Blakes Sailing Holiday (Sailing / Yachting in General)

Member Name: fidgetbrain

Product:	Sailing / Yachting in General
Date:	10/11/01 (161 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent way to see Scotland

Disadvantages: Very Basic acommodation

Blakes offer both cruisers and yachts for hire on the Caledonian Canal which takes in Loch Lochy, Lock Oich, and Loch Ness with the canal bits in-between. We hired a six berth Moody 28feet yacht although there were only four of us, I'll tell you the story, We picked up the boat at Laggan just eastish of Fort William.

The boat condition itself was tired to say the least,having learnt the yachts were ex sunsail charter boats, having spent the prime of their life sailing in the med.I did wonder at this juncture what we had let ourselves in for ?

The spacious aft cabin as shown in the brochure turned out that one person had only three inches headroom as the bunk was directly below the pushpit bench in the deckwell.The forward cabin was infact the forepeak, which is usually used to store sails and like. We called that the coffin, it had loads of width at the head position but with two of you in there your feet collided as the boat bow went to a point.I therefore slept for a week with a pair of knees either in my back or being kneed in the tummy or worse.

The foresail was a rolling reefer and the mainsail just a standard slab reef,more than adequate for tootling about. We lost count how many times the one and only winch handle nearly went overboard, however once we had reslung the sails correctly we soon got to grips with it and off we set into the wilderness. We were really posh the boat also had self trailing winches for setting the sails. I noticed that the other yachts had different rigs and layouts.

The first night we found a lovely hotel at Letter Finley that has a mooring pontoon and the food and beer were truly fantastic,then the next day off up the canal to Fort Augustus. Here there are five locks to negotiate, however all the locks are manned and usually the keepers are very helpful in catching the ropes.

Fort Augustus is truly a magnificent village on the Western end of Loch Ness which for us is the main rea
son for going here. Loch Ness spans some 23 miles towards Inverness and the beauty and sheer wildness of it, we loved it.

When we left Inverness A gale force southwest wind demonstrated our incompetence at sailing in rough weather and the seasoned sailor in our party was left frustrated at not having a real good sail,however take it from me the waters in these loch's can get as rough as the sea. And it was rough, with approximate ten feet breaking waves tossing and pitching the boat all over the place. If this is your idea of fun then it was fantastic, we had the confidence in the boat and our skipper to know we would be safe.

We moored at Drumadrochit in Urquhart castle bay and the local hotel provides a free minibus to the hotel for meals. Again it was great, fresh moules followed by Angus steak and the local popular beer 80 shilling was a beer lovers delight. We sailed back to Fort Augustus the next day, under a good wind tacking our way across the deepest loch I certainly ever want to be on at 240 meters deep.

By now we had rid ourselves of any shyness in getting changed in front of the couple we went with, a shout that publics were public usually sent the women scarpering, we men just laughed at the women trying to protect their modesty.

By the time we had returned to Fort Augustus the weather was baking hot with not a ripple on the loch. The one rule we had on board was definitely no pooing allowed, we had to grit our teeth ( and our bums) until we could get to a public loo. The trouble was nobody mentioned breaking wind or to be crude farting, surprisingly chaps, it was the women who were more guilty of this offence and boy they are just as smelly if not worse than us men.

All in all the week was wonderful, the basic crudity of the yacht and its accommodation are all part of the experience. The scenery and local culture of the highlanders is awesome, I would, indeed we will definitely be going again becaus
e I now want to share the experience with other friends or family so they too can witness the raw beauty and thrill of sailing.

Cost for the weeks Yacht hire was 824.00 plus 15.00 fuel levy. Not bad between 4 people.

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