VorraThorne en vacances: Inverness and Caledonian Canal Day 1

After an excellent breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms and tomato at Ardmeanach House we head out to find our way to the Caley Cruisers marina, a walk to the end of the road which contains our guest house and dozens of others in both directions. At the end we cross the canal via one of the lock gates, then walk down to the marina. By the time we've got there, we've decide it's definitely too far and too rough a road to repeat the walk with suitcases. We introduce ourselves to the Caley people, get a bit more information about what we will need to shop for to equip ourselves for the voyage. As we're heading back towards the lock to cross back over the canal, we realise it's about to be opened for an incoming vessel, so we watch the locking process with interest, as it will be our turn the next day. The boat coming through is a nice-looking ocean-going yacht from Norway. Peter has a chate with the skipper and finds that their eventual destination is the Caribbean.

Once he's part way through we cross back over the lock and walk to the centre of Inverness to explore. It's about a 30 minute walk from the canal to the footbridge over the river Ness that leads into town - we are getting a lot more walking exercise than we're used to because we're such layabouts at home. In the city we explore all the charity shops looking for something in the way of bulky warmer clothes that we can give away again on return. Peter finds a very classy Musto jacket, waterproof outside, fleece lining, for a mere £40, and too good to discard later. I am looking for a thick woolly but it appears that the charity shops think it's summer, and so the only sweaters on display are very lightweight and synthetic. When we've exhausted our options we change tack and I buy a very nice merino wool sweater in Pringle's for £35.

In between we check out food options at M&S, and find a salad bar in a food hall at the end of an arcade where we get a greens fix with a chicken caesar and a watermelon and fetta salad, both awash with leaves. We go to Boots because they have all kinds of useful substances in small containers for travellers: we stock up on sunscreen and insect repellant which we may need if the weather improves, plus various other useful items like moisturiser, shampoo, body wash.

Finally we head to Tesco as Caley Cruisers have recommended it as the place to buy food, because they will deliver. This turns out to be a half-truth - they only deliver if you buy online. And you can't buy online without an account. And you can't sign up for an account without being able to provide a phone number, which I can't because I have a data e-sim, no calls or texts. Of course we don't find that out until we've been right round Tesco deciding what we might buy online later. Defeated retreat to a cafe that does a good coffee, and then complete our exercise for the day by walking back to Ardmeanach House.

Plan B is to have breakfast, walk back to Tesco, shop for food, get a taxi to Caley Cruisers stopping at the guest house en route to pick up bags. But as we are stowing our bags downstairs for later pickup, we have a chat with host Andrea's husband, who recommends Lidl or Aldi instead. So we find our way to Lidl, but it's a bit too early as our boat pickup time is 12:45. Decide to find a cafe and have a morning coffee, but we are in a cafe-free zone and have to walk all the way to the river to find one. It's a Manna House cafe, which serves free coffee and scones to anyone who wants it. You have the option to make a donation, which we do. Our coffee the day before also came from a cafe run by a charitable organisation - in that one you paid for your coffee, but you could also do "Pay it forward", where you make a donation so that someone else who's hard up gets a free meal. We donated there as well. By the time we finish our coffee and scones the morning is almost gone so we go to Aldi as it's closer and shop there. We are now connoisseurs of British supermarkets - Lidl was probably the best, but we are quite happy with our Aldi purchases. Call a taxi, pick up our gear and arrive at Caley Cruisers ready to pick up the boat.

We pass the test to prove we'd watched the safety video, pay in advance for fuel, put our food and gear on board and it is time for our briefing about what's where. That doesn't take long as we are familiar with most things on a boat. Peter then takes the steering position and we practise getting the boat out of a cramped corner, doing a 360 turn, coming alongside a pontoon and tying up. All goes smoothly and it was time to set off. We successfully tie up at the first pontoon to wait for a bridge to open, but we're blowing off when we try to come alongside the second one where we have to wait for a second bridge, and we finish up at right angles to the pontoon. Peter decides the simplest solution is to keep turning and do a 360 - by the time he achieves this the second bridge is about to open so we just sit in the canal and then go straight through. Now we have a long section of canal before our first lock, but there's quite a bit of boat traffic coming the other way, and a number of rowers in the canal in single and double sculls, so it's a journey where the skipper has to stay alert.

Successful tie up to a third pontoon to wait for the gates of our first lock to open. We enter the lock easily, I throw a bow rope up to the lock keeper, and Peter throws the stern rope. Consternation at the stern. Lock keeper tells me to leave my post and go back to tend to my partner. In making an effort to throw the line far enough to reach the lock keeper, Peter has managed to bang his head on the edge of the cabin roof, creating a gash of about 6cm. He appears to have damaged an artery because blood went everywhere - all over the boat and pouring down his face. He heads for the sink to get a wet cloth, distributing more blood around the galley area. When I reach him I alternate between mopping blood off him and off the boat, and finding something (a wet handkerchief) that he can press on the cut to try and stop it from continuing to bleed. I make him sit while I do this - by the time I've cleaned up I've thrown four washing-up-bowlfuls of very bloody water into the canal.

During all this the lock fills, the gates are opened, and the lock keeper single-handedly pulls us through the lock and, with a bit of help from a passing friend, moors us securely. People from the boat behind offer an ice pack which we accept and a first aid kit, which we decline. Once the blood tide has ebbed a bit, I patch Peter up with various dressings I am carrying in case they are needed for the wound on my leg where I had a skin cancer removed before we left Australia. Fortunately they are unused and by late evening they've all been deployed as the wound is still bleeding a bit.

The whole episode leaves us too tired to want to do much ashore, so we just take it easy for what remains of the afternoon and I cook our first meal on board. All the bandages come off when Peter pulls clothes over his head to undress. I wait until he's safely in his pajamas, rebandage, and he goes to sleep with a pair of my knickers on his head to prevent seepage on to the pillows. Hopefully.