Category Archives: 2020

My name is Artie, I have smokey grey fur, I’m of the feline persuasion;In twilight hours I hone foraging skills and practise escape and evasion.Tim thought he was funny, he thought it was clever to block my usual exit,I’ve been press ganged into being at sea and tortured with opinions on Brexit. Last night IContinue reading “Wednesday 19th August 2020 – Ashore at Muirtown (Inverness)”

It’s only a short walk into the heart of the City and we spent most of the day happily wandering about the lanes and calling into Wetherspoons to dry out…. yes it’s raining again. We took a long time over lunch and found that not only were the Wetherspoon meal deals great value but theContinue reading “Tuesday 18th August 2020 – Ashore at Muirtown, Inverness”

Woke up to find all the visiting boats had left and we were ‘Billy no mates’ on the pontoon. We did a recce of the sea lock and found out what time it would open on Wednesday for us and on the way back saw a couple of boats traveling down the staircase we hadContinue reading “Monday 17th August 2020 – Ashore at Muirtown”

The young crew from ‘Muffin’ came on board last night, it turned out that Simon was already in the 3rd Battalion Royal Anglian and going through the process of joining up full time. He and Tim sat up late into the wee hours. Talavera was in the second batch of boats to go through theContinue reading “Sunday 16th August 2020 – Ashore at Muirtown”

Artie decided to escape last night, he got through the smallest of gaps in the cockpit tent but gave himself away by crashing about on the table first. So we sleepily got up and went in search of him. He hadn’t gone far and had taken the route of a previous walk so maybe heContinue reading “Saturday 15th August 2020 – Fort Augustus to Muirtown – 36nm – 7hrs”

Despite the marina being in the heart of town it was a very quiet undisturbed night. After the sun had set McCaigs Tower, built in the 1900s to look similar to Rome’s Colosseum, was lit up red; we could see the top third from Talavera but we didn’t walk in that direction as favoured theContinue reading “Wednesday 12 August 2020 – Oban to Fort William – 28 nm – 5 hrs Neptune’s Staircase 2 nm – 5 hrs”

Sitting up on deck last night we were treated to a breathtaking sunset. This morning the weather reverted to dark skies, poor visibility and more rain. However it cleared up considerably during the afternoon to the extent that we even managed to lose our fleeces and at times wet weather gear. Between 07:00 and 07:30Continue reading “Tuesday 11 August 2020 – Tinkers Hole to Tobermory (Isle of Mull) – 32nm – 5hrsto Oban – 24nm – 4hrs”

A golden sunrise greeted us this morning for our early departure to the island of Iona. Sailing past Mull on our starboard side and Scalasaig to port we saw several puffins displaying their unmistakeable oversized bright orange/red bills and matching large feet.For a couple of minutes we switched the engine on to dodge the submergedContinue reading “Monday 10th August 2020 – Loch Tarbert to Iona, to Tinkers Hole”

The winds were too strong to leave the pontoon this morning and although we had bright skies we didn’t get our share of the heatwave those at home were experiencing.We watched a fishing boat offload its catch but apart from people adjusting their warps, and pondering over the wind strength and lack of sustained direction,Continue reading “Sunday 9th August 2020 – Port Ellen (Islay) to Loch Tarbert (Jura) – 34 nm – 5 hrs”