Raasay Day 3

Having been awoken in the night by the hum emanating from the ship in the bay, I surfaced from my tent. Looking at the MarineTraffic app, I looked up the ship's details. It was a wellboat called the Inter Alba. The Inter Alba is basically a salmon farm within a ship. It is Scotland's largest wellboat and is a 93-metre live fish carrier operated by Mowi Scotland. It features a massive well capacity of approximately 6,500 cubic metres and an onboard reverse osmosis plant capable of producing 15,000 cubic metres of fresh water daily to treat salmon.

I guess, with fixed salmon farms having a detrimental effect on the environment, including on the fish, having the salmon in tanks on a ship that can move around lessens the environmental impact of salmon farming. It can also dock at a port for processing the salmon. Sounds great, except when it is humming just off a beach where you are trying to sleep.

Breakfast eaten, I called home. Unfortunately, things were not good. My dog, Gemma the greyhound, had deteriorated rapidly, and my wife was saying she was looking to get the emergency vet out to her. Gemma wasn't looking at all well. My wife was also not great, having been up all night with Gemma.

We had known something wasn't right with Gemma for a little while, and we had even been at the vets on the Thursday, the day before I set off on this Raasay trip. We just didn't expect the sudden deterioration. All I wanted to do at this point was get home.

Leigh was planning on not setting off for Sconser until midday. I decided the only option was to set off solo ASAP and get back home as soon as I could.

So, having agreed this with Leigh and the group, I set off on my own. I made good time getting back to Sconser and encountered very little flow in the Narrows of Raasay. Weather-wise, it was a beautiful day, and the views were amazing.

Back at Sconser, I was relieved to find my van without any penalty charge notice. I packed up my kit and set off for the four-plus-hour drive home. Of course, being a Sunday, there was a great deal of traffic heading south from Skye. Various messages kept popping up on my phone, but I was unable to read them while driving.

I eventually made it home at around 17:00, wondering what I would find. It turned out I had missed Gemma by a couple of hours. The vet had been out, and she had been put to sleep. She was 12 years old, which, to be fair, is a fairly normal lifespan for a greyhound.

Since Gemma had retired from racing aged three and we adopted her, she had, I'd like to think, a very good life. She is very much missed.

So that was the end of my Raasay trip with Drumchapel and Clydebank Kayak Club. Coming home from this trip felt very much like I had entered a different world. Everything had changed.

Many thanks to Leigh for organising and leading this trip. And thanks to Simone, Jade and Iain for your great company.

3.9 nm 1 hour

For once, not so fab!