I first spotted her lying on her trailer almost hidden amongst numerous other craft of all shapes and sizes.  She was perfect and I knew she'd suit my requirements exactly.  At 21' long and 7'4" on her beam, she could sleep 4 quite comfortably.  Her hull was blue and she had a white deck and a blue tonneau over the cockpit.  Apart from requiring a service, her inboard Volvo Penta 25hp engine was perfect.

Her first trip out with me was behind a 4x4 when I collected her from North Wales.  After resting briefly in Chester, I continued onwards up to Mallaig on the rugged North West coast of Scotland where, a couple of days later, she was officially launched.

Using Mallaig as a base, there were many places within easy reach to visit up and down the coast as well as exploring the nearby sea lochs.  However, the watch on the weather was always of prime importance especially as it could - and often did - change very quickly.  One of my first trips out in her was to the village of Inverie on the north shore of Loch Nevis.  Only accessible by boat unless one walks there across the mountains, it supports about 40 people and boasts of the most remote public house, The Old Forge, on the UK mainland. Incredible views south into the loch towards Tarbet and west towards the Isle of Skye.  One such trip, I was about 20 minutes from the safety of Mallaig harbour on my return when the weather turned very bad.  To say the least, it was an experience that I would not like to encourage.  The only other time I was caught in strong winds was when I was running nor'east into Loch Hourn.  Again, the weather turned suddenly but I was able to reach the relative safety of a mooring at Arnisdale.  It remained bad for 24 hours after which I was able to go further into the loch and up to Kinloch Hourn which is some 10 miles from the mouth.  The sides of the loch are steep with the mountains rising up to over 3000 feet on all sides.  It is known as the Loch of Hell, for good reason too, for the steepness of the mountains and the narrowness of the loch, particularly the upper section, can force the wind to whip up the water in an instant making being afloat very uncomfortable - as I can testify.

For the most part, the summer of '99 was perfect. On one 4 day trip, I went up to Glenelg, Eilean Donan Castle at Dornie, Kyleakin and Plockton and returned via the Point of Sleat and Glenuig. Glenelg is a small village at the northern end of the Sound of Sleat which separates Skye from the mainland and I stopped here for a while before entering the narrows at Kyle Rhea.  The tidal race is very fast at this point and many a boat has been known to remain stationary despite its engine at 'full ahead' whilst attempting to run against the currant.  The best time to run through is north on a flood tide and south on the ebb which is what I did.

Coming out of the Kyle Rhea which is only about 2 miles long, I entered Loch Alsh and turned east towards Loch Duich and Loch Long at which junction stood the castle of Eilean Donan, probably the best known and most photographed castle certainly in Scotland and probably in the world.  It originally dates from the early part of the 13th century but was destroyed in 1719.  The restoration of the castle, which started around 1920, took more than 10 years to complete and has since featured in many motion pictures.  On my arrival in the calm waters of Loch Duich and right below the tall ramparts of the castle walls, I was enthralled at the sight and took many photographs.  The village of Dornie lies nearby and it was here, in the narrow and swift running mouth of Loch Long, that I dropped two anchors and laid up for the night. It was dark by this time and, behind me, the castle was lit up by spotlights.  A beautiful sight.

The next morning in calm conditions at low water, I weighed both anchors - one of them had become entangled with debris on the sea bed which gave me a bit of bother - and continued my journey back through Loch Alsh, stopping on the way at Kyleakin before passing under the Skye Bridge (I'm not impressed and .......... but I won't go into that here!!) and turning north up to Plockton where I spent the second night, this time at a mooring.  This is another picturesque village, very popular with summer visitors and has featured as the setting for a television drama series on the BBC.  Despite the fact that this trip was taking place in the middle of winter, the weather was very good with only a slight breeze and so it was in these conditions that I left Plockton and started south again, this time running down about a mile off the Skye coast to the Point of Sleat and then back across to the mainland and into the Sound of Arisaig to Glenuig.

When I entered the Sound, I noticed what I thought was a great deal of white water about a mile dead ahead of me but as I continued to watch it, it became apparent that it was a whale alternately surfacing and diving as it moved from right to left of my position.  With the engine in neutral, I watched it through the binoculars while it circled round me until it was no more than 300 to 400 yards away, then it stayed it's course and headed on out to the open sea.  When I could no longer see it, I then continued on my way towards Glenuig as it was starting to get dark.  What I had just experienced was just incredible and although I have no idea what breed it was, I could see its back very clearly each time it surfaced, water shooting water from its blowhole.  This was a first for me and something that I'll never forget.

After that, the rest of my trip was something of an anticlimax although being out on the water is always enjoyable for me. I stayed at anchor for the night at Glenuig without going ashore and left early the next morning for the final leg of the trip back to Mallaig.

One of my favourite places to go to, loner that I am, was to an isolated beach neat the Point of Sleat on Skye called Camas Daraich which is just about an hour across from Mallaig.  There's nothing there except a lovely view and a huge expanse of sand when the tide is out.  The water is so clear that, when the sun is out, the bottom is clearly visible while still a long way from the shore. I made many visits there as I did to a number of places on the mainland coast marked on the map above with Loch Nevis and Inverie high on the list.  As opposed to Loch Hourn, Loch Nevis is known as the Loch of Heaven and is the deepest sea loch on the West Coast.  On my way up to Camusory, the water in this upper part of the loch can often be very still and reflect the land in the most exact detail as some of my better photographs bear witness.

Early in April, 2000, prior to a permanent move to the Hebrides, I set out in what, to me, was the unknown.  With 3 days of good weather forecast, the water was almost mirror-like as I left Mallaig towing my dinghy and headed towards Sleat Point and round to the Isle of Canna where I stopped - 4 hours and 10 minutes later - and tied up to the pier in the tiny but very safe harbour for the rest of the day and night.  The Penta engine had performed perfectly but the overnight stop allowed everything to cool down ready for the next leg to Eriskay.  I left just after dawn and headed west across The Minch towards the unseen Hebrides.  Once again, the weather was excellent and I made good progress, sighting the Oigh-sgeir light glinting in the strong sunlight 6 miles off my port beam.  With quite a bit of haze ahead of me on the horizon, it was more than an hour later before I could see the 2033 foot peak of Beinn Mhòr on South Uist.  Using Thairteamul Island off the north-east corner of Eriskay as a guide, I reached the safe anchorage of Acairseid Mhòr in 5 hours 20 minutes after leaving Canna, a total of 49 nautical miles in 9½ hours.  I made the same trip about 3 weeks later in a fishing boat in some very rough seas . . . . . . . but that's another story!

Since then, I have been up to Lochboisdale on South Uist and other smaller, local destinations a number of times and also to Castlebay on Barra.  This was where many, if not all, of the locations for the 1949 film "Whisky Galore", mentioned on my Eriskay page, was made.  The Castlebay run south was made with a fresh northerly behind me and took just under 3 hours.  After a look around and something to eat, I started the return back, this time heading straight into the wind which was a little uncomfortable to say the least but conditions became a lot easier as I got closer to the hills on South Uist and I reached my mooring a short while later.

As with the mainland coast, the Hebridian scenery is superb and offers many destinations.  However, the weather is often more changeable and, particularly when in the waters around Eriskay, said to be one of the more dangerous areas in the Hebrides, a sharp look-out has to be maintained for the countless submerged reefs and sandbanks.

Having enjoyed the best summer that the Hebrides have had in 20 years and with the winter almost set in, no more trips are planned this year but next year, I hope to be able to explore the lochs on the east side of South Uist and look at Berneray, the Monarch Isles, Vatersay and more of Barra, all, of course, weather permitting.

(I didn't intend this to be a geography lesson or, for that matter, any kind of lesson but I hope it's been of some interest.)