After a gloomy, cloudy start from Loch Ewe, the sun came out as we turned past the headland of Rubha Reidh and headed south.
With a brisk Force 4 to 5 exactly behind us, we were creaming along under mainsail alone.
We sat back and enjoyed a fast run down the Inner Sound on a beautiful day. The mountains of Skye were off to starboard the whole time, looming above the smaller, lower islands of Rona and Raasay that flank its eastern shore.
On our other side we passed the entrances to Gareloch and Loch Torridon on the mainland, dodged east of the small Crowlin Islands, accompanied for a while by a dozen leaping porpoises, and then across the wide entrance to Loch Carron.
We turned east under the Skye Bridge, with 10 metres clearance above the mast, and spent the night moored at a pontoon in Kyle of Lochalsh. Supper was in a bar to watch England lose in the final of the European Cup. There were three jubilant Spanish tourists, and annoyingly the French tourists and the Scottish barmaid cheered wildly at both Spanish goals!
The next morning we dropped off Anthony, who had been with us all the way from Ipswich.
tide by tide 