Portree

Tuesday 9th - Portree

We stayed in Portree another day as Ali had his eye on a walk at the other side of the bay. Stupidly we all agreed and so packed a lunch and set off in the dingy. As we got further out of the shelter of the harbour the waves got bigger at which point I should have put a stop to it.......... By the time we got near to the beach the girls and myself who were at the front of the dingy were fairly wet but nothing compared to when the rolling breakers swamped us and we were up to our knees in water! Thankfully we were just being washed ashore at that point. There was a bit of crying and carry on but the girls recovered remarkably quickly and we started our walk across the steep rocky hill side that went down to the shore. Alisha thinks she is 'the best mountain climber' in the family and would not take any help and was scaring her mum with her antics! Ali decided to try and light a fire cave man style with some string and a few pieces of wood (pictured) The girls had a ball collecting wood for the fire that never was..... We walked around the bay and had our lunch, it turned out to be a great day. All the while waiting for the swell to die down a bit so we could get the dingy back off the beach. It didn't.

Ali and I took off our boots and rolled up our breeks in a futile attempt to stay dry whilst we loaded the lasses into the dingy and pushed the boat off. We did get off the beach which was the first hurdle over with. The waves were even bigger and we were going into them so every wave filled the boat a bit even though Ali was trying his best to find his way 'through' them. I was scooping out as fast as I possibly could with a bottle I had found on the beach. The girls just clang to the seat and each other with their eyes closed. They didn't cry or scream even though every wave was breaking over them, poor peerie things. Eventually though we made it back to calmer water and all had to get all the salty clothes off on deck. Once again the guy at the back of the dingy seemed to escape remarkably drier than the rest of us which seemed very unfair especially as the whole trip was his idea. After a hot chocolate and some dry clothes all was forgotten and we got back into the dingy and headed for a shower at the swimming pools. Ali said we should treat ourselves to dinner out after our ordeal so it all seemed worth it in the end!

Here is a picture of a winfarm on Skye. It only has a few turbines and they are nowhere near as big as the proposed Viking Energy towers. This is on an island which is much larger than Shetland, has a population of only 12,500, is much closer to major cities and is allready linked by a cable to the mainland. There was alot of controversy about this wind-farm and others that have been proposed in Skye which were also much smaller than the proposed Viking windfarm. Skye probably has a lot more to lose out on in the tourism industry than Shetland as it is definitely Skye's biggest income.
If Shetland loses it's tourist industry it won't have quite the same impact. There is one B&B in Skye advertising itself as having great views of the windfarm so you never know maybe all the people who are to be surrounded by turbines can turn their houses in to B&B's with the special attraction of being some of the few places you can stay in Britain that are actually in a winfarm, not just next to it! Just some food for thought...........

Wed 10th - Portree to Kyle of Lochalsh

We went into the pier to get fuel and water where Ali got a real shock..... After travelling hundreds of miles without refuelling in an attempt to find cheaper fuel he was charged the full duty for the first time in his life and it cost around a pound a litre!!! He was not very amused. The guy at the pier told him a way around it is to keep the receipt for the full tank of fuel with the duty added on and fill up a drum or two every time you get the chance then no one can prove that you are using it in the yacht. Of course we would not stoop so low but apparently they are all at it down here!

We set off down the Sound of Raasay towards Kyle. There was enough wind for a brisk sail and we made fairly good time with a slight detour to look at a new pier being built on Raasay. The wind fairly calmed down once we were out of the swell and behind a few islands and it was a flat clam by the time we passed under the Skye bridge. The girls were very impressed with going under the bridge they thought it might not be high enough (it always looks like that from below!) We tested out our GPS navigation on the lap top too, Ali shouted out at the moment we went under the bridge at the mid point and I was down below checking it was exactly bang on, at least something on this boat is working...........

We tied up at the pontoon and headed off into town for a coffee and a stroll around. It was a bit rainy so we just went for a walk down the road to look around the piers at night. There is a MOD base here which is very well fenced off and we were snooping around there to see what we could see. Then the rain came on and we went off home to light the stove.