On 29th July Little Else sailed south from Ardfern in the evening, and anchored for the night in a favourite spot at Lussa Bay, Jura. Clive was crewing for me, and he was below after dinner when I went on deck for a breath of air, and saw the bow of a viking longship coming slowly round the point and into the bay. I slowly realised that it was being rowed by a large number of oars, and it came into the bay with navigation lights showing, and the crew responding to very sotto voce commands from the captain. As they came by I asked where they had come from, and they replied 'Denmark!'
Clive couldn't believe his eyes, and nor could I. The ship was huge - we discovered later it was 30 metres long, though very narrow in the beam. After some manoeuvring and exploration by flashlight of the shore, the ship tied up alongside the sheer rock on the north-west side of the bay, and settled down for the night.

In the morning, we looked and checked that it had not been a dream, got into the dinghy and took some photographs just as they upped anchor and left to sail on to Islay.

Clive and I sailed on slowly after them, and spent a couple of days on Gigha and in the McCormick Isles, before returning to Ardfern.

To see details about the amazing longhsip, check out www.havhingsten.dk .