Helmsdale to Inverness

We needed to catch the incoming tide again to carry us to Inverness. As Helmsdale is rather shallow, this meant leaving a couple of hours before low water, so we were out of the harbour at 02:15. Very little wind, but sun rise was at 04:15, so it did brighten up a bit. It was a little misty and damp for most of the journey. And then we had a visitor.

Seabastian Seagull  stayed with us for well over an hour. He first landed with much scrambling and squawking and was very unstable up on the pulpit. But he soon took to it like Kate Winslett. After 10minutes or so, he’d fly off, circle the boat a few times, and then settle on the water. After a short while, he’d slip behind by 300 – 400 metres. When he disappeared from view, he’d rise up and come swooping back to his perch upfront. This went on for 10 miles.

We did see a number of dolphins in the bay where the river narrows and the tide speeds up. They weren't interested in us.

We arrived at Inverness Marina at 10:00 and filled up with fuel. There was a dolphin swiming about inside the marina when we arrived. Rather distracting watching the dolphin, when we should have been looking at where we were heading.

John packed his extra large and heavy sailing bag, we took a taxi to the station, had some lunch, and John took the train to Kirkcaldy where is son lives. 

It had been a pleasure sailing with John. An experianced skipper, John has a background in Civil Engineering Surveying. He likes to calculate things out to the second decimal point, and then find an alternative method, so he can determine the error. My planning background means I don’t really care about the detail. If the tide time table says 07:48, then I’m happy to work things out from eight o’clock and not get distracted by the minutes and seconds. Many thanks to John, and also to Jennifer for keeping Johns customers steady in his absence. He'll soon be back with the grandchildren.