Loch Shell (Lewis)

The weather was far too unstable for an overnight at the Shiant islands so we made the further hop to the Isle of Lewis looking for a nice little sheltered lock and a settle spot to have supper and bed. With 25nts of wind as we closed land we were doing 8 knots straight into the loch, a really nice sail ready for an easy run in. Wrong. It appeared. The whole loch was full of fish farms, not marked on the chart. And in the half light no obvious way around. Especially down wind at 8 knots. Some urgent sail reduction and a gentle scout around to find the path though was required. Once were past the fish farms we managed to anchor under a hill on the south side in 15metres which is was a bit deep and we didn’t know what bottom was. We dug the anchor in and put out 70 metres of chain as the forecast wasn’t good. Sleepless night wind howling 35knts of breeze hill wasn’t offering much protection. Claire was so worried she got dressed in the middle of the night and slept in the cabin ready for quick escape. Rich however slept like a baby and couldn’t hear the wind in the rear cabin.
When morning came it was still howling but the boat hadn’t moved an inch I love that Rocna.Read more