Sunday morning dawned cloudy and overcast …… obviously another fine Scottish summer’s day ….. anyway, after breakfast, showers, boat prep, etc, we eased our way out of what was now a tight alongside berth. Barry had helped a 50+ft ketch to come in behind us, his dinghy & davits were fortunately higher than ours as we over lapped by 3ft and then a 46′ Bavaria squeezed in on the end ….. overhanging the pontoon somewhat and only a foot from our anchor!

We motored out heading down to the Shiant Islands, hardly a breath of wind, no swell and hardly any other boats around, on the way we suddenly had a large pod of dolphins come to play……

Finally after about 3 hrs and as we were approaching the islands, the clouds started to break and the sun came out ….. result!

As per previous blogs… the islands are uninhabited and basically a bird sanctuary …… literally thousands & thousands of birds ….. Ruth took over 2,000 photos

We even got ashore….

after a few hours we departed south and after a false attempt at one anchorage went further on and found another idyllic spot in Lingarabay ….. after a bit of a booboo when we touched the bottom!

Our last day in Stornoway was sorting out day prior to departing tomorrow …… get rid of hire car, food shopping, washing etc

After lunch we went for a walk ……. Hebridean Celtic Festival prep for next weekend well underway….

Wonderful fresh sea food for dinner again, with a nice bottle of red!

After yesterday doing central & north Lewis, Friday was down to Harris….. the ‘border’ between Lewis/Harris is a squiggly line 3/4 way down the island …

Our initial destination was to North Harris ….. after turning off the main road, having driven for a number of miles through low cloud over the top of the hills, a bit like thick fog just worse, Ruth found a mark on the map that said ‘eagle observatory ‘ so we headed that way….. after 5miles of fairly poor roads, there was a small parking area and a sign for ‘eagle observatory 2km’, once parked and lunch boxes, water & cameras in back pack off we went. After about 15mins we saw an eagle fly along the ridge top…… we were following a path/stream up a glaciated valley, eventually (certainly more than 2km) we came across a purpose built hide and after another 10mins or so were extremely fortunate to see 3 golden eagles flying together …. 2 parents + this year’s offspring …..

The young don’t normally fledge this early, but they quickly grow to adult size, hence we saw 3 birds together the same size, a quite remarkable sight that the photo doesn’t do justice to, watching them through the monoscope was just absolutely awesome! Back to the UP we then headed further south, all this time being able to see Taransay Island of Ben Fogle fame….. shame it’s only a very short distance from the main island ! Quickly through Tarbert to get to the southern most area of Harris, we did a ‘short’ detour to locate a Harris Tweed jacket for Ruth ….. now we’d been on some narrow & steep local roads, but these really took the gold medal, narrow, steep. sharp bends & steep drops off to the side!

A fruitless detour for the jacket we continued on the small windy roads all the way to Rodel the SE tip of South Harris, a quick stop to see the church

and a view across to North Uist

then through Leverburgh and on to the West coast to the absolutely magnificent golden beaches….

Onwards back to Tarbert, we found a ‘tweed’ shop and after trying on various garments, Ruth selected one to take home!

It was then time to head north back to Stornoway, fortunately the earlier low cloud had now disappeared, making our return journey so much easier! Another really great day out and well worth getting the hire car!

Thursday morning dawned fairly wet as it had been overnight, Barry collected the hire car around 10am …. a white VW UP! Small but perfectly formed for what we wanted, Ruth packed herself some food for lunch and then we set off, initially going south until we picked up the road West towards Bosta, as the lady in the Harbour office had recommended visiting the Iron Age Village.

The roads on Lewis/Harris are well kept, but best described as narrow, narrower and even narrower ….. although with regularly spaced ‘passing places’ to facilitate two way traffic!

We eventually got to a real narrow and steep part, Ruth not impressed with the road side steep drop offs, before arriving at a small car park next to the beach and iron age village ……. only to find a 52 seater coach parked there having deposited its ‘cargo’ from the Queen Victoria cruise liner parked in Stornoway outer harbour ….. my hat gets taken off to these professional drivers, able to drive something that big down these silly country roads!

The beach looked lovely, golden sand and calm sea,

the village had been uncovered a few years ago after a storm, they had excavated along with archaeologists and then backfilled to preserve what was there just leaving the one ‘villa’ for the masses to view.

We then drove a short distance to a Community Hall, which operates as a cafe, nice lunch! After, we then drove on further west to an area called Miavaig, again another fabulous beach and spectacular scenery, although the low cloud was trying to spoil things …… we feel extremely privileged to have experienced these areas.

We then drove back towards where we left the ‘main’ road and visited the ‘standing stones’ at Callanish

…… another spectacular site, before it was off to the Blackhouse Village at Gearrannan, the man operating the Harris Tweed loom was a wealth of information!

Heading north by now, we stopped for a brew & cake at a lovely cafe as part of an art gallery, then north again to Port Nis and eventually the Bute of Lewis, where we were greeted by rain!

Eventually getting back to SW around 6pm, showers & dinner was all we wanted! A fabulous day out doing ‘culture ‘! Roll on tomorrow!

Yes, we arrived in Stornoway yesterday afternoon after a short 9Nm hop from the overnight anchorage in Marvig! Monday night we had torrential rain that lasted through until late morning, hence we were in no rush to depart northwards. Ruth spent the morning sorting photos out, whilst Barry changed the engine oil & filter on the main engine. Once the cockpit enclosure had dried sufficiently we packed it away, sorted ourselves out and lifted the anchor …. this took a little time due to the amount of mud & weed it had accumulated overnight ….. goodness only knows how we would have managed without the deck wash pump!

Once out through the narrow inlet

we had a very sloppy sea on the beam, no wind to help settle the motion, so proceeded northwards in what is best described as ‘the most comfortable direction’!

Less than 2hrs later we were tucked up in Stornoway next to the big lifeboat

& Gulliver a Wanderer 34, we last saw in Inverness a month ago

the marina staff were exceptionally helpful, even taking away the old engine oil for us! We had a good tidy around after lunch and then took all our rubbish ashore, Barry went to get a haircut, but it was overrun with school-kids waiting, so took a rain check. We then had showers and put some laundry on, before visiting a local hostelry for a beer!

We then had fish suppers, with a portion of black pudding & salt and pepper squid to share ……. we can honestly say it possibly the best F&C we’ve had so far! The black pudding & squid were also delightful! Overnight we again had plenty of the wet stuff, this morning Barry again departed for the barbers, this time returning mission accomplished! On getting back to SW and checking his mobile, he found out a package had been delivered to the Harbour Office …. this is a 2nd Chinese Heater he ordered last Friday ……. bit of a long story; original Chinese heater went wrong, after a week of messages & photos to eBay seller no further forward, knew we’d be here this week so ordered a 2nd heater, over next few days 2nd Heater will be fitted.

Today have confirmation that seller thinks it’s the ceramic glow plug at fault, but it’ll be at least another 2 weeks before we receive new plug, where will we be? Where to get it delivered to? So hopefully decision to get another heater is the right one ……. only time will tell?

Today we’ve cleaned SW inside & out, bought some wonderful fresh & smoked seafood from a local wholesaler (it was absolutely scrummy for dinner!),

went to the castle and museum, booked a hire car for next 2 days to go exploring and had a good walk

….. phew time to relax!

Next couple of days we’re going to explore the North & West coasts of Lewis & Harris, do the ‘heavy’ stuff (diesel, petrol & gas bottle change) while we’ve got the car and then decide where we go to next ……. forecast is for light winds for the next week!

This cruising life is just soooooo hectic🤣

Today we needed to continue our journey north, after another quiet night on the hook, we had breakfast and lifted said hook around 09.15, gently motoring out of the bay as Ruth tried valiantly to remove the caked on clay/mud that even the deck wash pump wouldn’t shift. As we worked our way out through the ‘S’ shaped channel, we could again see the seals on the rocks but were too far away to disturb them!

The forecast was for F3/4 from E/SE ….. as we were going in a northerly direction we hoped to get some sailing done….. main sail set, bear away around the Lighthouse on the point…..

where is the wind…. on the nose from the north! So we ended up with another motor sail!

Our journey north was helped by around 1kt tide pushing us up through Shiant Sound, which runs between Lewis & Shiant Islands, these islands are basically a bird sanctuary….. no one lives there and a number of years ago they eradicated all the rats to protect the birds. Hence we saw lots of different birds on our journey …. mainly puffins

Barry had selected an anchorage for tonight that was accessed through some quite narrow channels 20-25m wide, which Ruth found rather scary. We were followed in through the channel by another boat and when we took a left turn down a wider channel the other boat went straight on …… which is where we should have gone! We back tracked and followed them …. just in time to see them drop anchor in the middle of the anchorage ….. & now no room for us, so we exited stage left. Back around to our wider channel and around another corner we found an area that would make a good anchorage…… muddy bottom, 4-5m depth for a sizeable area, fairly high sided around us, particularly from the south, where the wind is supposed to blow from! Dropping the anchor, we were quickly dug in and no one else around!

After lunch and a leisurely afternoon watching an eagle soar over the hills, we put 1350 in the water and went exploring, by now the 8kts from South was 15kts from West …… is it any wonder we don’t believe forecasts!! One thing we were intrigued about is on the small islands around this anchorage …..

sheep are living on them, 2 here or 3 there, we don’t believe they actually swim there so the locals must take them there by boat?

On our exploring we had seagulls chasing us away from one island, then we saw their chicks near the water’s edge, around another corner we then saw 6 seals,

quickly diving in to the water from the rocks and keeping a beady eye on us ….. they certainly like eye contact! Later on we even saw some more!

Back to SW, Barry filled the main diesel tank from the Jerry cans (currently averaging 2lts/hr), put 1350 to bed & with torrential rain forecast for later fitted the cockpit enclosure……. Ruth is frantically trying to sort out the hundreds of photos she’s taken today of the all wildlife!

Tomorrow we’ll head for Stornaway….. 10Nm or sit out the bad weather here if no marina berth available, as once there we want to spend proper time ashore and hire a car etc for a few days!

This morning we again awoke to fully charged batteries ……. the downside being the constant noise from the wind generator all night, but a necessary evil when not on mains power! We were greeted by a grey & overcast sky, with low cloud covering all the hills, after breakfast we got togged up for our leg across The Minch to Harris, our initial destination being Lingarabay (38Nm). After dropping off the buoy in next to no wind,

once out of the sheltered anchorage, we had the Northerly 15kts forecasted, which would be a good wind angle for our 270 degree course, a reefed main & full Genoa were set, engine off and away we went 6.5-7kts. After 25mins or so as we exited Loch Gairloch, the wind eased off and we had a horrible deep short chop from the NW hitting us beam on and without enough power from the wind to drive us on SW was bucking around and Mrs C was mightily unimpressed, going a rather greenish colour. To maintain some semblance of crew morale, we headed up 25 degrees and put the engine on (only fast tick over), but enough to give us drive forward and settle the horrible motion down.

All around us there were rain showers, in fact we got a little wet, the mountains looked grey, the sea looked greyer, the clouds were dark grey, the rain a different grey ….. but in reality it all looked like an old black & white photograph and quite depressing!

Throughout the day, we’ve tried a number of combinations of sail settings and engine or not, seen the Crown Princess cruise liner heading for Kirkwall and a smaller passenger ship Nautica going from Dublin to Lerwick, but mostly in the distance.

All in all an unremarkable day, but we’re now anchored in Scalpay South Harbour,

a little further north than our original destination, but nobody else is here.

The island is incredibly rugged

and we’ve passed other rugged rocks along the way to the north of Skye

and the Shiant Islands.

We dropped off our £15 buoy in Plockton around 8am, only 3kts breeze and a flat sea, something of a novelty after yesterday’s excesses! Motoring out across Loch Carron with low cloud all around, dodging the fishing buoys & boats, the wind started building (as advertised) and on the nose until we got to Uags Point, where we went inside Eilean Mor and in doing so bore away slightly (30 degrees) and could set the Genoa, what wind we had (8kts apparent) was now abaft the beam! We throttled back the diesel to just over idle and were making around 6kts towards our destination at Gairloch/Badachro, throughout the morning we could see all around the islands rain showers, but the most we had was drizzle. Up through Inner Sound we motored and passed a Minesweeper on exercise,

then we saw some dolphins breaking the surface around us ….. no pictures as we weren’t quick enough with the camera!

Eventually we had enough breeze to actually sail for the last 2hrs, which corresponded with heavy rain and then very reduced visibility as we turned to stbd in to Loch Gairloch,

Barry had identified a small anchorage at Badachro, that would give us protection from the SW winds forecast to be 15-20kts, when we got there it was extremely busy with other boats, wind now 20-25kts and not a lot of room to drop a hook, we espied a vacant blue visitor’s buoy and 5 mins later were safely secured to it ….. another £15 well spent!

It was now 13.15 and time for lunch, after it was just torrential rain, so we put the washboards in and shut up shop for the afternoon to try and retain some warmth in the boat, it had been cold all morning on deck with the following cold damp air…… Ruth inspecting the inside of her eyelids, Barry catching up on a Netflix series…… nothing too strenuous you know when cruising!

After hot showers on board, little generator enabling Ruth to use her hair dryer, we ventured ashore in 1350 and had a wonderful meal & drinks in the Badachro Inn, fortunately Barry kept a close eye on 1350, as we came ashore not long after low water and with a 4.5m tide range, needed to move it up the slipway in between beers!

It turned in to a lovely sunny evening with very little wind in an idyllic setting.

Not sure when this blog will be ‘posted’ as we currently have no internet access and tomorrow we’re heading directly West across ‘The Minch’ to Lewis/Harris and will be anchoring for the next few days probably without any internet access!

Nothing much to report today apart it’s been pretty wet & wild most of the day, after a quiet night securely attached to our mooring buoy! This morning we woke up to fully charged batteries, even though it was very overcast ……. obviously the wind generator rotating like a wailing banshee all night was doing some good, particularly as Barry was not convinced it was actually helping up till now! This was a pleasant and welcome surprise, as it’s kept up with charging everything today too as the most we’ve had from the solar is about 2 amps …. result! A check on the internet shows we should get 8amps in 5kts breeze from our Rutland 913, which seems to be about what we’ve had.

Ruth has worked most of the day on the computer with MOA & the Company stuff, HUAWEI has again done a sterling job boosting local mobile signal to an acceptable 4G! Barry hasn’t really done much!

We’ve had a lovely chicken curry for dinner, run the generator to have the fan heater on, but it needs to be out of the rain, so under cockpit canopy with rear flap open……. until the boat CO alarm went off……. now venting rear cabin to get rid of any traces before we can turn in later!

All the boats here today have been riding a merry dance around their buoys, we’ve had 25kts most of the day occasionally 30+, along with torrential rain since 11am, whitecaps and waves across the small bay ….. hence investing another £15 to stay tonight, & no we’ve not ventured ashore!

Better weather is on the way ….. allegedly, we’ll see what tomorrow brings and how far we get!

Having thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s down day, we were in no rush to accomplish much today either …… so leisurely breakfast, and stroll across to the Mull Museum just after 10am. What a wonderful surprise we had, the Mull Museum is absolutely fabulous, plenty of history about the island & inhabitants, all carefully detailed and written up by hand …… amazingly it is also kept up to date with amendments, which for a voluntary organisation is quite exceptional……

After the museum we had a chance for a quick coffee, chocolate cake & hot chocolate, before the weekly ‘local produce’ market in Aros Hall opened at 12 ………not a lot there and what they did have was grossly overpriced ….. £15 for 2 Sirloin steaks (that were not that big) & £4.75 for a jar of home made jam or chutney!!!!! So, back to the trusty Co-op it was for all our fresh stuff for the boat.

After a spot of lunch, we then walked down to Aros Gardens & waterfall, a really great walk with views over the new & old harbours, the waterfalls were lovely too,

back to SW it showered and then went out for a great meal in the award winning Cafe Fish Restaurant. The food was absolutely stunning as was the wine, we then strolled back and put in a load of washing, as the machines were busy earlier in the day. Unfortunately the machines are available for everyone to use, including the local fishermen, tourists, locals etc etc ……. possibly why we got caught out a bit later with the tumble dryer …….. washing moved from machine to dryer, money inserted for 1hrs drying time, which has to now been more than long enough ……. Ruth goes back up after an hour, washing is warm, but still soaking wet ….. obviously someone removed our washing, dried theirs (using our money) and then put ours back in the dryer …… not very impressed!

We saw John & Jenny from Shaka on our way back, so they came across to SW for some cheese, biscuits & port, for a very pleasant interlude before bedtime after a very satisfying day!