Sharing the Outer Hebrides and Skye

By Fi

Last year we were lucky enough to have a guest (Tara – Adrian’s daughter) come and visit us on Away. Word must have spread because we are now on our 3rd guest visit this year and we love it! In our last post, we had Phil and Cheryl come visit for the North Sea crossing and some adventures around Norway and Scotland. This time…

It was to be in Ullapool that we would pick up one of my most oldest friends Nicci. She’s an adventurer, and one of the most fun and lovely people I know. Oh, yes and of course she’s bringing her brilliant husband, Nick along for the journey too!

Ullapool is a pretty place. We thought it would be really industrial after reading the descriptions on the cruising guides, but it was really quaint!

We are sat on a mooring ball in Ullapool that is only *just* rated for Away, so rather than drag them out there in the choppy waters via dinghy, we thought we’d pop in to the temporary stay dock and pick them up. Away in all her glory comes on in to the dock, and we are all together with happy tears to see each other!

Here we goooo! Ready for some adventures!

After a bit of a run down of the ins and outs of boating life, we have convinced Nic and Nick that we should spend the evening on anchor close by, and then do a proper 7 hour sail the next day.

Adrian getting straight into his sailing teacher get up.

Pretty anchorage, and all the fashionistas on the beach.

Even with the grey, the colours are magic.

After a little “beach” walk on the pebbles, we have a good sleep in this safe anchorage, and head off the next morning for our sail to the Outer Hebrides. Its a lovely sail! The wind is just forward of the beam and stays reasonably consistent, until it doesn’t and we all get a big excited with reefing, then naturally, just as we are about to get to harbour a lovely squall wanted to come and visit. No matter as we turned downwind and as it passed, we put down the sails and tied up in Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides.

Yes it was cold and grey. But the wind was great!

She’s smiling (and not just because she’s wearing red crocs)!

Getting towards the harbour, and we got smacked with a squall. Sails to the ready, we were okay and could turn downwind while it passed, taking the sails in a few moments later.

Bernie loves having new friends. Well, old friends, but new company.

Tied up safely in Stornoway, we heard bagpipes the next morning!

Here, the weather looked like we should stay for a few nights so we hired a car and drove around the Isle of Lewis and explored loads of old things.

Near the Marina is Lews Castle. Once owned by a mean drug dealer, it is now a lovely hotel with a tea room, museum and lovely gardens to explore.

A few of the Lewis chessmen (curious name as some queens were discovered too) were on display here – they were discovered in a sandbank on Lewis in 1831 and are 12th century chess pieces carved from walrus ivory and whales teeth.

We had a little look at the museum, and took Bernie for a walk around on this lovely sunny day!

We see this little one on the path and all rush up to take photos. It just decided to face the wall ad pretend like we weren’t there. Poor thing. Sooo cute though! Never seen one before! Little hedgehog.

First stop on our road trip was Scotland’s largest standing stone – Clach An Truishal Standing Stone. Its very large. A princess lives inside but she didn’t answer when we knocked. We also tried to take a decent family photo but its just resulted in me looking like I’m relieving myself on the dog. Payback?

You may be interested to know that I have purchased a Harris Tweed headband which is in my favourite colour – matching my jacket, and my crocs too but I couldn’t wear my crocs today as it was raining and we were possibly hiking.

Perhaps we will learn from Nic and Nick how to take a nice photo.

Next stop was the Butt of Lewis Lighthouse and this amazing view.

We forgot to take a photo of the lighthouse…

Because we were too busy giggling about taking photos of each other.

Our next stop was the Port of Ness beach, and a little explore around.

It DID NOT look like a harbour we were going to safely squeeze Away into any time soon.

On the way south, we also stop in at the local museum and learn about some bronze age finds near the area, have a nice lunch and stop in at the local shop. We also buy some eggs from the side of the road which I always love! They were all different shapes and sizes.

Onwards! To the Blackhouses! The weather was perfect one minute, and squally the next. Happily we had a car and could keep Bernie dry, and get him out when we could.

The Gearrannan Blackhouse Village was built in the 1800s. Each house it built on a slope, and the animals would live in the lower section, and would warm the building. There were no internal walls originally. People were living here until the 1970s (the did put in internal walls, and the animals were removed by then).

I listen intently to the old mate with the stories by the peat fire. Apparently when the last people who lived here were sent to council housing, the Scottish Trust took over and in the 90s restored them.

Most houses in the village are now accommodation (inclusive of internal walls, electricity and running water). Its a beautiful spot.

Next stop in our whirlwind tour of Lewis was the Calanais Standing Stones. We arrived after the visitor centre was closed, but the stones are still open so we had a bit of a look.

Very eerie. Its nice because unlike Stonehenge, you can walk right up to and around these guys.

This is the main site. There are 3 other sites that you can also visit very close by. Why were these even built??? Also how did I get a shot with NO ONE in it? Talent that is.

On the drive back to Away, we see some red deer in the field off to the side of the road.

Once our exploring itch was scratched and a couple of pub meals were had, we planned a passage to the Shiant Islands so go find some puffins, and then on to an anchorage, before a hike the next day, finishing with a quick sail to Tarbert on Harris.

Arriving and dropping anchor, we couldn’t find any puffins but there was an extraordinary number of gulls and shags. A quick google search enlightened us that the puffins would have left the day before for warmer pastures. Oh well. Off to our protected anchorage for the evening.

Happy, but no puffins face. Apparently they left the day before we got there for warmer weather.

After a great sleep because the wind died off just as we anchored up, and stayed away until we started sailing the next day (amazing), we planned a short trip to Tarbert on Harris, with a stop for a lovely hike on the island of Scalpay.

Our stunning anchorage for the evening. The Antares charts (our cruising MUST HAVE for this area) say this is in their top 10 in Scotland.

This short trip involved our new autopilots helming us over to the harbour where our hike starts. We needed to time it right, because the bridge we go under was 19m high, we are 20m high, and there is a bunch of water that makes things lower or higher to consider. As it were, we timed the tide perfectly, gingerly went under the bridge with no scraping noises, and parked up on Scalpay. Back packs to the ready, we were off!

Happy to be sharing this adventure together!

The heather is beautiful and in full bloom.

Happy because we remembered to take a photo of a lighthouse!

Once that epic hike was done, we were off to Tarbert for a couple of nights. Nicci and I enjoyed a cuppa inside, while Nick and Adrian motored the half an hour over to Tarbert.

For some reason, Tarbert is devoid of photographs. We visited the Harris Tweed shop, which funnily enough sold reams of tweed, and we had some food at a local cafe and visited the not whisky distillery. I’m calling it that because I fully expected whisky, but their premiere whisky batch was coming a week after we were there, instead it was gin. No matter, we bought gin.

Nicci did take a nice photo of the 3 of us in Tarbert!

From Tarbert, we plan a big trip to Skye. It was tantalisingly close, and keeps peeping through the clouds. Off we go, and picked out a nice anchorage for some evenings of no wind.

And WOW the amount of dolphins! We haven’t seen this many since we were sailing the NSW coast.

We decided stay on the island of Rona, just opposite Skye. There was supposed to be a lovely anchorage, deer and hikes on Rona.

This little girl appeared on the hill top while we were enjoying sundowners.

Beautiful spot to park, then repark Away. It was a very tight and shallow spot, so we anchored, then reanchored so that I could get some sleep.

Hiking on the island was boggy but beautiful. We saw our dolphin friends in the bay opposite, and a cave church thing.

Lovely no wind anchorage. And sunshine. The island also produces its own venison and sells it with an honesty system. We picked up a few frozen packages for later.

After a couple of nights, Skye was calling and we saw the perfect opportunity to get out the big red sail and float on over to Portree on Skye!

And our dolphin friends came back to say hello!

We sail near a boat called “Arvik”, a French expedition boat who are raising awareness of humans impact on the oceans and on wildlife. They are making great progress with the fishing industry by helping them change small things, to make it safer for wildlife and reduce by-catch. They do however have many sad stories about things they have discovered. Its people like this that will make the world a better place. We had them over for a drink and a chat and they are really inspiring. Check them out here: http://arvikocean.org/index.php/en/home-english/

In this picture, they have a tonne of rubbish they have picked up on the bow. Can you see the broken mooring ball? It had washed up somewhere and they collected it for proper disposal. Amazing humans.

I digress, we anchor up in Portree, enjoy the super moon, and hire a car for some Skye fun, before we need to get Nic and Nick further south to Malliag where they will be leaving us to head home.

SUPER MOON! Of course in the photo it looks like nothing, but in real life – SUPER.

Heading into town to go pick up our car and also have some breaky.

First stop the Old Man of Storr! It was featured in the Prometheus movie and Nick was keen to see. We were more than happy to oblige on this beautiful day – plus I love that movie.

Taking photos of each other taking photos again.

After a good hike and with a tired spaniel, we drive to Dunvegan castle, home to the Macleod family for 800 years! There is an extensive collection of Jacobite relics here, including a lock of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s hair.

Lovely castle. I believe they still live here. Extensive castle grounds too with amazing gardens.

This is actually an anchorage. Perhaps we will come back?

I rescued Bernie from car prison so he could also enjoy the gardens once we were done in the castle.

Next stop on our little adventure was the Talisker distillery where we tried out some of their whiskys, but neglected to take any photos though. But don’t worry, as I write this we have spent a lot of time in the area near Talisker, with some enjoyment, and also some terror. You’ll have to wait for another blog post for those shenanigans.

So, being the sober designated driver that he is, Adrian drove us to the Fairy Pools. Beautiful cascading pools where you can swim – alas you had to hike for 40 minutes, and as it was so late in the day (also whisky), we decided to enjoy the views and get back to Away to get ready for our trip the next day to Malliag.

The pools are up along this track for about 40 minutes. Perhaps we will get back here one day.

Yep amazing. The heather is still out. Scotland is gorgeous.

After our Skye adventures, we head off VERY early to make sure we catch the tides through the Loch Alsh area. They can run very fast, and so up we get at 5AM ready to go by 6, and swooooosh, we get the tides.

Yeah I might look happy, but mornings are not my thing. I’m happy because we left in time, would get the right tides and would get to Malliag before the wind picked up drastically.

Pretty sunrise. I include this as I don’t often see it. Its quite nice really.

It may not look like it, but we are hooting along in the current. We had to motor this leg, because there was absolutely no wind, and we needed to get Nic and Nick to Malliag. The wind was due later, but in the totally wrong direction for us, and I didn’t fancy putting them through tacking in tight channels as their last goodbye to sailing with us.

It was an EARLY start so Nicci enjoyed a nap in all her clothes in the sunshine. It was really chilly!

Safely tied up in Malliag, we do a little turn about town, before enjoying our last night playing cards.

Malliag harbour. Really safe, really nice, and with an excellent bakery – that was shut because we arrived late.

Bye Nicci and Nick! What an adventure to have my people on board. Its so nice to share a little more of my life now, and it was so nice to see my wonderful friends. See you soon!!!!!!

After Fi got back from the Fastnet, we went straight to a sauna, to break the news to her that we could be doing the north sea crossing the next day.

“No…” Fi said, even after this relaxing sauna, and that was settled.

Instead, we compromised and did a passage from Trondheim to Kristiansand where we could check out from Norway and cross the North Sea to Scotland. Finally. We were supposed to do this crossing last year but we left it too late because we fell in love with Norway.

We sent Fi up the mast for a pre North Sea crossing rig inspection

All rigging checked and we are ready to go once we get Fi down

We also had our lovely friends visiting from America! Yay visitors! We love sharing this adventure with our loved ones and we hadn’t seen Phil or Cheryl since our canal boat adventures together.

We had chosen what we thought was the best weather window, catching the good winds at the edge of a storm that had developed over south western Norway before it engulfed the coast in strong winds and rain for a week. And indeed, it was PERFECT!!

The local fish restaurant has been recommended and didn’t disappoint.

After checking out we left the dock early the next morning.

Kristiansund harbour. Our last port in Norway.

This boat was parked exactly on the waypoint we had plotted. We decided to go around it.

We avoided the oil rigs, and played the usual games with the fishing people. They like doing fun things at night. This night they stop right in front of our track and spawn some new AIS targets. We gybe away and they turn around and go parallel with our new course leaving their spawned AIS targets behind. We call them to ask them what in the world they are doing and is it safe for us to gybe again to pass between them and the other AIS targets. All settled we gybe again and head for the Shetlands.

We turned left to avoid two fishing boats. They spawned 4 other fishing boats and then headed off in the opposite direction. We turn and go between the newly spawned and old fishing boats.

After about 42 hours we arrive in Lerwick and clear into the UK. It had been a fast a relatively uneventful passage matching closely with the weather predictions. Rather than go to town, we decided to stop in a quiet anchorage and enjoy our first Scottish gale. Phil and Cheryl go into Lerwick for provisions while Adrian and I stay on the boat watching the gusts.

We pass our first Broch… An iron age dry stone castle.

Our first anchorage in the Shetland Islands.

Away sits out a blow in a somewhat sheltered bay.

After a few days of this, the wind decided to abate, and we sailed south to the Orkneys and another anchorage. We are just so amazed at how different the landscape is here from what we have been seeing the past year. North Orkney was flat!

Next its on to Kirkwall. We see castles and tidal currents – ah yes, we are back in the land of thinking about tides. Phil and Cheryl say goodbye to us here after their (and our) first North Sea crossing!

They do wee country cottages proper here.

Adrian and I chose to stay in Kirkwall for a few days to do some shopping. We even ended up at the local agricultural fair and wondered if we needed a tractor.

It was all Romans and donuts at the local show.

Some rather clever dogs tried to teach Bernie how to herd geese, but it didn’t really rub off on him.

Next up, we have some fun getting to Ullapool.

Before leaving Kirkwall, we walk to the beach where the wreck of the Royal Oak lies, and tried to get into the distillery but the coos said no.

The south side of the Orkney Islands get more dramatic.

Another beautiful day arrives so we leave to motor/sail around the island and through the tidal gates to Stromness. We were met by friendly locals who caught our lines and told us all the ins and outs of town. We were keen to see some old stuff, so we got our bikes out and took the 40 minute bike ride out to Scara Brae, a neolithic site that was uncovered by a storm in the late 1800s. Its amazingly intact, and old.

Neolithic buildings were primitive but very solid.

4000 years later things have changed a bit in Stromness.

We passed the home of a legendary figure in Australian history!

We had been in Scotland a week without visiting any stone circle so we set out to visit the local upright stones. Very Scottish. No time travel today though.

BUT – we have more guests arriving and we need to get to mainland Scotland! The rather scary sounding Cape Wrath needed to be rounded with a wide berth according to the charts. We find some perfect sailing weather and sail south west to the mainland. Cape Wrath was conserving its wrath, and we slid down the coast to a gorgeous little anchorage.

‘One of the most protected anchorages in the area’ the guide book said. Add storm Betty and it was soon gusting over 40 knots casting doubt on the shelter of other anchorages in the area. The anchor snubber even decided it was reaching the end of its life and started to unravel. So we couldn’t stay in this lovely place as the wind was forecast to get even stronger, so we had to brave the gale and get out into the sea to head further south to find better protection.

Sheltered they said… from what we wonder?

No ocean swell but plenty of wind chop. Sailing up wind is all fun!

After a lively upwind sail in over 30 knots we arrived at Lochinver marina where cruising guides promised more ‘protection’. Happily, when we docked, the wind had abated temporarily, and we stayed in the marina whilst yet another gale passed overhead, clocking wind speeds of 50 knots. Ahhh Scotland! We heard it was lovely sailing, then waiting out a gale.

From Lockinver it was just one more hop down to Ullapool, and a sufficiently rated mooring ball for us, where we could pick up our friends from Sydney!