our faces at 52 knots was not a pleasant one. On the positive side, it could be good for our complexion and cheaper than a face massage!
We were joined by a friendly duck who really enjoyed a rest onboard our boat. See picture.
We didn't get to Inverness until 7pm so were tired, cold, hungry and fed up. Both a bit ratty by the end of the day and in need of a good night's sleep.
1 comment:
Have really enjoyed your blog and delighted you are doing so well.
You mentioned you were not sure how to cope with following seas.If you are in a following sea it’s very easy to stuff the boat into the next wave and there have been many accidents and injuries over the years from this (Sorry, don’t want to scare you but it’s easy to get plastered onto the dashboard/steering wheel).
The thing to remember is the location of the power that is driving the boat. Imagine a giant holding your propellers and pushing the boat along. When you decelerate it’s the equivalent of him pulling backwards on the propellers and the result is the bow goes down. So in a big following sea you come over a large wave and find a big hole in front of you with an even larger wave in front of it. The immediate reaction is “oh s***” and back off the power – the bow goes straight down and you go through the wave.
The trick is to take your brave pill and keep the power on. (That doesn’t mean accelerate!)
Don’t forget that if you go across the waves diagonally then you increase the distance between the wave heights which can give you an easier run.
Do you have trim tabs on your boat or just the trim on the engines?
Let me know if you need to know anything else.
Tim xxx
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