Saturday 23rd July - Hunting for Nessy

Tiredness is setting in, and we all slithered out of our beds early for the last full day on board Tenacity. Moving off our mooring our day started with a set of locks taking us down towards Loch Ness. We all had busy roles to play, even at this early hour... Amrit heroicly used the roving fender, while Roxanna wildly giggled and managed the bow line. Charlotte craftily walked the bow line of the boat between the locks. Connor masterfully mastered the stern line on the boat, while Alex cunningly chilled out; walking the boat between locks and making friends with a passing black lab dog. Nicola defended the boat's stern with her friend the fender. Nabila worked below in the galley, squawking with glee while making the cooker gleem, and James squirmed in the heads, but left it imaculate... for which we were are all very greatful.

Loch Ness gave us a break from the locks and a chance to coil up the ropes and keep our eyes peeled for Nessy. Unfortunately the greying weather had kept the olde Nessy below and hidden in the depths so we didn't get a chance to say hello. And before we knew it, we were heading back into the canal system. Here we had some interesting navigation as the river falls straight out of the canal and we decided Tenacity may not make it down the rapids, so opted to stick to the canal.

A stop for lunch saw a return of the sunshine and we took a wee wander along the lock as we waited for the lock keeper to let us on our way. We read about Mr Telford who designed the canal many years ago - over 200 years ago in fact...and we found a patch of juicy wild raspberries.

Underway again, we neared our final destination. Jean from Inverness stopped to say hello while we were refuelling the boat. She has been following our progress on the blog and her brother use to go to Bolton School. A big hello to Jean, and many thanks for coming to say hello to us.

The final stretch of canals and locks saw our arrival in Inverness and the end of our journey. But we still had work to do, cleaning the boat and scrubbing the decks in the sunshine.

Its been another long day on Tenacity, and we were all ready for an evening meal on deck, which included all the food left on board and homemade guacamole. We are just eating chocolate fondue before we head towards our tiny Tenacity bunks for the last time.

Goodnight
Love Alex, Amrit, Charlotte, Connor, James, Nabila, Nicola and Roxanna x x