The young crew from ‘Muffin’ came on board last night, it turned out that Simon was already in the 3rd Battalion Royal Anglian and going through the process of joining up full time. He and Tim sat up late into the wee hours.
Talavera was in the second batch of boats to go through the staircase of locks downstream today and we didn’t get started until 11a.m. That was OK, we just walked alongside the previous batch of boats and carried on chatting and generally amusing the holidaymakers until it was our turn, by which time we had the locks to ourselves.
At the bottom of the ‘staircase’ is the seaport marina at Muirtown, what a great location. Although a suburb of Inverness it is quiet in the marina with very little traffic noise. Just outside the main gates is a large retail park with all the usual chain stores and supermarkets, very convenient.
We shall look around Inverness further tomorrow but today we’re re-visiting our passage plans for returning south. The easterly wind direction is not great for heading south in the North Sea, so we plan to wait here at Muirtown and take advantage of every penny paid for the Caledonian Canal transit, which includes seven nights of marina fees. In the meantime we’ll go further afield and explore a bit of Inverness tomorrow.
As everywhere else Covid-19 has affected this area, a few locals with berths here are checking their boats and then driving home again. A couple of very small cruise ships are alongside shut up for the season and there are only four visiting boats, of which we are one, staying over tonight.
However, Row found the social scene and where all the action happens – the launderette, situated between the ablutions block. With book in hand, one of Terry Wogan’s autobiographies, she disappeared for a couple of hours to complete the honourable clothes washing task. On return she had met most people who entered the complex either by boat or by car and established where they had recently been and where they were planning to go. Manned with this information she imparted it to Tim who went to find the Dutch boat and hasn’t been seen since. He must still be reminiscing over the stand mast route through Holland we did a couple of years ago. Artie has heard the stories all before and has taken to his hammock for the night.
The Tim Heale Website 