Sailing in Scotland

So week one of my two week break was spent sailing off the west coast of Scotland. This was with Longbow Cruising. Ted and Jane have a 57' cutter-rigged sloop called Longbow from which they run skippered trips, mainly based at Ardfern south of Oban. It sleeps up to seven people and as Beth doesn't sail I went on my own joining two couples, neither of which had met before. It worked pretty well, although at 46 I felt rather young compared to the rest of them.

Longbow anchored off the Garvelloch Islands

We spent our week circumnavigating Mull. Each night was spent at sheltered anchorages tucked away along the coast and in the day time we sailed, motored and did odd bits of tourism. The best bit for me was a visit to the Treshnish Islands where a mass of puffins roost.

Puffin

I've never seen a puffin the flesh before. They live right on the cliff top in burrows and they're very tame: you can get to within 2 to 3 feet of them and so they take a great photograph.

No dolphins, although we did see porpoises about half a dozen times - but they're not such good value as unlike dolphins they don't like following boats.

As for the sailing we had just the right combination of little wind when we were doing the tourist things and enough wind to make Longbow fly when we had a sailing day. A boat that size really does move through the water and it's a real pleasure to sail.

Lots more photos, with narrative below, can be found here.