Loch Ness storm....

[Rockter]

There was a storm on Loch Ness at the week-end. We motored SW on Wednesday night and made it to Fort Agustus in the dark. It's a spooky place at night, in the rain. I was glad to have the radar to put us in mid channel. It was cold too.
As forecast, the weather worsened almost immediately. By Thursday afternoon, on Loch Oich, we had 8 lines out to hold her to the pontoon. I have never seen such gusts. One of the crew slipped on the slippy pontoon and bust his tailbone.
It moderated a little and we went back to Fort Agustus on Friday. The storm rose again, becoming really vicious by Saturday. To my surprise, a 34 ft sailboat showed signs of wanting to go out and run downwind to Inverness. I tried to dissuade him, but to no avail. He set off, gybing downwind in sheets of spray and wind with a double-reefed main, and main alone.
I met him later. He spoke of a force 9 at Urqhart Castle... that's 45 kt..... albeit downwind.
It would have been a blaze of spray and wind.

The exit of the Loch at the NE end is quite narrow...

RiverNessJourney

...and I though it rather mad to have to find it in a force 9, flying storm sails, in the rain, with a powerful current through the narrows.

It takes all types, I suppose.

[jrd22]

Sounds like it was nasty, glad it was him and not you Rockter.

[Rockter]

Well thank you there JRD.
I just though it was mad to go out there flying storm sails. My double-reefed main would have had a hard time, and I could have been over-powered, perhaps torn. It would've been bare poles for me, I'm afraid.
45 kt does not sound too much until it hits you.
It's bloody awful.

It is a strikingly pretty place...

Great Glen Way

...but I have never seen it that angry, with great sheets of rain whipping down the Great Glen.
It cleared at night, revealing some classy dark skies, even with binoculars, the great galaxy of Andromeda was very clear indeed. We went up to the Hotel at Loch Oich, and I slipped in the dark and fell on my arse in the wet grass. They were closed.

That's Loch Ness in the upper picture, looking NE, with Loch Oich in the foreground, and the salt water of Beauly Firth in the far distance.

We will wait for some clear weather later in the Winter. At times of frost and fog and clam, it is a mysterious place.