Famous! For just under 10 minutes

It's been an interesting time here in Gairloch. What first seemed like a pier in the middle of nowhere has turned out to be a great stop over, although we would have rather been on our way we've seen a lot of the area around Gairloch, and met some interesting people along the way.

Monday we spent exploring Gairloch on foot, making it along the coast to Strath, past a small single level building with two windows and a door and a sign outside, saying Two Lochs Radio. We carried on past and went in search of laundry facilities and lunch. One of the chores of sailing for an extended period of time is having to do the laundry. Some laundrettes are good, and have large capacity washers and tumble dryers, others are small, and the smell of the clothes on exiting the appliance is a bit like Russian Roulette. We learnt the hard way and since then bought some Bounce to make our washing smell fresh at least. Now, if we can, we check out the facilities first before carting a ruck sack to the laundrette and finding grungy washing machines. We lunched at Na Mara, which looked a bit more reasonable than the Mountain Cafe for a lunch time sandwich.  We wandered up the road and found a butcher, buying a couple of steaks and some veg before going to check out the laundry facilities in the campsite. However we needn't have worried about the washers and dryers at the Gairloch Caravan and Camp site, although a wee bit on the pricy side they looked just the job, their industrial size meant that washing and drying could be done in less than two hours.

The next day we set off to do the washing. While the laundry was spinning around the washing machine we headed back to the Mountain Cafe and had two of their sizable and tasty mountain scones, before transfering the washing to the dryer. Once back on Pixie we started getting bounced onto the Sadler next to us, and as the wind picked up the angle of the wind meant a swell was coming into the harbour, causing uncomfortable waves. We put the fenders out, crossed our fingers and poured a whisky. The bouncing was like being stuck on a runaway train down below and we needed the non slip place mats to stop the whisky glasses flying off the table. We couldn't move Pixie that night as we were being blown onto the boat next door with more force than we could motor off backwards. The owner of Beez Neez, the Sadler 34 we were bouncing against was happy for us to lie alongside over night, and while we were chatting we had a gust of 43 knots.

The next morning I was woken up by a squeal from Kirsty. Not usually one for squealing for no apparent reason I asked what was up? She'd just read a comment left on this blog, inviting us to come down to Two Lochs Radio and have a chat about our trip. Kirsty emailed the station accepting their invitation, but before we could head off for the day, the weather started to blow up again. Jackson the Harbour Master came around to all the boats to find out how everyone was doing. He said we could move down the pontoon, but with our lack of power astern I didn't think we could get off the berth. Jackson said not to worry he could pull our bow off, saving Beez Neez from Pixie's solid pulpit. The wind was 30 knots when we went for it, and thankfully Jackson was able to pull or bow into the wind, so I could gain control.

With Pixie on the most sheltered part of the pontoon usually reserved for the tour boats (the wind was too strong for them as well) we took the Scotbus through the mountains to Poolewe, overtaking RAF Tornados on the way, maybe not quite as fast, but when the fastest we've been for 3 weeks is 10 knots, being driven on a minibus seemed supersonic to me.

We were going to go to Inverewe gardens, but as we arrived it started raining, so we went to the shop, before deciding to do the (free) Pine Trail walk, we diverted off to Poolewe walking to a nice little cafe, and getting the bus back to Gairloch.

This morning we thought we take advantage of the laundry again and change the bedding while we can. Then Kirsty and I stocked up on meat and veg from Kenneth Morrison's the fantastic butcher for the local area. We got all our meat vacuum packed so it will last longer on Pixie, before heading back to see Alex at Two Lochs Radio (http://www.2lr.co.uk/). We had a quick chat, then recorded an interview to go out later that day. It was interesting talking to Alex and finding out how the local community works, with respect to the things we take for granted in London, things like GPs, ambulances etc. Hopefully we'll be able to put an mp3 of the interview up, Kirsty sounded quite Scottish (which she was pleased about after 14 years in England), and I sounded intelligent. It's seems it's not just photos that lie!

We came back via the Gairloch Museum, an interesting small museum, with lots of local history, and information about past lives. The £4.00 entry fee was worth it, to keep small museums like this going, as well as getting close to the giant lens of the old Rubha Reide light house, with its tardis like distortion of the lamp inside.

This evening we listened to our interview on the radio before heading off for a walk up to the Flowerdale Waterfall and back then cooking another dish out of the Camper Van Cookbook, which is turning out to be a great find. Good wholesome food cooked on two rings, great for a boat as well.