Fantastic Inverness Hospitality

What an incredible welcome we’ve had into Inverness! Goeff Ashton and Jamie Hogan of Inverness Marina have really been incredible, and the support from the local community has been fantastic. We’ve got Highland Taxis running us around, New City Laundrette doing our laundry, and Pizza Direct feeding us, and all for free! We have had some pretty good receptions into ports, but this really has been something special – a massive thank you to Inverness for such a fantastic welcome!
We set sail from Whitehills Marina, another incredibly friendly marina, mid morning yesterday, into a fair amount of Northerly wind. It wasn’t long before the entire crew was soaking wet with waves coming over the bow, but at least for the first hour they found this very entertaining. After a while I think it did get a bit much for some, so we slowly started losing the crew to the warmth and comforts of their bunks (and again, a few seasick casualties).
We reached an impressive turning point in our voyage – as we rounded Halliman Skerries off Lossiemouth we passed our most Northerly point, the furthest away from Cowes we’re going to be, and our halfway mark. Heading South again, we are now on our way home, but thankfully we still have a massive adventure to enjoy ahead of us on our way South. Another celebration by the crew was had, as we also managed to bear away from the breeze a bit and headed for more sheltered waters making for a much more comfortable sail – a great sail in fact!
The sail into Inverness Firth was quite spectacular and we were welcomed into the Firth by dolphins, which we finally managed to get some photographic evidence of. Not great, but proof, so now it counts and Frank might finally believe us. Inverness Firth is really nice and sheltered. We were joined by the RNLI inshore lifeboat, who came out to escort us in. All the crew had resurfaced by this point, and most managed to get a ride out on the lifeboat – a very rare experience and one they all thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you so much to the RNLI for putting some great smiles back onto rather weary crew faces.
We managed to sail all the way up the Firth and under the Kessock Bridge – our 6th bridge of the voyage. So after a magic day out on the water we were welcomed into Inverness Marina by Jamie. We are in need of a new heads pump and it wasn’t long till Jamie had one of his engineers down this morning to sort everything out for us. What incredible service!
We spent today going for a short sail in the Firth to hopefully spot some more dolphins, but unfortunately they weren’t around today. It was great to go for a little sail though. Laura finally braved taking on the helm and with hardly any instruction she did a pretty good job. So much so that I got her to drive the boat onto the pontoon – backwards! I think she’s a bit of a natural – she did such an incredible job without any hesitation at all – well done Laura!
Goeff managed to organize a Moray Firth Radio interview and very kindly took myself, Emma and Laura to the radio station for the interview. It was great to be able to spread the word to the community, who have already been so supportive. The marina is having an open day on Saturday and it is the official opening of the Marina and Ellen will be opening it. It looks like it will be a great day, which I am really looking forward to.
Thank you Inverness!!!
Cath