I took advantage of the holiday break to spend the weekend at the London Boat Show. It was the first time I had been to Excel and although it's a fantastic venue there weren't many yachts on display - not that I am planning on buying one!! There were plenty of huge gin palaces around but I don't think my pocket money would stretch that far.

However I spent a lot of time on the various technical stands talking to old friends at Silva, Raymarine, Steel Developments etc.

I also decided on the new RIB and more importantly the engine configeration - twin Yamaha 60 hp's - so watch this space. Incidentaly if anyone is interested in the old RIB at a bargain price just get in touch....

I also met Carol - who came to St Kilda last year - on the RYA stand where she is the Cruising Officer. I was amazed to find two excellent photographs of FREEDOM at St Kilda on the main RYA brochure - fame at last!!!

The RIB and I were called out last night to rescue a motorboat that had broken down off Balnagowan. It was a long tow in the wind and rain especially when the powerboat went aground in the shallows off the Ballachulish Bridge!!

I had a welcome email this morning from Leon who says it is far too hot in Mozambique and South Africa and he can't wait to get back to Lochaber in February - he should be just in time for the snow!!

And finally a call from Charlie - our engineer - this evening to say that he will be starting work tomorrow on the yachts down at MRC.

It looks like we are coming out of hibernation!!!!

Hope you all like our new BLOG page. I bet not many people can say that they were sailing in the week before Christmas!! Well I was!! Charlie Menzies who does all our major maintenance has just bought a fantastic boat called K'ung Fu-Tse. She is a 1974 Aluminium hulled 25 tons 50 foot long JUNK!!! I helped Charlie bring her down from Inverness through the Caledonian Canal. We started out last Sunday and had a fantastic trip down Loch Ness - no monsters!!- to Fort Augustus. Monday morning we went up the flight of locks then down to Loch Oich where the fog came in really thick. The loch is very shallow and we had absolutely NO instruments or chart but we crept through the narrows and eventually stopped at the Great Glen Waterpark. On the Tuesday morning we had a great trip down Loch Lochy to Charlie's moorings at Gairlochy.

Charlie plans to use the boat for skippered charters and thinks he has about a year's work to get her up to scratch!! I just hope that he doesn't forget the work he has to do on FIGMENT, FREEDOM and FANTOM before the end of March!!!

Well, 2006 is slowly drawing to a close and what better time for us to start thinking about 2007?

So this blog is going to be our first new development in the New Year.

Never slow to embrace new technology, both on the boats and on the web, we thought this might be a great addition to Lochaber Watersports.

We'd like all our visitors to post here about their experiences sailing in Scotland - and it doesn't even matter if you sailed with us or not.

We welcome all your comments. We hope this will become a resource for anyone thinking about learning to sail or in chartering a yacht in the Lochaber area.

Happy New Year!