Archie and Fergus's last blog said that we were going to try to get from Portree to Uig on Friday. We tried! We left Portree, and could feel an unusual vibration from the propeller. We turned around and went back to the mooring in Portree to check it out. There was nothing obvious causing the vibration visible inside the boat, so I dived on the propeller, and saw that the cutlass bearing in the P-bracket had failed, allowing the propeller to vibrate.
Fixing this would need the boat to be out of the water, and require a replacement bearing. We looked into drying the boat out against the wall in Portree but the ground didn't look even enough to be secure. The nearest travelhoist to lift the boat onto hard standing is in Stornoway, about 50 miles North, but we need to be able to sail there to avoiud using the engine and doing more damage. The next day with favourable winds was forecast to be Tuesday.
So, the plan:
Order parts for delivery to Stornoway, wait in Portree and enjoy Skye until Monday evening, sail to Stornoway on Tuesday, lift the boat out and replace the bearing on Wednesday.
We had a great time on Skye. On Saturday we travelled up the North East coast of Skye.
Then we went to visit friends, Gareth (and old friend of mine - both our parents ran traditional boats in Scotland when we were growing up) and Amelia (by coincidence, the sister of George, and old friend of Sarah and I) who live on a lovely Croft in the North West of the island with views to the Outer Hebrides.
On Sunday we drove around the island and visited Dunvegan castle and gardens.
In the evening we watched the Euro final - Archie got very vocal and very upset at the end!
On Monday, after homeschool, we went swimming, had lunch at a nice bakery, then played some football on the playing fields.
Come Tuesday morning, the wind was flat calm at 6am, by 8am there was enought to move us so we left Portree and sailed out of the harbour - very slowly - up the Sound of Raasay - very slowly - and around the North of Skye - very slowly - until eventually about 4.30 the wind filled in and we had a nice sail across the Minch. By about 10pm we were approaching Stornoway and the wind died again, but as we were drifting along, we saw three Minke whale feeding about 300m away - very special!
Eventually we drifted into Stornoway just before midnight, and on Wednesday morning were lifted out of the water. We had the cutlass bearing replaced, bottom cleaned, a few other jobs done and went back in the water on Thursday morning.
Yesterday, Friday, we hire a car and explored Lewis. We visited the Butt of Lewis light house at the very North of the island.
Then we visited an old Blackhouse, which is what most people in the Hebrides lived in until about 100 years ago.
We visited an old fortification and an amazing set of standing stones. It's believed that it may be older than stone henge.
After eating lunch in the car out of the wind and rain, we visited a little Alpaca farm with a double decker bus cafe. Then we drove to Uig on the West Coast. It's a vast expanse of sand, and would have been even more beautiful if the sun was shining. The wind and rain didn't stop Fergus from diappearing off across the sand!
Uig beach is known as the probable finding location of the Chessmen of Lewis, a hoard of chess pieces found on Lewis in the 19th Centuary and now mostly held by the british museum. 6 are on display at the museum in Stornoway which we visited on the way home. It's amazing the detail that is still visible about 800 years after they were carved in Norway.
Today we had a chilled day in Stornoway, with a visit to the local swimming pool for a fun splash session. Tomorrow we'll be moving on, probably Southward and maybe to the Shiant Islands if the weather allows.
