Gales. Day 3 n57 29.6n: 4 14.0w
We went to Inverness zoo today. At the bear enclosure we overheard the polar bear family talking..... "Mum, are you sure I'm a polar near?" "Of course son. You've got big bear paws haven't you. Check with your dad if you don't believe me".

"Dad, are you sure I'm a polar bear?"

Of course you are son. You've got a lovely white furry coat and those big bear paws. Why do you ask?

"'Cause I'm flamin' freezing'"

So, with another day of gales forecast we pursued the tourist option and rented a limousine for the day.... Deeply discounted courtesy of Lucie and headed into the wilds of Wester Ross and Applecross on the west coast. It's just 60+ miles across the width of Scotland and throu some absolutely stunning scenery.

Applecross is approached over a mountain range, climbing through hairpins on a siingle track road. As we climbed hire and higher so it got colder and colder. Lowest we hit, just before stopping for snowballs at the summit was 1c. Yes ONE CENTIGRADE! We even passed a snowplough. At the end of May!

Anyway, the scenery was stunning and the lunch, in front of the log fire was great.

Back for 7 ish we had dinner and early night before finally untying and heading east and north, target Wick.

Writing this en route and making decent time although we are motoring. The wind is due to strengthen from the south east and if it does we will hopefully get a decent sail north.

The plan is to make Wick tonight, sleep for a few hours then leave at 04:00 to get us into Kirkwall by lunchtime. However, if the wind holds we may just go overnight to arrive by 2am or 3am which will allow us to neat the cruise ship hordes to Scara Brae.

Meanwhile, bacon rolls are looming. The sun is blazing and making good headway.

PS..... 18:30, clear sunny skies and factor 50 all day and suitably enthused we've decided to do an overnighter on Diane's birthday to Kirkwall to try and beat the 3000 cruise liner tourists to the hire cars. This also let's us catch the tide up to and into Kirkwall. Hope it warms up!