Along the Moray Firth

Our next passage was a relatively short 25 miles along the Moray Firth to Lossiemouth, this would then leave us a manageable sail to Inverness and then into the Caledonian Canal. 

We left Whitehills at a reasonable 8:30 am, squeezing through the gap in the harbour wall which really looked too small for us to fit through, hoping to carry the tide along the Firth to Lossiemouth. The tides in this area flow in the opposite direction to that shown in the tide atlas! There is a note in one of the pilot books warning of this and a conversation with Bertie the HM at Whitehills explained why this happens - although according to Bertie the streams are very weak at about 1K - which for a fishing boat isn't much but could be about 25% of our speed so we would like it going with us rather than against us!

The weather forecast was full of the “Big June Heatwave” with tales of temperatures in the high 20’s to low 30’s south of where we were, we felt a bit cheated as we pulled on our thermal base layer and oilskins! The wind was now resolutely set in the west to southwest quadrant exactly the direction we were going. We tacked along the Firth for a couple of hours until the F3 dropped away to a F1/2 and so reluctantly we turned to engine power.

We arrived at Lossiemouth in the pouring rain, another harbour surrounded by high stone walls not easy to pick out from seaward,  to be greeted by Amanda the very friendly HM who provided us with all the required paperwork and told us that if we intended to leave before Monday morning could we put the completed form and berthing fee into the honesty box along with the key to the pontoons and showers! We immediately warmed to the place! 

As it was  Friday afternoon the RAF seemed to be coming home for the weekend and for the next couple of hours the  air was full of returning jet fighters. As each one arrived the mast shuddered just a little as the roaring machine passed overhead but after a couple of hours and to my great relief the air traffic stopped and we spent a peaceful couple of nights. 

We decided to have a look around Lossiemouth on the Saturday as the forecast was for a relatively warm sunny day, nowhere near the high temperatures “down south” but we did hit the giddy heights of 17C and it didn't rain all day! That however didn't stop us from carrying our waterproof jackets everywhere, just in case. The town is typical of a Scottish fishing village grown into a small town with stone cottages predominant around the harbour. and forming the centre of the town. There was an impressive selection of small independent shops along the main street and an equally impressive selection of take-aways but all seem to shut quite early at around 8pm. Bearing in mind that sunset at this time of year this far north is not until about 10:30pm and then there is an hour of twilight it seems a bit odd that eateries seem to stop serving this early.  Lossiemouth also boasts a fantastic sandy beach in the bay on the eastern side of the harbour which seems to stretch for several miles with the dramatic backdrop of the edge of the Cairngorms National Park sheltering the beach from nearly all winds apart from those coming directly from the north. There were plenty of folks enjoying this lovely area on this warm sunny day.

Sunday morning dawned bright and with a good F3/4 so we dared to hope for a sunny sail to Inverness. We did however have to make sure we arrived at Inverness by about 2:30pm as the tides are very strong in the narrow entrance to the Inverness Firth and under  the Kessock Bridge so with the wind yet again on the nose we knew it would be a hard sail.