OK, here I am back on dry land. What a fascinating holiday I’ve just had on a 49ft, ten berth yacht, sailing among the Western Isles. Some of you will probably know the places we visited or sailed by.
Starting at Craobh (pronounced Crove) Haven we sailed north past Oban, though we couldn’t actually see it, up the Sound of Mull to Droma Buidhe and then to Mallaig and berthed there one night, under the bridge at Kyle of Lochalsh, round to Plockton (beautiful gardens as the result of the Gulf Stream).
We then turned south with the islands of Skye, Mull, Rum, Eigg and Muck on our right. We stopped at Tobermoray on Mull, one night at Lochaline and then back to Craobh. 200 miles in all with about 150 under sail. It was a completely new experience to me, I was a bit of a landlubber.
We saw Minkie whales, seals, porpoises, herons and mother and baby dolphins played round the boat. What a wonderful world we live in. Once got in the doldrums, once fairly rough (though not bad enough to get sea-sick) and on the last day got very wet.
Carol, the sailor