4.  Selkie Dancer - Findhorn Bay - 22nd May

Hello again  - We had a terrific sail around from Inverness with Terry Earl who joined us for the sail to Findhorn.  That's two people who've been brave enough to join us.  Chris Barnard was last week’s adventurer who brought us a game called 'Mutineer' how appropriate is that?! encouraging dissent in the ranks?

That is the good news, not so good is that Andy did the classic man versus metal with the anchor chain trying to arrest its deployment in a Force 7!  Lots of blood , Andy said the decks resembled HMS Victory at Trafalgar and I felt like Lady Macbeth rubbing out the damned spots - Note to ourselves, next lot of oilies to be red.  Andy now has 15 stitches and we have an enforced stay on a mooring in Findhorn Bay.  This is about 200 yds from the cottage Andy stayed at when based at Kinloss and from where he introduced me to the joys of dinghy sailing , a cold and frequently wet baptism.  This couldn't be a better place to be - with  so many friends here and they are all being fantastic particularly Mitch Lees who has lent us his rigid tender and outboard.  I am doing lots that I wouldn't normally have done due to Andy's incapacity, outboard operation and freshwater plumbing.  Obviously this has put us behind schedule according to the web site but we expect to be back on programme soon.

We walked out at low tide this afternoon so I could eyeball our exit - there is only a very narrow channel and a sand bar at the entrance.  There were loads of selkies sunning themselves - yes the sun was shining as it has for most of the week.

Be in touch again soon.    

Jinti and Andy

3.  Selkie Dancer, Inverness - 15th May

Hello again!  Realise I made a complete hash with our web address on the first update I sent so the link wouldn't have worked.  It is  http://web.mac.com/selkiedancer  and as before the user name is xxxxxx and the password xxxxxx.  That said we are not managing to update the site - these e mails do that.  However our programme is there and we do seem to be following this with a few little swerves along the way.

We had some fantastic days in lovely OBAN.  The washing was making a colourful dance around the boat and was dry in no time - a contrast to here where our cabin resembles a Chinese Laundry and is officially the drying room.

We had a beautiful sail up to Fort William, sails out both sides, gliding up the Loch with Ben Nevis as I've rarely seen her snow topped against a blue blue sky.

The Caledonian Canal has been interesting.  Went up the first part, a series of eight locks called Neptune’s Staircase, with a fishing boat from Peterhead and for a lot of the time one of their crew was on our boat as he was so taken with it.  We stopped at Laggan and went and had a drink on a barge moored there.  You can also get meals there and it looked a fun place.  At the Fort Augustus locks with the sun still out we became a tourist attraction as by now there were four boats going through, two motor boats, a navy survey ship and us.  I descended the four or five locks there for the first time completely alone on the boat while Andy walked the lines down.  We stayed there for a day and then left early on Sunday to pick up a friend at Drumnadrochit.  Very nervous approaching this bit, not because of  the monster but it is quite shallow and there was little space to manoeuvre in the tiny harbour.  

Coming here feels very close to home and we are catching up with some friends.  It will be strange to be in the Moray Firth in the coming week.

That's all for now and we'll keep you posted.  

Jinti and Andy