Lochboisdale to Salen

The time had come. Yes, after a month enjoying the Outer Hebrides and with no sign of a nice settled spell in the weather forecasts, we decided that on a calmish day, we would head back to the mainland. The destination was Salen and the trip is about 62 nautical miles long. We'd had a day of gales then a day of strong winds from the south but that abated one evening and amazingly we only had a forecast of F4 SW'ly for the day ahead. Quite a treat really and there was enough time overnight for the waves to calm down a little too.

The plan was to leave around 8am, so we didn't set an alarm. You know how these things work - it was the one day when we keep sleeping until the crew woke up, saw the time and roused a reluctant captain.

Leaving Lochboisdale was kind of sad, we will miss the remoteness of the islands. You can see how remote as our AIS signals were not picked up by Marinetraffic until we got closer to the Summer Isles (the green ones below):

There is nobody picking up our transmissions towards the end of the route either, as we headed up Loch Sunart to Salen bay. This blue line shows the route we took:

which is around a 10 hour run. We try to put the international port codes into our AIS system as our destination. For example, Tobermory is GB TOB. Pretty self explanatory really. Salen is tiny and doesn't have a code so we entered it as free text. Marinetraffic interpreted that in a very strange way:

Yes, we were bound for Salten in Norway..........  Our navigation kit was not going there though and we enjoyed a fine day and gentle enough 1.5 metre waves on the starboard bow. All very civilised:

The depth sounder decided that it would take a little holiday again and fail to show any reading - we had the ominous three dashes:

However, we forgave it as we were in a pretty deep bit:

You can see the chart showed over 300 metres around us so we didn't feel too concerned about running aground. The real shame is that the direct course takes us rather a long way off the Small Islands (Egg, Rum, Muck, Canna) so the views of them were pretty remote:

Approaching the mainland we can add another lighthouse picture - Ardnamurchan:

We've mentioned before that this is one of those infamous headlands where it can get very rough very easily. Well, it wasn't. The roughest bit was going through the wake of the CalMac ferry that was heading out to Barra. We didn't have a sprig of lucky heather on the bow either to celebrate having gone round it and north earlier on - you were supposed to do so to in days gone by.

Instead we enjoyed the rock formations of the Ardnamurchan peninsular:

and after avoiding a crazy number of pot markers around the entrance, we enjoyed the spectacle of Loch Sunart which has some rather different housing along its' shores:

not to mention the grand views:

Having been "pre-allocated" a nice berth at Salen by the very helpful Jan, we duly berthed on their hammerhead, alongside Great Escape, a very swish Malo 43 owned by Robert and Deborah. Thanks to covid / sloth / various other excuses, we hadn't seen their new to them yacht or had a chance to drink their gin stocks. Luckily our proximity enabled that:

Salen is one of those happy places, especially if you arrive on a sunny and relatively calm day. Here is the view aft towards the head of the bay:

Not bad really. Think we will happily settle here for a little while, catch up with Robert and Deborah and do a few "little boat jobs"

Maintenance news:

Nope, nothing. the big Lugger engine was quite happy when checked after the run so we resisted the urge to fiddle with it. Lucky Lugger.

Just for a change, more gales

Funnily enough, it got all windy again. Still, we are now experts at removing and replacing the bimini cover so that is becoming second nature. The forecast had 41 mph gusts, they were a bit stronger than that in reality:

Somehow, we are getting used to having at least a couple of days of stupidly strong winds each week. Used to - yes. Enjoying - not as much, However, we had the little hire car and a beautiful string of islands to explore which kept us more than amused.

We visited Berneray (the most northerly island in this chain), enjoyed watching the basking seals and the beach area. Apparently the UK has 90% of the world's population of harbour / common seals and Scotland hosts 40% of them. We bet the local fishermen love that bit. Taking the little car up a long steep hill to the outskirts of an MOD radar station we hoped to get a view over to St Kilda - some 47 miles away. Sadly the visibility just was not good enough but the views over the islands were spectacular enough anyway. 

There are loads of "photography prohibited" signs around the base and lots of wire and CCTV cameras, so this was the best we managed from inside the car with the windows shut as we left:

There must have been braver souls than us about as this is a better picture borrowed from the internet showing how they really do not want you around:

On a particularly grim, windy and wet Sunday we opted to visit the Politician inn for lunch. Named after the famous SS Politician which sank off Eriskay during the second world war and which inspired the film(s) Whisky Galore. If you are not familiar with the story, this is well worth a read Scotsman newspaper article.

The Inn has some great memorabilia, including a flare pistol from the ship:

a bottle containing some of the original whisky and an empty original bottle from the wreck:

They also do some lovely food and have the friendliest staff that you could ever wish to be served by. We know that "dropping in" to a place on Eriskay is not the easiest thing for most readers to do, but it is well worthwhile.

On the return journey, the mist was clinging to the hills behind the harbour and things looked quite atmospheric:

even when photographed from inside the car as it was too windy to want to go outside. Waiting for the winds to drop, we did the important things in life. Visiting the Co-op for a provisions stock up before the hire car had to go back, enjoying the local wildlife (lots of short eared owls out hunting during the day) and being sociable with some of the other marina folks.

We were less friendly with the rash of French yotties who had arrived. They were all hopeless at handling their boats in the confines of the harbour, running into things, getting pinned to the pontoon fingers at right angles etc etc. We helped one of them move his boat and the whole thing was a comedy of errors. They threw lines without securing one end of them, left the engine in gear as we were trying to pull them, argued with each other, tied both ends of one rope to the pontoon (no idea what they expected that to do) and generally didn't care about how much damage they caused to other craft. Racist comment we know but this seems pretty typical. There are a large number of French flagged yachts about here and we have seen so many "moments" - including one who clattered into our anchor (luckily) when he messed up mooring ahead of us.

Way friendlier was Skip the Fox Red Labrador who was on the converted Ark Royal tender that we mentioned beforehand:

One seriously cute and well behaved dog.  The harbour has some strange road signs that we enjoyed too:

Never seen one that warns you to look out for otters crossing the road before and for a very specific distance too - we hope the otters know not to stray further than 640 yards or they could be in danger. 

After dropping back the hire car (no checks for damage or a full fuel tank, all taken on trust) we prepared the boat for departure as the forecast had improved dramatically. Putting away over a week's worth of stuff that had miraculously migrated out of cupboards takes quite a while you know.

Some friends on their rather posh Malo yacht were planning to head to Salen so we planned to do the same thing. They like gin and wine. Oh dear.

Maintenance news:

We have some. The master cabin light switch had been misbehaving. Initially we thought it was the breaker itself as cycling that made the light switch work but it was actually the switch in the cabin intermittently failing. We dont have a spare on board so instead we "borrowed one" from another switch panel which has never done anything at all. With the trim piece removed, the switch panels are simple things:

with removable switches inside the same style of housing as the mains power sockets:

The great mystery is still, what did the switch we have "borrowed" ever do. There were two wires attached to it but we could find no lights that it operated. If the engine refuses to start we know where to look......

Barra, Vatersay and "that" airport

Seeing that there was a dry day ahead with gentler winds we decided to take the little hire car on the ferry to the island of Barra. We were planning to go by boat anyway but having four wheels there would let us explore further than just using two. Another early start as the ferry time from Eriskay to Barra meant a 7:10 check in . Not that there is any check in, you just join other cars in the queue and then the crew come and let you on board.

Here is the area showing the ferry slipway on Eriskay (red pin) and the other islands:

You can also see the one "circular" road around Barra. As we arrived very early, we drove to Castlebay first, the main settlement. Bar the food shops and post office, it was shut. Here is the Castle that gives the place its name and the local lifeboat added in for good measure too:

We were not quite sure why they need a boarding boat when the main lifeboat lies against the pier with steps down to it but here it is:

Perhaps the full time mechanic likes fishing and needed something suitable?  As we could not find coffee until 10:30 we opted to drive around the beautiful west coast, admire the beaches, and head to the airport for the scheduled 11:30 plane arrival from Glasgow. On the way we stopped for a rather good second breakfast at a tiny nursery that has built a very nice cafe. There we heard about the recent big island wedding and the way that covid spread through the island afterwards like wildfire!

For folks who don't know about the famous Barra airport, it has a pretty normal and modern looking control tower:

but some signs that you will not find anywhere else :

and markers that are not actually on the runway / taxiway itself:

Yes, the runway is the beach and the flight times get changed to fit with the tides. The airport folks drive up and down the drying beach in a 4x4 to check for debris and anything big they find gets moved by the tractors:

ready for the incoming two flights per day from Glasgow. In case of an emergency, they have two fire trucks and this rather cute little trailer. No idea what is in it or how they could tow it down to the beach from where it is abandoned but it looked impressive. Sort of:

With the expected delay, the little Twin Otter which is owned by the Scottish Government but operated by Loganair duly arrived. The approach looks like any other airport, you see the plane in the air passing airport buildings:

then it all changes:

and you get to see the salt water spray coming off the wheels as it touches down:

The parking area and disembarkation process is as sophisticated as you would expect:

and baggage reclaim is "functional" and very manual too:

The whole thing is a great spectator sport, more folks were lined up watching the arrival and departure than the 19 that could fly on the plane itself. A lifelong pilot Captain Rae (remember him, Mr Albatross the N47?) seems to like the "Twotter" as he calls it so we made sure there are plenty of plane pictures for him in this post.

Whilst the plane was being turned around (grand phrase - the crew wandered into the terminal to collect paperwork and visit the facilities then they took the returning passengers with them to the plane) we walked up the sand dunes and over to the beach on the west side of the airport. Plenty of  birdlife, this guy seemed to be a sole survivor of the avian onslaught, the other shells we saw looked empty:

Having enjoyed the airport we headed south to Vatersay - here is the island looking moody in some mist, you can just see the causeway over to it as well:

Lunch in the community cafe was first, then a walk to the beautiful beach area:

and down to the main settlement where as well as the obligatory rusty tractors, we also saw this offshore race boat in a garden:

#mostunexpected.

For interest, the little "hut" that you can see in the picture used to be the Vatersay post office. Vatersay folks (all 90 or so of them) now have to go to Castlebay on Barra for post office services. Vatersay is the most southerly and the most westerly of the inhabited islands in the Outer Hebrides chain and really has that "you are on the end of the world" feeling about it.

We headed back to Barra, up the east coast and stopped off to admire the pride of the local fishing fleet:

Well, certainly the tidiest one in the tiny harbour. On the ferry heading back we kept an eye on the bridge:

and after leaving the terminal, we didn't see any eyes inside it that bothered to look forwards. No radar running, no lookout activity, we hope they had some good all round CCTV to watch in there! The maritime collision regulations say:

Rule 5
Look-out
Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight as well as by hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision

but we are not sure that the ferry crew were too fussed about them - who else navigates in that little stretch of water after all?

We hear more and more bad stories about CalMac's fleet and reliability problems from the various islanders. The Loch Alainn that we travelled on was a 1997 vessel and shows her age. The corrosion was quite serious on some of the deck plates and the external pipework on one side of her was in a very bad state. Ironically, there was a door labelled "paint store" - we don't think the crew had a key to it..... 

A great day on two very different islands, with very varied sights and experiences. 

The Uists, and a bit of Benbecula too

Lochboisdale had a couple of really beautiful converted MFVs in place. One directly ahead of us, owned by a local man who inherited it from his father after he retired the boat from fishing. This visiting craft is a tourist boat now and looked the part for the area unlike some of the tin ugly monsters that have been built specifically for the cruise market:

Very impressive piece of kit.

We caught up on sleep after the silly early start leaving Stornoway, then after a day of boat washing and cycling to the local (20 minutes) Co-op only to find the fresh fruit area was pretty bare, we picked up our little hire car form the lovely Laing Motors folks. No scruffy van with dangerous tyres this time, instead a tidy little Citroen C1:

Not brand new but well cared for. The paperwork process was just as we remembered it from before. You fill in a photocopied A4 sheet with your address and licence information, pay the hire fee and get the keys. No insurance upselling, no "driving licence check code" needed from the DVLA. No checks at all really. The little car was pressed into immediate action, heading north. Plenty of single track A road here, lots of little inland lochs, very little other traffic. All pretty good really. This is typical of the roadside scenery in the "lowland" areas:

with lots of little causeways:

and a few longer ones that link the islands themselves. Further north, you see the hillier bits:

We went onto Benbecula, raided the bigger Co-op  there where we happily found fresh fruit and veg, then went to the wildlife reserve area and explored Loch Skipport. Tempting as it was, we didn't wait until the guided walk started to see the Golden Eagles that were nesting nearby and raising a chick too:

We didn't spot them during our walk around but we got to enjoy the area instead:

Our little excursion was a great reminder of how special these islands are. Laid back to almost the horizontal, generally unspoiled apart from the abandoned cars, vans and tractors that seem to be just left to die in fields and gardens. No scrap yard or recycling centres here!