Laggan Avenue

We set off from Banavie fairly early, thinking we might make it all the way back to Fort Augustus.  That plan lasted until we got to Gairlochy where the bridge, unbeknown to us, was only opening a few times during the day.  We had to wait about 90 minutes to the next opening, during which we took a nice walk up to the navigation lighthouse where the canal meets Loch Lochy.  When we got back to the boat we were told there would be a further delay as the scheduled opening was being put back “for the Marines”.

Two Royal Marine patrol boats duly arrived, following each other very smartly and manoeuvring into place on pontoons with a noisy burst of thrusters firing in all directions.  I chatted to some of the Marines on the pontoon, while others took CyclopsJnr aboard one of the boats for a look round, and let him sit in the pilot seat surrounded by joysticks and electronic charts.  He was thrilled!  It seems this was a rare trip out for Marines normally on protection duty at Faslane, and they were planning to run up to the Commando Memorial.

I was a bit intimidated by the type of precision I expected of Marines – turns out I needn’t have worried.  They left the pontoons in another flurry of furious thrusters – very manly and impressive but not very efficient except at dislodging bits of the canal bank.  Once in the lock chamber their thrusters were shooting great jets of backwash up the walls, and the lock keeper had to yell at them to settle down or it would be unsafe for others to enter the chamber.  As we pulled forward, the patrol boat nearest us let its stern drift out and nearly hit us!  Clearly the dramatic thrusters were a much more appealing option than properly using ropes during locking.  The Marines had their ropes tied off instead of manually keeping tension on them as the water level raised, so they kept drifting away from their wall and towards us.  Guess what the solution was?  You got it, APPLY MORE THRUSTERS!  We bobbed about quite a bit every time they did… 

They were kind to CyclopsJnr, friendly to chat to, but not good citizens on the canal.  At least they didn’t actually break anything, unlike the Ondine Jule and its excessive thrusteriness.  We later found out Ondine Jule had jammed the lock at Laggan too – their excessive use of thrusters was sufficient to kick rocks up off the canal bed and wedge one under the lock gate.  Engineers with underwater cameras and special tools were required to free it…

Our run along Loch Lochy was lovely and quiet after all that excitement.  Laggan Avenue was beautiful (my favourite, pictured), and we had a smooth trip through Loch Oich too, with MrsCyclops at the helm most of the way.  At Cullochy the Lock Keeper (who had chatted to CyclopsJnr and showed him some of the machinery on the way up) let us put CyclopsJnr ashore (in a nifty wee manoeuvre if I do say so myself) and then let him run the locking!  CyclopsJnr caught our ropes then pressed all the levers and buttons to close the upstream gates, open the sluices, and open the downstream gates.  He then gave us our ropes back so we could set off.  He was absolutely thrilled with this!

Then we put him ashore with his bike so he could bike to Kytra Lock on the towpath while we cruised alongside him.  He was never out of sight and seemed to really enjoy it.  We took him back on board at Kytra, and then against all the odds after earlier delays made it to Fort Augustus in time to go to the pub for a game of Rummikub and some dinner.
Lord of the Glens arrived in Fort Augustus about the same time we did – a cruise ship specially designed to fit the canal but pretty much at the maximum possible size.  Impressive.  We’ll probably be locking down around the same time as her tomorrow, so her progress will be fun to watch.  I’m putting money on it that her use of thrusters is more judicious than Ondine Jule or the Royal Marines… 

A cracking day all in all.