Canal Life across Scotland | Sailing Florence Ep.209

Running through the central heart of the Scottish Highlands lies a 200-year-old canal designed to provide a shortcut for sailing ships of old from Scotland's west coast to the North Sea, avoiding the treacherous Pentland Firth in Cape Wrath. 22 miles of canal and 29 locks were dug to link three natural locks creating a 60-mile waterway across the country. We're on a voyage through its charms and scenery keeping an eye out for the famous lock nest monster and sailing past Britain's tallest mountain as we take our 37-foot sailboat Florence to 32 meters above sea level and travel 60 miles through the centre of Scotland on the Caledonian Canal. They say in Scotland in these locks the wind is either going one way or the other, never across. Well the forecast was for it to come across but they're right it's not coming from there, it's coming from dead on the nose. So we're motoring up the beautiful Loch Linney towards the Coran Narrows and beyond that we have the Caledonian Canal which is going to give us a shortcut through the Highlands of Scotland and out to the North Sea on the other side when we can get up to Shetland and set off for the Arctic and Norway. So we're through the Coran Narrows and we've been able to set a sail. The wind is pretty gusty up here because it's blowing down from the mountains. We've passed the Glencoe mountain range which is really beautiful and then behind me at the moment you might be able to see some snow on top of the mountain and that is Ben Nevis, so not just the biggest mountain in Scotland but also the tallest of the whole United Kingdom. So yeah really beautiful clear day today, it's quite unusual for there to be no cloud up there. I think unfortunately for the next few days it's going to be a bit more cloudy but if we're lucky we might get a chance to get a bit closer to Ben Nevis. So now the wind is actually blowing across the loch, I think it's just funnelling down the mountains. We've just got a little bit further to go up past Fort William to a marina where we're going to stop the night before starting the Caledonian Canal tomorrow morning. So this is it, we are outside the first sea lock and ready and waiting to start the transit of the Caledonian Canal. We've got a fairly big morning this morning, we aren't travelling very far, we could probably walk the distance in about an hour at the very most but it's going to take us most of the morning. The reason that it will take so long for such a short distance is that we are not just moving Florence horizontally but also raising her up 21 metres above sea level through 11 locks. That's the entry sea lock, then two further locks before we have to get past two swing bridges and then the eight locks in a row which make up Neptune's Staircase, the longest staircase lock in Britain. Just Neptune's Staircase on its own takes an hour and a half to transit through. So just to give a bit of scale, Florence's mast is about 15 metres so yeah we've got a quite a distance to travel up, not very far along today. We've got all of our fenders on the side ready and two very long lines which are the things that you're supposed to need to be prepared for the locks but everything else was pretty straightforward. You book it all online so there was no admin to do this morning. Just radioed to say they're flooding the chamber and they'll be opening the gate soon and then we can get started right at nine o'clock as soon as they open. Because you can only go through at certain states of the tide, if we don't make this nine o'clock opening then we have to wait until half past one. Keen beans this morning. Yeah keen beans to beat the tide. Once we're in there we're out of the tide, we don't have to worry about tide for the next week. Yeah we're here, we're ready, looks like we're potentially the only boat here. We're still very early in the season so I think the canal might be quite quiet. They're opening the first lock gate and so we're off. So the lock keepers actually passed us one of their lines for the very first lock which was very helpful and we're going up. Because of the steep angle of the mooring lines in the lock we've tied a safety rope over our fairlead to make sure the mooring line can't slip out and damage our pulpit, a precaution we first tested in the Panama Canal many years ago. The level of the lock that we're in is now level with the water in the lock ahead of us so they're about to open the gates and then we can make our way forwards to the next one. So that's us through the sea locks and we've got about a mile now to go up this section of canal and then we have to stop on before the swing bridges because there is a train that's about to cross the bridge. They've opened the swing bridge to allow us into the start of Neptune staircase but this is the swing bridge for a main road so we are holding up traffic. On my own! The locks used to be hand powered with winches and capstans but they've all now been converted to hydraulic or electric control so the lock keepers can open and close the gates at the push of a button. All of the locks and swing bridges are manned by staff from Scottish Canals and they're very relaxed and friendly, helping with lines and pulling boats from lock to lock which makes transiting double or even single-handed perfectly possible. The size of the locks dwarf our 37 foot Florence. They're 180 foot long and 40 feet wide designed to accommodate a 32 gun naval sailing frigate and the ships which traded with the Baltic in the 1800s. It's actually been really easy to manage between the two of us because the lock keepers do help you through the lock so we've had one of the lock keepers on a stern line and me on the bow and then Matt on board just steering because we've got no engine on as we're going through. The hardest part is I'm feeling thirsty I've just spent the entire time chatting people here from Australia, America, all over the world to see the Caledonian Canal. This is the final lock of the day as soon as we're up to the same level as what's the other side of this gate we'll open that up and that'll be us for the day. I think we're up time for me to that we see on the way so we're definitely not going far today. I can see one just ahead that looks really nice so I'm gonna take that one for the night. You can transit the canal in anything from a paddleboard or canoe to a ship but a ship can be a bit of an obstacle for the other canal users. So the Lord of the Glens, the big boat that they wanted us out of the locks ready for is just coming up and we had to be really careful about where we were when this was passing because it takes up most of the width of the canal. They are 45 meters long and 10 meters wide so that's pretty much the length of Florence wide. And that is the maximum size that the canal locks can take meaning a tricky job to get into the chamber and this is on a good day with no crosswind. Our berth for the night on the canal gave enticing views over the Nevis range and we couldn't resist the urge to step ashore for a closer look. There are many walks in the hills the full length of the canal not least the Great Glenway which runs along the route of the canal itself but when you are moored next to the tallest mountain in Britain there's only one real choice. It's too cloudy today to make the summit of Ben Nevis worthwhile so instead we've walked up to the north face of Ben Nevis and these really impressive cliff formations are supposed to be some of the most dramatic cliffs in the United Kingdom and they're really famous for climbing and also mountaineering but it's quite chilly up here and we're already at cloud level and it's starting to rain so I think it's time to head back to the put the kettle on and maybe even the heating. Part of the trouble with living on the boat and not having a car is actually getting to the start of these walks can be quite time consuming it's actually an hour and a half's walk to the base of this walk and if we wanted to do the summit walk even to get around to the regular tourist trail the easier trail up to the summit was a two or two and a half hours walk and the bus that would normally be running is not running because we're this early in the season so it's great this is just the best the easiest place we could get access onto the mountain from Florence on the canal. Despite having to walk along the road for a fair way it's always nice to get off the boat and just explore that little bit further than what we can see directly from the boat and really nice to see Ben Nevis up a bit closer. Today we are into our first lock and we've been able to set the sails which is really nice it's a very easy name to remember the name of this lock it's called Lock Lockie. They really weren't being very imaginative when they came up with that name were they? What do we think? What are we going to call this lock? It looks a bit like a lock let's call it Lock Lockie. It's a beautiful day today despite the misty rain but it is a shame that we can't see the surrounding hills because from this lock you are still supposed to be able to see views of Ben Nevis that's obviously not happening today. Even so despite the weather I'm really enjoying the Caledonian canal so far it's nice and calm when you're moored up it's easy just move on to the next section it's a short distance you don't have to worry about ties you don't have to worry too much about the weather other than whether you need to put your jacket on or not and the scenery even in this misty conditions is beautiful yeah really enjoying this. So now Florence is at the highest point in the canal we've gone through all of the up locks and she's at 32 meters above sea level so today we've taken advantage of that fact by using that height to help us up the nearest hill so we're at Bentay which is 904 meters above sea level and from here we've got 360 degree views so we can't quite see Florence she's hidden behind the hill that we've walked up but we can see further along the canal so behind me you can see which is where we're heading next and then behind and beyond that is Loch Ness which is the final lock in the canal. Looking the other way you can see the Nevis range and Ben Nevis the north face of Ben Nevis that we hiked up to the other day and a lot of the ridges around here still have little patches of snow on so it's pretty cold when you get up into the breezy exposed bits on the bhf radio and the canal staff open them for us stopping the road traffic if necessary but they only operate during the daytime and not at peak rush hours. Turn our engine off and all you can hear is the sound of the main road but it's still nice to have the engine off you're not allowed to sail in the canals but as soon as you come onto the lock you into the swing of this canal boat life now and today we have slowed down even further. Lovely day for a gentle potter in the dinghy and just upwind of where we're moored I've spotted some very Scottish looking cows on the confines of the canal. I was just trying to see how close I could get because I don't know how shallow it is in here and I just heard a crashing in the bushes and one's coming down to the water. Either have a drink or have a closer look at me. Oh I love them who doesn't love a hairy highland cow? that's a perfect little breeze for the dinghy. Nice flat water there's even a little boat out with some red sails from the cruise ship barge that's just next to us so you've got someone to sail with and play with. What a beautiful place. There is plenty of history on display along the canal. Invergarry castle was owned by a branch of the powerful clan Macdonald. It was sacked and partially destroyed by British troops as part of the systematic suppression of the highlands above sea level on lock oik. We've already come through two individual locks today and now we're at Fort Augustus where there's a run of five locks together and then the road swing bridge to get out into the famous lock nest. So we're just waiting for a few boats to come up and once they're up and through then the chamber will be clear for us to head down. Going down the locks should be a lot easier than going up because as we come in we're at the height where the walls are so it's easier to step off and stop Florence by tying a rope off on a bullard whereas on the way up we've got to throw the lines up to somebody up on the top to hopefully stop us. But to make it a little bit more tricky we have got quite a strong wind it's sort of gusting 20-25 knots today blowing us into the lock and slightly across it as well so easier on one hand slightly more tricky on the we spent most of the time whilst waiting for the locks to fill or empty by chatting with the lock keepers many of whom have chosen to take on the seasonal job after retiring from their main career. So we're into Loch Ness and home of Nessie the Loch Ness monster with a name like Nessie i'm not sure if she's supposed to be a cuddly monster or if it's the sort of nickname that the Australians give their most deadly creatures like the saltwater crocodiles or the salties and the box jellyfish are the stingers yeah i think it might be that one. But she must be deep today there's no sightings of her yet and we're currently in over 180 meters of water and this lock is very not only deep but long and straight so there isn't much protection on the shore even if it was shallower enough for us to anchor so we're heading a bit further down about halfway down the lock where there is a small bay an anchorage and also a dock next to the castle so yeah should be a nice place to stop for the night. As i said before the wind seems to either blow up or down these locks very rarely across and you can't predict what the wind's going to do but the prevailing direction of the breeze is from the southwest so if you're going to go through the Caledonian canal you're more likely to have wind with you if you go the direction we're going if you go north and this is beautiful we've been able to sail down all of the locks so far unfortunately tomorrow the wind is going to switch around and i think we're either going to have to be doing some beating or if it's not enough wind some motoring but we'll be almost all the way to the end of the canal by then and it's been fantastic to be able to sail down all the locks instead of having to motor the 60 miles sail down lock nest we were running the engine when we left the locks at the top and i noticed that we didn't have an rpm reading on the engine instrument panel and therefore we also were not generating any power from the alternator the alternator wasn't running even though the engine was running fine so that's a problem because it's not then charging the engine battery although we can do that through the rest of our power system back from the lithium batteries where we needed to fix it so whilst we've stopped here i've emptied all of this stuff out of the cockpit locker to climb in round behind and get to the back of the engine instrument panel which is where i suspect the problem is because the signal that gets sent to excite the alternator and start it generating power actually goes through a bulb on the back of the engine instrument panel one of the indicator bulbs and if the bulb is blown or the pins on it are corroded then it doesn't get the right it doesn't get enough of a signal through to start the alternator generating power and i suspect that's what the problem is but i don't have a spare bulb unfortunately so what i have found in the bottom of my toolbox is a whole bunch of 120 ohm resistors i've no idea why they're there i haven't used those for many many years but a resistor of that value is exactly right to mimic the wattage of the bulb that was in there so i've just made up a resistor with a couple of spade terminals either side but i can shove in in its place i'm going to do that and then we'll see if that gets the alternator spinning and generating power again right so once i start this it should start and then when i give it a few revs this should actually start reading to tell us it's working okay so it's on go a few revs there you go and now that's the alternator working so it works ended much sooner than either of us would like we were both like if the canal continued on a both really enjoyed it it's been a great trip and a real break from the usual open sea sailing that with a seven day ticket was 302 pounds which we think is a very fair price given that there are lock keepers on hand to take your lines on all of the 29 locks and that stopping at canal docks along the way with their showers and toilets is included in the fee. So here we are in Inverness marina just a couple of miles motor round from the exit of the canal and this is where we're going to prepare Florence to sail on the next leg of our journey up to Norway but it was it was definitely the scenic route coming up the west coast of the UK up through the Irish sea and through the Caledonian canal and i absolutely love the Caledonian canal it's something i'd always wanted to do at some point in life and although it's not the shortest and quickest way to get up to Norway from where we were on the south coast it was definitely worth doing so much so that Amy's having to persuade me not to trade Florence in for a barge and get a lock keeper job on the canal. It was very relaxed no need to worry about tides or weather and just beautiful scenery i think it helped that we had really good weather as well but yeah definitely a trip i would recommend to anyone it really was a holiday. Don't worry we are not selling Florence anytime soon but i also really enjoyed the canal it was a really good opportunity to slow down and kind of have the benefits of marina life in that you're more attached to land and the boat is safe and secure and you can leave it in places but you're still moving and traveling so yeah really nice experience but i'm feeling ready to head out to sea and to life at anchor again. And next time we are going to do exactly that. Join us as we set sail across the sea to Norway and on towards the arctic circle of course don't forget to subscribe to make sure that you don't miss the next episode here on youtube. Continuing our voyage on Florence would not be possible without the support of our thank you to all of you and especially to our star patrons. Norway it's four o'clock in the morning it's been light for about an hour and you can really see the mountainous coast of Norway ahead of us it's exciting never been to Norway before