May 4 Tobermory to Corpach

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We woke up this morning about 6:30am to bright light peeking through the curtains. I pulled them back and the water was just oily and mirror-like and smooth. It looked like a brand new day! I got in the shower and Clay headed straight out to take photos of Tobermory and the smooth bay in the sunlight. We are docked here until 10am.

By the time I got out of the shower, the chop was back in the bay. We went up for breakfast and just ate from the buffet. I had porridge and Clay had fried eggs. Then we headed ashore. It had already gotten much colder and windier than it was an hour ago. We only made it about 1 block from the dock when it started raining again. We hadn’t brought umbrellas so we turned around and went back.


We got seats at the front of the lounge area for the sail away. It was sheeting rain so hard that you couldn’t see out the front windows anyhow. Brian announced bridge tours as we were headed back for our downward angled port side window view from my bed. We got into the first group of 8 to tour the bridge. Clay sent me down for money to make our suggested donation to sponsor the bridge tour and I was trying so hard to read the coins that I forgot Bob. Bob is sulking now because of the rain and low visibility but also because he didn’t get his picture taken at the Lord of the Glens’ controls. I think it was  £2, but I don't remember if that was per person, or if it was  £2 for both of us. In any event, you were expected to pay for the visit on an honor system of a charitable donation to a box on the Reception Desk.

We passed a paddle steamer in the Sound of Mull. Brian did a talk about the Lord of the Glens. I will try to get an information sheet that he handed out. He works so hard, it is too bad that he seems so disorganized and that we feel so ill-informed. He really seems to be trying and wanting to do a good job for us. Oh, I wound up putting most of that ship’s information from that sheet in the boarding day post.

Lunch was at 12:30pm. I had steak pie and Clay had the ploughman’s salad with ham and cheese. It was all good. They also had an omelet option. Lunch came with cream of broccoli soup and crème caramel for dessert.

It is 2:30pm now and we have entered the Caledonian Canal without any announcements. Though given all the thruster maneuvering everyone was in the lounge trying to figure out what was happening. The wind is blowing the rain straight sideways and even our down sloping window is now messed up. Evidently, the wind was pushing the ship sideways and that was why the thruster struggle to get us lined up for entry into the Caledonian Canal through the Corpach Sea Lock.

Here is some information about our sail and the canal from our daily letter. We sailed the Sound of Mull between Mull and Morvern, through the Firth of Lorne and up Loch Linnhe. If you look at a map, this loch follows the same bearing as the Great Glen and is part of the same geological fault line that the canal follows.

The Caledonian Canal was engineered by Thomas Telford and built between 1803 and 1822. The first vessel passed through on the 24^th of October 1822. It’s built in a geological fault line, the Great Glen. There are 4 lochs linked by the Caledonian Canal. They are Loch Lochy, Oich, Ness and Dochfour. (I don't know why they don't count Loch Linnhe since the Corpach Sea Loch connects it to Loch Lochy.) The length is 60 miles, of which 22 miles are manmade. Construction cost was £905580, double the original estimate. There are 29 locks, 15 to the west side of Loch Oich, which is the summit at 106 feet above sea level and 14 to the east. Each lock raises or lowers the canal by 8 feet, with the exception of the regulating locks at the ends of each loch, which can vary depending on water levels.

We get off in about 30 minutes from our overnight dock in Corpach.  We are taking our included excursion to Glenfinnan and the West Highland railway. We went to Glenfinnan NationalTrust for Scotland’s Visitor’s Center to commemorate the start of the Jacobite Rebellion. (Tickets are normally £3.50pp.) We were lucky to turn around on our way to the Bonnie Prince Charlie Monument to see the brown train (without the steam engine!) like they use in the Harry Potter crossing of the Glenfinnan Viaduct. Clay wanted to take the uphill walk to the Viaduct viewpoint, but the trail was a running muddy stream with the heavy rain. Clay went up the tight spiral stairs to the top of the monument instead. I stood at the bottom, out of the way under the stairs after my umbrella got blown inside out a couple of times. Clay met up with Victor and Miriam, who helped him get up and out through the awkward little hole in the floor/ceiling at the top. It must have been very comical because there was a lot of laughter and they were still talking about it days later. I could hear Miriam worrying about getting back down. I stopped a small crowd of fellow passengers from going up because I could hear them coming down and wondering what would happen if they met people coming up.

I went back inside the NTS Visitor’s Center and browsed the Gift Shop before reboarding the coach to the train station. Clay went back to the muddy trail to the Viaduct viewpoint to get some photos.

Included in our in our excursion is a train trip on the West Highland Live over the Glenfinnan Viaduct on a ScotRail train. This ticket would normally cost £4.40. There was an additional charge to climb the tower, but that was included in our fare as well.The train we boarded was on its way to Glasgow. Still, we could see through the rain streaked windows, Loch Shiel and the viaduct curving around. It was like the scene from Harry Potter where the dementors attack the train and frost up the windows, except with no dementors, happily. Anyway. I don’t believe Clay was able to get any photos. His wet camera fogged up when we boarded the overheated train car.

It is 5:30pm and we are back aboard the Lord of the Glens. Brian is showing another black and white film. This one is about the steam trains on the West Highland railway. Evidently, they still run at least one steam engine on the line with the old brown cars, but only in summer.  While our daily letter says the coach will pick us up at the train station and bring us to the ship, there was no bus and so we were all already soaked to the skin and we walked back about 2/3 of a mile.

Dinner is at 7:30pm. Choices were roast pork, seafood risotto, something vegetarian. So, I’ll go ahead and say good night.

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