Day Four: Portree to Tobermory

Island-Hoppers All

After taking Wednesday as a rest day, crews had an early morning start to reach ferries back from Skye to the mainland. From Mallaig, the scenery was truly spectacular. The route-setters had given drivers and navigators every opportunity to enjoy the view: this section was free of regularities. Strontian saw the first driving test - a test of judgement and nerve rather than speed and agility, as cars had simply to drive the front of their car as close up to a marker board as possible without hitting it. Only three crews fell short of Gold standard here, and none made the mistake of hitting the board. Silver medal contenders Malcolm Pickering/Derek McConnell (Sunbeam Tiger) failed to check in to this test, and clearly had car problems during the afternoon - they missed a large section of route, only to reappear later - but their chance of a medal of any kind was gone. Gold medallists had a good day, with no losses from their number. But more than a few came in during the latter part of the day with tales of traffic problems. The Isle of Mull is beautiful, it has a small population, but it also has hardly any roads!

What glorious scenery, though. It seemed criminal to be doing anything other than admiring its beauty, enhanced yet again by the sunshine which almost defied belief. Meanwhile, Ian Crammond / Caroline Ward set the pace, ending the day with a paltry eight additional penalties added to their overall score.

In the Marque Team award, for the Talisker Trophy, the SL Allstars are blazing a trail with just 346 penalties on aggregate, still well ahead of Very Volvo on 1058. In the Ecurie competition, Mixed Doubles have a 34 point lead over nearest rivals Ecurie 'r' Us, and Northern Raiders retain a 96 point advantage over Southern Raiders.

Deliberate Mistake
Crews may have thought they'd spotted a roadbook lapse as they arrived at Strontian. The tulip diagram for the test start clearly showed a right slot - yet the arrows led them off to the left. Only a bit of quick-thinking and an enthusiastic local resident allowed that test to go ahead. Test commanders John Henderson and Donald Hawes arrived in good time to set up - and discovered a gypsy encampment on the car park that had been allocated months ago. Clearly, HERO's original plans were out of the question. But Donald spotted the private house over the road had an ideally large drive - perfect for the test. He rang at the doorbell, and gained enthusiastic permission from the owner for the test to take place there. 'And if you come back again next year,' she added, 'I'll have a marquee and arrange lunch for you if you'd like it.' It turned out that until 1998 she and her husband had owned a hotel on the exact spot where the driving test would now take place - but at 7:00pm on New Year's Eve, a fire had started, which burned for two days, razing it to the ground. So there we were, with space after all to run our driving test, and an enthusiastic new supporter of the rallying cause.

You can - with McEwan's
The noble little Morris 8 deserves special mention. It's one of the lowest powered cars on the event, and yet its crew is obviously enjoying every moment. Some judicious cutting and running comes into play to ensure they don't fall too far behind, but it's good to see them every so often as they arrive to check in. Rumour was that they'd had a radiator cap problem today, so Malteser went to investigate as they came into Tobermory. Yes, they'd lost their radiator cap somewhere, having failed to tighten it properly. They were sporting a fine replacement, though, cunningly fashioned from the bottom part of a McEwan's can. But before that, they'd tried something else - a modified spade handle. Don't ask. It didn't work.

Moveable feast
The Main Control just before the second ferry of the day, from Lochaline to Mull, was in a seductive spot at a quiet waterside hotel. Though not an official lunch halt, several crews decided to take advantage of the wait for their ferry sailing to tuck into one of the crusty baguettes on offer. But suddenly everyone was leaving to join the ferry queue - and the baguette production line had ground to near standstill. Anxious not to get bounced off the sailing and fall behind schedule, Harvey du Cros drove his Healey to the ferry, leaving wife Jan to collect the comestibles when they appeared. But local hospitality prevailed, and the hotel owner gave Jan a lift down to the ferry - after all, he didn't want her to miss the boat for the sake of one of his baguettes!

Laundry Service
The relaxed Highland way of life hit home again yesterday. Jean-Claud Tourn handed his laundry in to his hotel when we arrived at Portree - and it still wasn't ready by the time he had to leave for the ferry. But HERO marshalling crew Lee and Sue Vincent collected it, and will hand it over wherever they next meet up with Jean-Claud - somewhere alongside the road at their next control en route to Oban...

Shredded!
Bill Thompson's E-Type Jaguar finished the day at Portree on Tuesday with a set of bald and shredded tyres - it seems he'd been trying just that bit too hard on the airfield tests. Anxious to avoid too many fixed penalty fines, he fitted his own spare and that of fellow E-Type owner Joost de Jong (a different size wheel, just to complicate things). But the next problem was in sourcing a new set. The nearest ones available off the shelf were in Hertfordshire. They were quickly despatched to Inverness, but then the only way beyond there was by taxi. Taxi plus four spares finally arrived in Portree around 7.15pm on Wednesday, and the kind owner of McRae's Garage offered to stay on late to fit them in time for Bill to restart yesterday morning.

You can - with McEwan's
The noble little Morris 8 deserves special mention. It's one of the lowest powered cars on the event, and yet its crew is obviously enjoying every moment. Some judicious cutting and running comes into play to ensure they don't fall too far behind, but it's good to see them every so often as they arrive to check in. Rumour was that they'd had a radiator cap problem today, so Malteser went to investigate as they came into Tobermory. Yes, they'd lost their radiator cap somewhere, having failed to tighten it properly. They were sporting a fine replacement, though, cunningly fashioned from the bottom part of a McEwan's can. But before that, they'd tried something else - a modified spade handle. Don't ask. It didn't work.