Conquering Neptune

There's water behind them gates

Today was another early start (groan) in order to get up a decent number of locks. The lock-keeping day starts at 0800, and finishes promptly at 1730. The lock-keepers and bridge-keepers to a man and a woman are very helpful. However things do progress at a leisurely pace. We have made much more progress than we originally intended, because having got into the swing of locking, and the earlier sun having gone in, we decided to "get to the top" i.e. the highest point of the canal. 

Pretty canal

So we are at Laggan, past the inland end of Loch Lochy (do you think they ran out of ideas when they named that one?). From 1100 to 1300 we ascended Neptune's Staircase, the famous (infamous) set of 8 locks all connected.  Going up is much harder than going down, because you enter the first lock at the lowest level and have to hurl your ropes up 15 or 20' ... and when they let the water through the gates, the boat charges about as though trying to throw off its ropes.  Then two crew members (Tim & Alison) go onto the lockside and walk the ropes along as we motor forward into the next lock. Yes, we did remember to let them back on board when we got to the top.

Swing bridge has swung

Next we motored a few miles along the canal at the regulation maximum of 5kn, through 2 swing bridges and one more lock, and into Loch Lochy - where a stiff breeze suddenly blew up ... from ahead, of course.  Tim & Alison between them helmed an admirable straight line up the loch.  The french yacht behind us sailed up, tacking all the way - good for them!  We saw another Nicholson 35 exactly like ours going the other way - we called him up on the VHF and had a chat as we passed - 'Montaraz' that lives in Inverness.  (T&A have just arrived in the cockpit where I was peacefully blogging, and now it's quite difficult to concentrate - they are making me do a quiz.)

We are moored on a pontoon on the canal in the Great Glen with steep wooded flanks either side.  Earlier we saw what we all believe to have been a golden eagle - it was certainly a very large raptor that sailed across from one hill to another.  Now the wind has dropped and all we can hear is the evening birdsong.