 | 8 th of July 2010 - Caledonian Canal - Day 5 |
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| Crew : | Helen and Andy |
| Destinations : | Laggan Lock. |
| Distance : | 10 miles |
We woke up this morning and found ourselves in the locks with another Oyster. It was newer and bigger and had a dad and 2 teenagers as crew. The lad was not very enthusiastic in taking in the slack, which rather explained their need for the bow thruster in the locks. We found ourselves behind this and another big Hallberg Rassy also with a bow thruster and using this and its engine with enthusiasm during the locking through. This made lots of noise and lots of smell, especially for those behind (us). We switched ours off as our old Perkins engine creates a fair amount of smoke and we wanted a peaceful and fragrant trip. It rained and rained.
At Cullochy the lock keepers were having lunch. As there wasn't much space the Oyster owner kindly invited us to raft up on him. He hadn't realised what our boat was, however we soon told him and we had a look around each others boats.
We had a couple of locks and a swing bridge before heading down Loch Oich in yet more rain and wind.
We attempted to berth alongside a pontoon but changed our mind (or more accurately missed the pontoon). After advice from Laggan Bridge we headed into the canal and up to the next lock.
where we found a floating pub and restaurant which was like the TARDIS inside. We, of course, popped in for a pint before dinner and got chatting to some lads who had just walked from Fort William in the rain and were working themselves up to pitching their tents also in the rain. Fortunately when we left the pub the sun had come out for them. They didn't take us up on the offer of using our heating to dry out their socks.
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