Tobermorying

The pilot book calls Tobermory probably the nicest (if not the only) pretty town on the west coast. Far be it from us to disagree with the author. The only drawback (apart from the rubbish weather of course) was that our faithful EE SIM card in our WiFi router failed us for the first time ever. No EE signal in the harbour! The good news was that the harbour WiFi was OK on nights when the moorings were quieter, less reliable on busy nights.

We walked up a hill that made Penarth look tame to try out the cafe at the local arts centre, An Tobar. Have a look at An Tobar website. The coffee was great, the cake too. The service was friendly, delivered by a local arty girl who had a most bohemian taste in clothes. It was quite minimalistic too. 

Here is the view over the harbour area from the evil hill:

We were very happy to be here and also pleased to get some good news from two pairs of friends so we had to raise a toast to them:

OK, any old excuse really but this time there was good news involved (and we were in Tobermory which is a happy place). On a rare sunny day, we dug out the suntan cream from the very back of a cupboard and walked along the bay area to the local park, enjoying the harbour views as we went:

Once again, spot the Nordhavn is not a tricky game.

The path is quite steep in places so the crew took some support along with her:

and a pair of sunglasses just to prove that things had improved weather wise - if only for one day. As we returned to town, you can see how quiet the area was:

Before this place had been over-run with boats and day trippers. Not now, we guess that the grim weather had put folks off. No matter, at least it had contributed to a busy stream come waterfall area:

Wandering to the cafe place / the Co-op between showers, we spotted a little cruise ship anchored off. The little town became infected with cruise ship folks who clearly own the pavements and all seemed very miserable. Wish they had stayed on board frankly!

We were also treated (not quite the word we would choose but...) to a fish farm support vessel coming in and berthing nearby:

We still have major reservations about the whole fish farming thing. 

Naturally after a sunny day, reality had to strike again and it did so in the form of a beautiful rainbow, visible from the aft cockpit:

which kind of acted as a portent for the day to come:

Rottten weather was an excuse to go back up that hill to the arts centre for another coffee and cake session though and we had one of the best carrot cakes ever. Most impressive. In the all time top 5 we reckon. After such a success we had a look around the exhibition that had been set up. Here is one of the two spaces used, you will need the volume turned up as you watch this video:

Being Philistines, we didn't really get it. However the notes told us what it was all about. Just in case you didn't get it either from the video here is what you should have experienced:

Got it now? To add to the feelings and sensations, there were some notes on the flip side of the information sheet too. For completeness, here is a copy that you can enjoy:

We remain unconvinced and ignorant. Just not wired up that way it seems. 

Some folks who were very wired indeed arrived in the superyacht Elysian and anchored in the bay area. She is owned by the guy who owns Liverpool football club and the folks who came ashore in this rather flash tender fitted our preconceptions of the "football hangers on / WAGS" lifestyle very well. As they climbed rather unsteadily off the tender clutching their drinks we did worry about the future of mankind a little. The tender is probably worth more than our elderly Nordhavn:

but they needed the canopy in place to keep them dry as they came over. Must have been quite demeaning being huddled under the cover rather than speeding around in the med under a blazing sun.

We learned a little more about superyacht lifestyle from Robert - the yottie who has marina connections. The Superyacht had been mooried in James Watt Dock, Greenock and left before a parcel that they had ordered from Amazon arrived. So, the JWD marina manager drove from Greenock to the Isle of Skye on a Saturday to deliver the critical parcel. What was in it? An Amazon Fire stick so they could see more TV. Google the drive from Greenock to Skye and weep......

Our last day in Tobermory was the usual soggy affair, we wandered up another hill with nice views:

To see what had happened to the sad old hotel that we visited in 2016 with Andrew and Linda when it was the only place to get WiFi we could find. It had just been taken over and the new owners faced some serious renovation work (like a leaky roof making the top floor bedrooms uninhabitable!). Have a look at old blog entry. 

It seemed to have been tidied up a lot but we didn't test out the coffee / hospitality this time.

Wandering back to the boat we had a last look over the harbour area, taking in the dead / dying dinghies:

Tobermory has a real charm to it, even when full of cruise ship types. Despite our enforced stay of 6 nights thanks to the weather, it was most enjoyable.