Inverness Again
30 April 2016 | Inverness Scotland
Iroquois launched yesterday in Inverness Scotland. It was a cold day, in the 40s F, but warmer than it has been and there was minimal snow and rain. We've been here five days and every day has had snow, sleet, hail AND rain, and also had a little sunshine. All the weather here happens in 15 minute intervals. In other words Scotland hasn't changed since we left. It's cold and wet.That might be why the daffodils have such long stems. They're really tall and blooming all over. There are yellow flowers wherever you look, mostly weeds like dandelions, sorrel and gorse. The hillside wastelands are covered in yellow-flowered gorse, an ugly prickly plant with beautiful flowers. From the boatyard you see a foreground of gorse covered hillsides and a backdrop of snow covered mountain peaks. Inverness Marina is a little oasis of sailboats in a big commercial port. We arrived late last summer and the port was full of giant wind turbine parts. They are still bringing in freighter loads of them. Apparently they're being erected all over Scotland and according to some ruining the scenery. But then coal mines and oil fields aren't too scenic either. I tried to capture the snow capped peaks, the load of wind blades and Iroquois in the picture. It was hard to get it all in. I wanted to show the diversity of the port, and there is also the dolphin tour boat and lots of royal navy life boats in the harbor with the sailboats. The marina itself is very nice with great showers and laundry. The manager is the best--he looks after every boat as if it were his own. You do have to walk a mile into the city centre through an industrial park. But you walk by Cromwell's clock tower, the only remnant of Cromwell's Inverness Castle. It is now surrounded by an oil terminal, a huge Scotlog facility, many building supply companies and countless other small industries. There is a lot of truck traffic, but there are sidewalks and other walkers and bikers. It feels unique. We have some work to do on the boat, installing some new jib car track and reorganizing for more coastal cruising. We think it will take a week or so and then we'll head out. Hopefully it will get warmer before then. We met some guys who left last night in a Swan40 (1971)one of them had bought. It was pretty similar to our boat. They were sailing it home to the east coast of England. It was snowing when they left and I think both Jack and I were hoping it won't be when we leave. People say sailors have an emotional attachment to their boats and we certainly do with Iroquois. After all she brought us across the North Atlantic. Today when I watched her slowly being lowered into the water I could feel her satisfaction verging on joy of being back in her element. Or maybe I was just hallucinating from the cold.
