Tobermory to Lochboisdale, then "doing South Uist"

The rain was going to ease up, but it was replaced by some fog banks instead. The weather just kept on giving somehow. Still, as we'd kind of "Tobermoried" all that we wanted to, the decision was to head across to South Uist. Tides dictated an early (for us) start just after 7am. Getting out from Tobermory, despite the hour we had a huge audience of yotties who wanted to see how the Nordhavn would wriggle out of the place. We were kind and waved at several of them, just to make a point....

Things started very calm indeed - see the true wind speed:

You can also see the edge of the radar picture which is a hint that there was poor visibility too. It opened up a bit for a misty pic of the little lighthouse just to the west of Tobermory:

and then kept closing down again. Not a huge problem, we have a couple of very capable radar scanners to use. The smaller (they are both open scanner devices) is a digital one that offers all sorts of sexy signal processing to improve the image and bin stuff coming back from waves, birds etc. The bigger one is old school magnetron based and has a way better range and definition between targets at very close quarters thanks to the size of the scanner. With either of them running, we are pretty happy that we will see anything else that is out there.

As we passed the (in)famous Ardnamurchan Point, so the depth reading took a holiday. The three dashes are not that helpful:

This is why, it struggled as the depth was over 200 metres:

You can see that we were not that far away from land either! It decided to work again as soon as we got into the comparatively shallow 180 metre area. It is kind of important to know how much water is under the keel....

Here is the route, tracking across the Sea of the Hebrides to the Outer Hebridean island of South Uist:

It took around 8.5 hours and as you are fully exposed to the Atlantic Ocean, there was some nice 2 meter swell on our beam that kept the stabilisers busy and upset the crew enough to need to take some Kwells tablets. No nice pictures from the run over as it was foggy / misty and even when clear, just grey. As we got further out there were a few bigger waves that the freshening wind encouraged but nothing dramatic.

Approaching Lochboisdale entrance, we were being raced by a rather nice Halberg-Rassy yacht that was alongside us in Tobermory. We are not built to race anything bar maybe a pedalo. However, they had to heave to (turn into the wind) to drop their sails and that let us approach the loch first. Happily, the sun came out a bit and the mist cleared so we could see the shore:

although this picture fails to show the lovely light and shade that the sun was picking out on the hill. We gave the harbour a call on the radio to check on where to berth. No reply. Tried the mobile phone number - same outcome. The place has to be manned when one of the CalMac ferries is moving (they need to put on the red "do not" lights but around that the hours are very variable). Proper Outer Hebridean island stuff. Lovely.

We spotted a nice alongside berth, one that we'd used before and settled in just before all the fish farm boats returned from their working day. Maybe we'd stolen one they wanted? No idea. When the assistant harbour guy arrived he was happy for us to stay put. All so wonderfully relaxed. A long chat ensued about the challenges of island life, how the flights to Glasgow had been cancelled for the past 4 days due to poor visibility and how his pregnant wife had to go all the way to Stornoway for a scan as the Uists / Benbecula don't have good enough kit. The NHS pay for the ferry fare over to Harris / Lewis for him and give something towards the fuel costs. Only when they did the scan, the baby was in a poor position to check everything and despite her best efforts, it would not move position quickly enough. The person doing the scan refused to wait, said he'd reached his contracted 12 hours that week so they would have to rebook and return another time.

Bear in mind that the trip (with the ferry) takes 4.5 hours each way. The joys of island living indeed. However, this is a stunningly beautiful island to live on.

What to do in Lochboisdale on a misty day? Well, you walk around to the local community cafe place. The ex ferry Hebridean Princess was on the pier, our liner curse continued. You can see how misty it was:

Luckily the liner folks had been whisked away by bus somewhere so we found space in the little cafe. The building it lives in is, to be blunt, ugly:

at the end of a row of equally ugly units. Hence, you walk in expecting little despite the three Google 5 star reviews. There are only three reviews, probably from family of the volunteers who run it or the volunteers themselves? No matter, they were accurate. It is run as a community place offering mental health support too, something much needed in the islands. Here is a sample of their specials to go with toasties, quiches, excellent home made cake etc:

The volunteer staff and cook were lovely ladies. We were served by a Volvo dealer trained and qualified car technician, another lady who spins wool and makes soaps and the cook was a lifeguard. They had some amazing back-stories, tasty food and such a friendly place. We had to visit twice. We hope it succeeds. 

These two rather hard as nails looking ex RNLI lifeboats were rafted in the harbour:

Now both owned privately by the same man who was interested in our not quite as hard as nails Nordhavn:

We chatted, gave a tour of the Nordhavn and were then treated to a good look around one of the retired Trent class lifeboats. They've been kept exactly as they were when in service- the owner and his partner just sleep on the floor if they spend time away in them. Karen, the partner, was keener on spending overnight time on board the Nordhavn for some strange reason.

Once the sun came out (it was windy too), we exhumed the Brompton bikes and did the trip down towards Eriskay. The Main (A classified) road through the spine of the island is, naturally, single track with passing places. We needed those to let the odd car / campervan heading to the ferry that runs from Eriskay to Barra go past us. The views across to Eriskay and Barra once you get to the coast are just beautiful. The little camera in the phone doesn't do it justice but here are the feeble attempts anyway:

We had a break in the Kilbride cafe at the campsite. We sat outside, enjoying the sun for a change, chatting to an interesting father and son combo - the son being over from Sydney Australia. You do have some odd and most interesting and educational short encounters whilst travelling around. This was one. The folks in the community cafe was another. 

Whilst we had coffee, the Bromptons had a snooze in the sun:

in an almost synchronised and balletic way. They quite enjoyed the scenery too:

You can easily tell the local folks versus the tourists on the roads. The locals are nice to bikes and pedestrians, they give you space even when walking on a pavement. They are courteous in passing places and always wave thank you if you wait for them on the single track roads. The visitors are another game entirely. Some really ought to just go home if they are in such a rush. Wrong place to be, it is all so laid back here.

Maintenance News:

We had a real first world crisis. The microwave combi oven thing went pop, or at least the microwave bit did. It made an odd noise, so the crew reported, but then happily spun some broccoli around and counted the time down. Only it didn't cook it. Sure enough, the microwave part has failed. It is an 8 year old Miele device and does get lots of use but still irritating. Getting a new built in one with the right dimensions in the Outer Hebrides? Forget it.  Getting a little free standing one to use before we replace the dead one - tricky, that will have to wait until we get to a metropolis, like Stornoway. 

Loch Aline to Tobermory and pottering around

As delightful as Loch Aline is, the time had come to move on. We saw a really grim weekend forecast ahead with biblical levels of rain and some pretty windy stuff too. So, we opted to have a little trip (13 nautical miles or so) through the sound of Mull to Tobermory where there is a bit more for rainy days. Including, major excitement in these parts, a little Co-op store. 

Naturally, the tide times meant we would be pushing the current all the way if we left before low water, which takes a lot of the stress out of exiting the harbour. So, to protect our stress levels, we burned a bit more fuel and headed off with a wild 2 metres under the keel. That of course meant a slower trip:

The 118 metres depth is just outside the harbour entrance, way nicer than the 2 metres as you go through the narrows and way way nicer than the 0.9 we had on the way in. The conditions continued to be grey and less than tempting for a flybridge trip as you can see:

There was a surprising number of yachts out and about, it almost felt busy for Scotland and we actually had to alter course to avoid one. Most unusual. Then we thought of the Solent area and realised how, even in the busy areas, it is pretty empty here.

The short and easy route along the Sound of Mull:

As we were in for a very wet weekend, we wanted to get a walk ashore spot, not a buoy or anchorage. A good thing as the anchorage was already rather full, one little cruise liner the MS Hamburg was in place and hogging the anchorage area. We were given a nice hammerhead berth, close to a rather enormous Fleming 78. We looked most insignificant (actually we like that) although the guys on a rather nice sailing yacht next to us commented on what a great boat the Nordhavn is. The "go slow and don't drain an oil well" thing appeals to many sailing folks, especially those getting bored with being soaked / freezing cold in their cockpits when underway. 

There was a serious looking fishing boat conversion nearby:

The odd looking contraption that looks like a rocket launcher at the stern intrigued us. We know that the Royal Navy is a bit short of warships but an old MFV seemed like desperation. Finally we discovered that the impressive and substantial structure was holding a couple of solar panels that could be rotated to face the sun in all directions. Very impressive bit of engineering. We hope the power they generate outweighs the cost of the setup which must have been significant.

Here is the liner that was occupying the harbour and disgorging passengers into the very small main street of Tobermory so they could block up the pavements, look miserable and generally behave as liner passengers seem to do when ashore:

MS Hamburg holds 420 passengers and it felt as though they were all ashore. Luckily she headed off that evening. Hopefully the bridge crew were being more careful than in 2015 when she hit a charted rock in the Sound of Mull. Whoops. 

To escape the masses, we climbed the rather ludicrous incline / north face of the Eiger that leads up to An Tobar, the locals arts centre and cafe. The cafe bit had gone from excellent to average to grim and had just been through another incarnation so it had to be checked out. We are delighted to report that it is back to excellent, especially the pistachio and rose cake. There were some interesting artworks there, we kind of liked this cartoon like representation of a Cal Mac ferry:

but resisted buying anything. The views from up on the hill overlooking that bay are lovely, even if there is a lump of painted steel in the middle of it:

and the best bit is that 99.9% of cruise liner passengers never venture up the hill. It was a tranquil and very welcome haven.

During our stay we, of course, raided the Co-op for some basics, walked around the harbour area a few times and once up the main road (another evil hill) to Island Blue, an arts and crafts place:

Why would you paint a building housing a business called "Island Blue" that (griping) shade of pink? It is run by a couple and the lady is from Thailand. They do some authentic Thai style little lunches and take away options too. We resisted. The lady is lovely, very friendly and happily chatted about life in her home country which brought back happy memories of work visits there for the captain. 

We knew that we were in for a very very wet Sunday. The forecast was unfortunately spot on and it just kept on raining.  Into Monday morning as well:

We didn't even venture off the boat.  It reminded us of visiting here with Andrew and Linda on board when we had three solid days of rain. We hoped not to repeat that treat. However, the fates had a different opinion.

After a day of incessant rain, we had hoped for a better start to the following one. Only this pitched up and anchored off the harbour:

More liner passenger pollution ensued but as it continued to rain all morning, we avoided them until the afternoon when we had to revisit An Tobar and also went into the An Camus fused glass workshop. A fascinating chat with the owner who had moved to the island and was talking about the challenges of life there and bringing up two children when the facilities for them out of school are very very limited. Laura the owner bought the business and self taught the fused glass techniques. Impressive.

The harbour had a most unusual number of serious cruising motorboats visiting. Very rare to see such a mix together. When we arrived, there was a humongous Fleming in situ, B 4 Bliss. To get a nice image, we've taken these from MarineTraffic:

Then a USA registered Selene trawler Yacht arrived, Hookipa 

with tinted windows in the pilothouse? Less than ideal we thought. This arrival was followed by a Turkish built steel explorer, Mrs Robinson (all 25 metres of her):

Very unusual to see so many serious passage making motor boats in one location in the UK. There were very few fast motor boats about. We are finding that the planing motor cruisers, who like a good drink when going fast, are mainly travelling more slowly now anyway which isn't good for their large diesel engines or comfort of their crew. Fuel prices are beginning to hurt maybe? 

Our final wander around the village, including the compulsory stop at An Tobar the arts and of course coffee place, showed that some of the locals are proud to show Mull as their home island in many ways:

Maintenance news:

That ***** manual bilge pump had to be looked at. It was clearly unhappy with signs of corrosion and a weep from one pipe fitting. So, the lid was lifted off (last overhaul was around 4 years ago) to reveal some nasty corrosion. Some of the mating surfaces for the thick nitrile-like gaskets were badly pitted from corrosion and overall, the pump was in a very poor shape. A nice new one looks like this:

The outside of ours looks a lot like that. The inside - well, that is another story.  This winter it will need a "rip and replace" job.  With the help of a tube of Sikaflex (how could we live without the stuff?) it was sealed up again and its days are numbered. 

Several folks have totally removed the manual pump as in an emergency, it isn't going to help much. We will ponder on the options. One is a new bronze (ie seawater corrosion resistant) version of the same pump. They look prettier:

but when bought in the USA cost $1,573 (no, the comma is not a decimal point). Add in shipping and VAT and import duty for delivery to the UK and you can see why we are hesitant to order one. Wild price indeed.

On a slightly simpler and way cheaper note, the bulb in our Miele electric oven had failed. The captain persuaded it to come out and fully expected to struggle finding a replacement until we reached a bigger town. We should have known though. Browns of Tobermory were established in 1830 and some of the stock might well date back that far. An amazing range of hardware (and alcohol) in one smallish shop. They even stocked the heat resistant bulb needed for the oven, together with really random things like a box full of chalk cubes for billiard / snooker / pool cues. The oven bulb must have been on the shelf for a while as they were a pound cheaper than the best price Mr Amazon could offer!