Monday 3 August. Castle bay Barra

Woke up to sunshine and excited to hire bikes and explore the island. First however we decided to turn the boat round so she would be facing outwards. Reason being that it’s easier to get away from he pontoon going forward than backward, and as the wind has been forecast to be near gale force tonight/ tomorrow it seemed a sensible idea. We had it all planned with ropes and fenders strategically placed. Our neighbours on a Hallberg 352 , were on hand to help too. It sounds easy but in a pretty tight space where the wind blows the boat wherever it wants, manoeuvring a big heavy boat is not at all easy! Anyway we managed and got her tucked in pointing forwards which will make leaving a lot less stressful! We then helped our neighbours do the same thing. We then packed our rucksacks for our day out and set off. Only to be sadly disappointed as the man who did the bike hire from the shop, had gone on holiday to see his grandchildren apparently. So we returned to the boat a bit deflated and had a 🤔 think. We had set our hearts on seeing vatersay again but it’s a long walk so we decided to take the dinghy across and walk from there. The day had started with blue skies and sunshine but it was clouding over by the time we’d got the dinghy sorted. It’s about a mile and a half across to the beach on the other side so quite an exposed trip in a little boat. Nice though and the outboard behaved perfectly so no need for rowing thank goodness. As you will see from the photos, the sand is pure white which gives the sea an azure colour even when the sun is not shining…. I promise I have not enhanced the colour! We lugged the dinghy up the beach and tied it onto a buried old lobster pot. If we’d bothered to check tide times probably needn’t have taken it so far but as we weren’t sure how long we’d be, better to be safe than sorry! Vatersay beach was a couple of miles away so we turned back as soon as we had a view. It is THE most stunning beach but our picture doesn’t do it justice. Google a picture of it! The weather was becoming more overcast and we didn’t want to be caught out by the weather for our return journey. Although a bit choppy it was fine and once back we decided to avail ourselves of the governments “eat out to help out “ scheme at the cafe on the shore overlooking the bay. Great food and at half price a real bargain! Only cost us £10! Rest of the day has been just sorting stuff and tidying up a bit as we are expecting bubble visitors 😬 !!!!

What I learned today…………………If I hadn’t been lazy and worked out the tides, I wouldn’t have had to lug half of a heavy dinghy plus outboard and extra petrol can quite as far!!!

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