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Hi all,

This email comes to you from the middle of the Crinnan, with the Notting Hill Billies playing on the Rio Volt, "missing presumed having a good time". We are about half way through the Crinnan Canal, having done all the up locks today. Unlike the Caledonian which are all pneumatic and operated by lock staff, the Crinnan are all manual and operated by us. Also they are much smaller locks and so the turbulance is much greater. So we had a good work out today.

We finished the Caledonian canal on Wednesday, parked Debanessa up at Corpach (the western end of the Caledonian), and took a bus ride to Oban (about and hour and a half) for some sight seeing and to shop at the Chandlery there for more detailed Admiralty charts and some Musto snugs jackets for Maggie, Nicky and Tarryn. That and some other shopping and groceries from the Safeway at Fort William saw us returning to Debanessa heavily laden with stuff.

The Caledonian was really beautiful and the three lochs, Ness, Oich and Lochy were all pretty spectacular. The depth in Ness was incredible, 228 meters was the deepest which we got, and it only shallowed out really near Urquart Castle. We tried anchoring there, but at 6m we were only about a boat length from the shore and the bottom was rocky with the CQR skipping from stone to stone and not really digging in. As we swung the depth dropped to 2m and I thought better of it. We picked up a mooring bouy which a fisherman let us know we could stay on until 18:00 when he would be returnning hopefully laiden with sammon. We did the touristy tour of the castle and had lunch on the bouy before pushing on to the "staircase" at Fort Augustus (the western end of Loch Ness) where we stayed for the night.

The biggest danger in the canal would seem to be the Caley Cruisers (www.caleycruisers.com) who are given a few minutes basic training on how to aim the motor launch and then let loose on the lochs and locks amongst yachties. We all felt a bit superior with our abilities in the locks and sat back and enjoyed the spectacle and expletives eminating from the tourists in their bright orrange solid foam life jackets on their caley cruisers bouncing from lock wall to lock wall with no fenders and no control. The best strategy was avoidance, and keeping them in front, although Maggie did have to fend one off our anchor as they hurlted backwards towards us as the man nominally in control left the cruiser in reverse while he tried to throw a rope up the the lock keeper.

The sail across from Corpach to Crinnan was pretty wild with the wind gusting from 6 knots to 27 (highest true which we had) and then back down again. The direction was pretty variable as well, and after trying various combinations, a double reefed main and jib in and out as the wind dictated seemed to work the best. We also had the Volvo on to make good passage time and to both build the apparant wind speed during the lulls and reduce the gusts which seemed to be mainly from the beam. The weather forecasts and weather in general seems to be very localised in Scotland, changing totally from loch to loch and the wind being funneled through the glens and being masked by the islands. We left on HW -1 and had a strong tidal push with our highest speed over ground being 10 knots (about 4 knots of tide). The ride down Loch Linnhe was cold and wet and I was left pretty much on my own while the others stayed below in the relative warmth and dry. The Forth of Lorn was the big blow, and we made really good time racing through it on a strong tide. Then came the tricky pilotage between the islands and narrows and shallows between Luing and Scarba. It was actually easier in reality than on the chart and all my caution plotting position every 15 minutes based on the GPS and calling up "one degree to Starbord" or whatever was proved to be a bit pointless when I popped my head out and could quite clearly see all the charted rocks and narrows. It was low water, and maybe at higher tides when they would be covered it would be more dangerous.

The final leg to Crinnan across the Sound of Jura saw some strong tides against us and at least a constant blow of about 25 knots from the beam. At one stage while makiung passage between two islands, we sat still against the tide and had whirlpools and rough water all about. A bit more revs on the Volvo and a bit more sail up saw us inch our way through the narrows, after which it eased and we were about to make 3 to 4 knots across the ground again (7 knots through the water). The entrance to Crinnan sea lock was interesting with a 25 knot cross wind. Maggie took us deftly crabbing across to the lock and then straightened us up into the lock at the last minute. The pool above the lock was cluttered with boats sitting out the blow and we had to raft three up and lay some innovative shore lines. Within an hour of our arrival, the wind died to nothing and the cannal mirrored out as did the sea. Strange weather here.

Today we have made our way up all the up locks. Tomorrow the plan is to make our way down the down locks and then to head off to Bangor on Sunday, weather permitting. We have contradictory weather forecasts at the moment, some saying 4/5/6 in Malin for Sunday/Monday and others saying Gale 8, so if any of you wise folks with faster internet connections than this mobile phone based one want to send some 3 day forecasts for Malin/Irish Sea it would be much appreciated.

After Bangor (near Belfast), we will be making our way home via Ben of Howth (near Dublin), Milfed Haven (Wales), Falmouth, Plymouth, Weymouth and then finally Southampton sometime at the end of August.

Happy Birthday dad for tommorow (the 11th), I will try and phone, but like the weather here, mobile phone connectoins are very patchy.

I have uploaded some more pictured to the web site (www.TheChalmers.com) if you are interested in those.

It is a glorious sunny evening here. The girls have just returned from a dingy expedition ahead to the start of the down locks and are now resting on the hammock which is suspeded on the spinnaker halyards and forestay. Tough life. We are all pretty suntanned and relaxed, and Debanessa is holding together well with the mysteries of the water system now fully explained and the only remaining problem being the windex direction instrument which sometimes bears little resemblance to reallity.

Caio for now...

Ricky, Maggie, Tarryn and Nicky

Team Chalmers, round England and Wales challenge.

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