Jings!!,

Where did the time go? its nearly the end of the year, the last time I wrote on here was in July, so I thought I had better sort my shit out and bring it up to date so I can continue my drivel on a clean slate next spring.


Mount Solitary, Blue Mountains, New South Wales.

Where am I now, I am in the blue mountains a few hours west of Sydney, hiding from the craziness that is Sydney at the new year, saying that though, I'm in Katoomba which is like a Disney world for tremendous views, There is even a place called "scenic world" that you can pay to look at the views, how mental is that, and because we are so close to the city, it's jammed, but you don't have to go far to get away from the maddening crowd, and its quiet in the morning and at night time.

I have been back in Australia for the last few months building the sailing kitty back up again as normal, work is work I guess, a needs to an end, but I also get to hang out wae the weans when I'm here, so it's all good 😊


Check out the wee man, he was loving it until he had to put his Christmas shirt on and get his photo taken, wasn't too happy about that, total huff! 😊

The last time I was on here I was back in Kerrera, just about to go to the Oban distillery, which I did, wasn't that flash to be honest, compared to the other places I've been, the guide didn't know his arse from his single malt, and.................he was English! FFS, but then again, it seems that the entire west coast region of this beautiful country of ours has been colonised(again) by our friends from South of the border, but hey! I'm not judging, I live in somebody else's country too, but if your going to work in a distillery as a tour guide, know your shit sunshine! numpty!, rant over.


I did, however, taste their beverages, they were way better than the tour.


Gylen Castle, Kerrera, old hoose of the MacDougalls.

Went back to Linnhe Marina and spent a few lovely days hanging out with some very old friends of mine, who I last seen when we were in Falmouth last year, the weather was kind enough to give us a few hours for a wee sail across the loch and back, happy days indeed.


The family Wibrew.


Old pals.......

So speaking of whisky, I sailed down to Islay next, to Port Ellen for a few days of tasting the water of life, you know, just to make sure it was ok. There are nine distilleries on Islay, and I never had the time or a big enough liver to visit them all, so I went to three.


Carraig Fhada Lighthouse, Islay.


Ardbeg.

Went here first, pretty good, smoky, the guide was all over it, made the guy at Oban look like a right dafty, but we knew that already.


Lagavulin.

Now, this is a nice drop, I wouldn't know how to describe it, complex perhaps, you should drink some and find out for yourself.


Bruichladdich

Turns out I saved the best for last, done a tasting here where the take some pretty special whisky's straight out of the barrel for you, the guide was the best yet, and her measures were huge, I might have been just a wee bit pished when I left!

And when one of the other visitors asked about the weather, (it was raining heavily outside), her answer was the best ever, "Todays rain, is tomorrows whisky" how about that eh? makes you look at the rain in a completely different way.


Summer forecast for Scotland in August!


Tomorrows whisky falling on the boat.

Once tomorrow's whisky had stopped coming from the sky after two days, I headed off and had a boisterous journey back around the Mull of Kintyre, I was full of whisky, the boat was full of whisky, clinking as the wind heeled her over, it was time to head back to Ardrossan.


Captain Meg.

Had a few wee day trips but that was pretty much it for the summer, had my Maw out up to Millport and back, had a great sail back in a brisk breeze.


Out she comes.

So there she is, parked up in sunny Ardrossan, getting a wee bit more work done over the winter before wee head off in search of the sunshine in May. Ireland - Spain - Portugal is that half a plan, as always we shall see.....


All tucked up, winter is coming.......

Health and happiness to you all for the new year ahead :-)

I am writing this from the Marina in Kerrera, actually, this is where I wrote the last blog entry, only difference being that last time I was heading North and it was a beautiful sunny day, this time I am heading back south and it is absolutely pishing doon, but lets face it, it's the west of Scotland and it's the summer so its not as if this weather wasn't expected 😊


Met this fella whilst running round the Island.


Balamory

First stop after the last time we spoke was Tobermory, first time I have been there, cracking wee place but man, it was busy, the original plan was to do a distillery tour there but the wind was good for my sail over to the Outer Hebrides so I parked the tour and set out early the next morning across the Sea of the Hebrides to the Island of Vatersay.


Vatersay


Look how clear the water is.

Had plenty of wind to push me across to the Islands until about five miles out when it died on its arse and I motored into the anchorage and the clear water and beautiful white sands of Vatersay Bay, Vatersay is one of the southerly Islands if the Outer Hebrides and is joined via a causeway to the Island of Barra.


Nice eh!


Mingulay.

The next day I sailed a short hop down to Mingulay, this was one of the places I really wanted to go, many of the Scots amongst you will know about this Island through the " Mingulay Boat Song" so it was great to actually go there, you need settled weather to land comfortably on the Island, so the stars aligned perfectly for me and I had a beautiful sunshiny day with light winds and not much swell to anchor and go ashore.


Mingulay, way back when.


Mingulay beach.

It's a beautiful island, uninhabited since 1912, apart from one house which sometimes has a resident, often an artist for the summer months, as beautiful as it is, I imagine it would be a bit on the bleak side during the winter.


Castlebay, Barra.

Mingulay was just a day trip and after a night back at anchor in Vatersay, I hopped across to Castlebay on the island of Barra, the main reason for this was as well as visiting the Island, I was looking for a Pub to watch Scotland play Norway in the European qualifiers, and what a game that was, suffice to say, the Castlebay Hotel Bar went mental, twice! In the last few minutes of the game as Scotland dragged victory out of the jaws of defeat (the opposite of what we normally do) and beat Norway 2 - 1. Amazing!


The Castle, in Castlebay, and the wee Marina.


Came across this monument to some woman and her wean when I was running up the hill behind the town, I wonder who they are, they must be quite famous, I see monuments to them everywhere? 🤣


Loch Skipport.

After Barra, it was up to South Uist, overnight stop here only in an anchorage called Coalas Mor (the little kettle pool) in Loch Skipport, very beautiful place although the weather was turning by this time from the Mediterranean few weeks, we were lucky enough to have, to the more usual wet and blustery Scottish summer weather with sun occasionally keekin out.


Loch Ceann Dibig at Kendibig.

I could have spent the entire summer just exploring these islands, but time and unsettled weather (and another distillery) pushed me on north up to Harris and I anchored in Loch Ceann Dibig at Kendibig, just round the corner from Tarbert.


Harris Distillery.

Had a tour of the distillery here which was great, but........... Shock, horror, nae whisky to be had, they don't bottle their first batch till September of this year but they were good enough to give you a taste of someone else's whisky and some of the Gin they produce there, which was just the ticket 😊


Stornoway Harbour, I'm tucked in beside the lifeboat.

The forecast was for a big depression pushing in from the Atlantic bringing with it some pretty brisk winds and of course the associated excess of moisture, so I ran away up to Stornoway and hid in the Marina for a few days and hired a car to explore the Island of Lewis.


The Callanish stones on Lewis (I didn't take this photo, I couldn't get a good one as there was lots of Hippies dancing round the stones in the rain, nae kiddin!)


Some more standy uppy stones in a field.


Local council house in Lewis, called a blackhouse.


Lewis is Black Pudding heaven.


The Butt of Lewis.


Wee bit wet in the Gairloch.

Once the winds had stopped shouting so much, I set of for a fairly fast and furious sail across the Minch to Loch Sheildag, and the head of the Gairloch, never hung about here long, just one night and then shot across to Rona.


Loch Sheildag after the rain had stopped.


Rona.

What a magical wee island this is, also a first time visit for me and a place that I will certainly return to, lots of wildlife, even otters swimming around in the anchorage.


Under a blue sky in Rona.


A church in a cave in Rona, an amazing spot. It was used as the island's church up until the 1930s.


Beside the Skye Bridge, Kyle of Lochalsh.

From Rona I sailed down towards the Kyles of Rhea that separate the mainland from Skye, I had an overnight stop at the Kyle of Lochalsh for a visit to the co-op and to wait for the tide, the currents, like most places up here, flow fast through the kyles so when you have a wee engine like mine you have to get your timings right or you might find yourself sailing backwards.


Anchored in Isleornsay.

After whooshing through the Kyles at 9 knots (trust me, this is fast for Confidence), I got absolutely battered by the rain and went to anchor at Isleornsay on the south east side of Skye, lot of boats here either waiting for the tide to go north through the kyles or waiting for the wind to take them south or west, my plan was to sail out to the Isle of Rum, but the wind had a different plan for me so I headed south again and sailed round the Ardnamurchan Peninsula (the most westerly part of the UK mainland) to anchor in Loch na Droma Buidhe, beside the Isle of Oronsay for the night, and the next day back into Tobermory for my date with the distillery.


Anchored in Loch na Droma Buidhe.


Tobermory Distillery, well worth a visit.

So, I got my visit to the distillery, and I was glad I did, it was the best tour so far, good fun and the liquid refreshments were tremendous.


Anchored near Port Ramsey on Lismore.

I stayed in Tobermory for a few days then headed of down the sound of Mull, hung a left at the end and sailed up Loch Linnhe to Port Ramsey on Lismore, and spent a day here exploring the Island.


Linnhe Marina near Appin.

Then it was a short hop up the loch where I went onto a mooring for a few days at Linnhe Marina which is behind the Island of Shuna just North of Appin, I have some friends coming to visit so I was doing a recce here to see if it was suitable, which it very much was. I had a real surprise here, I had just got in, and put my covers up as it was bucketing down, next thing a see a guy coming over in a canoe shouting and waving, who is this lunatic I'm thinking? Turns out it was an old mate of mine Craig who I used to work with in Western Australia way back when, who now lives just up the road in Fort William, and he brought whisky! What a man, and what a nice surprise.


Lunatic in a canoe.


The Old Inn at Appin.

I had dinner here at the Old Inn in Appin where apparently, they panned the murder of Colin "The Red Fox" Campbell of Glenure in 1752, the Inspiration for the Robert Louis Stevenson book Kidnapped, its said that it is haunted by the ghost of James Stewart who was wrongly convicted and hanged for the murder.


Castle Stalker.

It sits looking down on Castle Stalker which you might recognise from Monty Pythons "the Holy Grail".

From Appin, it was a short sail back here to Kerrera, and a chance to get across to visit the distillery at Oban where I am going this afternoon!

From here?? As I mentioned, I have friends coming up in few days, I'll sail back north to Linnhe marina for that, and after this I will point the boat back in the general direction of the Clyde and Girvan, I still have Islay on the list of places to go we will see what the weather and wind says closer to the time.

So that's all I have to tell you for now, unless that is, you want to hear all about the blocked pipes in my toilet? Haha, perhaps not eh! All I can say is that the old adage is certainly true, "shit definitely does happen!!" 😊

Take it easy on the fibre supplements folks!

We have lift off!


In we go.....

We are on the way up the west coast of the Costa Del Scotland so I’ll get back to blogging my travel drivel as we work our our way round the west coast.

The boat spent it’s winter in Ardrossan (Lucky boat) having a few wee jobs done to it, new teak in the cockpit as the old stuff was wearing away with the screw ends appearing and ripping the arse out of a few pairs of my shorts, so I thought I'd better change it before it ripped anything else!!


Shiny new teak.

I also had a bow thruster fitted, for the uninitiated this is just a wee side ways propeller fitted into the bow of the boat below the waterline that will push the bow to port or starboard, really only needed when I am docking the boat, makes the whole thing easier especially if there are strong winds or tides.


Shiny new Bow Thruster, will get me into tight wee spaces.

While the boat was wintering in sunny Ardrossan, I went away back to Australia to work:


Worked here, pure roasting with lots of flies!


Worked here, sailed to Singapore taking her to dry dock, pure roasting, dead sweaty, not many flies, good food.


Worked here, nae flies, shite food, easy money.


and of course hanging out with my very own small humans...

So, I’m already on my way north, I’m writing this from the Marina on Kerrera Island, just across the water from Oban, Just a quick stop here for water and laundry, the plan (ish) is to visit as many whisky distilleries by sea that I can, but really it depends on what way the wind blows, not that it has been blowing much so far but be careful what you wish for, the sun has been putting a big shift in so I’m more than happy.


In Brodick Bay with Goatfell in the background.

First stop after leaving Ardrossan was Brodick for a bimble up Goatfell


Then we were off round the corner to Lochranza


Over charging Bams Distillery!

First distillery knocked off here, been here before and it was great but it was a bit disappointing this time, no tours due to building works, no whisky tasting as you have to book two weeks in advance and to top it all off, I bought a bottle of 10 year old then realised I could by it in the bottle shop at home six quid cheaper, over charging Bams! Although the whisky was very nice 😊


Parked up in Cambeltown harbour.


Glen Scotia.

Then we were off to Campbeltown via Carradale bay. went to the Glen Scotia distillery, no tours as it was a Sunday but tastings a plenty, very friendly and welcoming, a way better experience than Arran.


Chasing a yank and a Frenchman around the Mull.


Ardminish Bay in Gigha.

From there it was round the Mull of Kintyre in light winds with a beautiful blue sky to the Isle of Gigha, wee bit of nostalgia here as my family had some great holidays to this Island when I was wee, still such a beautiful place.


Craighouse anchorage on Jura, Paps in the background.

From Gigha it was a short hop across to Jura, definitely my favourite place so far.


Jura Distillery.

Done a tour and a tasting here, both of which were tremendous.


We love Jura.


Looking down towards the anchorage from the top of Pap No 1.

Also went up the Paps of Jura, three big old hills in a row, what a view fae the top.


Pap No 3 from the top of Pap No 2. I may have sweated a wee bit legging it up there.


Achanarnich Bay, very quiet apart from some daft kayakers.

Sailed up the sound of jura and anchored for the night in a wee place called Achanarnich Bay, tides and currents are a bit mental around here so you have to get your timing right or you may very well find yourself sailing backwards, which, just in case you were wondering, is not a good thing! 😊


My wee spot at puilladobhrain.

Next day we were away up through the sound of Luing with our timing right and going in the right direction. Spent two nights anchored just outside of a place called the Puilladobhrain anchorage, which is just up the road from Clachan-Seil, this is a very popular anchorage, so I stayed outside which was a better spot I reckon, and the boats kept coming, there was eleven boats packed in there like Sardines by the end of the evening. Had the first wet and thundery night, Confidence got a good old fresh water wash down.



And now here I am at Kerrera to wash my pants (there is only so many times you can turn them inside out!) and fill the boat with water and the fridge with cabbage and square sausage. There is a distillery in Oban, but I am saving that for next month when I will be back to meet some friends.

Next? The half a plan I have is to go to Tobermory on Tuesday as there is of course, a distillery there for my perusing pleasure, then out to the Outer Hebrides to Barra as it looks like I’ll have some usable wind, fingers crossed.

Till next time, buy your Arran Whisky from Asda, its cheaper! 😊