Plotting

Over the weekend in between the rain showers I set about plotting a few of our planned courses into the chart plotter for our big summer trip.

We have a vague idea of where we want to visit and when but a lot will of course depend on the weather and sea conditions.

Our first leg is the very short, less then two mile in fact, hop from Inverness Marina at the mouth of the River Ness to Clachnaharry Sea Lock at the start of the Caledonian Canal.

The exit from the River Ness will take us towards the Kessock Bridge to avoid the sand bar which has formed at the mouth of the river. The bar is handily marked by a buoy so we shouldn't have any issue avoiding it. Once out into the fast flowing estuary beyond it won't take us long to reach the entry to the canal and then we can have a week of milling around as and when we choose, whilst always keeping an eye on the weather for our final week on the coast.

For the west coast section of our trip we have only charted the first couple of legs so far as plans could well change depending on the weather and sea state. The remaining legs can be plotted nearer the time when we are sure where we are heading!