Mallaig, Canna, The Outer Hebs, Canna , Canna……..

Ok so we went to Canna quite a lot over the last week in May and first week in June. 2 reasons- a) we really like it. It is another of these thin places, yet has more colour than Iona. b) it is half way between the mainland and the Outer Hebrides with good moorings.

As per usual, the wind blew and we had some storms the first week so we stayed put in Mallaig. Great marina and facilities (with a brilliant bakery ). When you look up the guide of what to do in Mallaig, everything starts with ” first leave Mallaig !”

You have fair warning, this is a long blog. At the end of the day , this is our ” ships log ” so we can look back on it and remember what we did rather than just look at a jumble of pictures. So feel free to just skim through some pictures, I will not be asking questions when we next meet up!

As per usual we never got bored. Bellow is a quick summary

Visit to Distillery in Fortwilliam

We decided to go to Fortwilliam for the day as the train journey between Mallaig and Fortwilliam is counted by many, including CNN as one of the top 10 rail journeys in the world. There is also a distillery in Fortwilliam that we had never visited (yes there are still some).

The JK Rowling express runs from Fort William to Mallaig and was rammed. Having travelled on a steam train before and been very disappointed we did not go for this option. The only ways to enjoy a steam train in my view is a) drive it ( and for some reason you don’t often get asked to) or b)watch it from the side of the track. Sitting behind it, you just don’t get to see the interesting bit.

Day Trip to Eigg

Again, one of these places we sailed past a lot , but no safe anchorage. So we let Calmac take the strain and went out for a few hours . It is an interesting place as it is community owned and is now self sufficient in green energy . Each house is allocated 5KW a day and if you have a business you get 10KW. It was the first community in the world to have 24 hour renewable energy with a combination of hydro, wind and solar, and is now a model that is being used all over the world in similar communities. They are doing a lot on the island in terms of a new shop and Cafe along with putting in some new visitors moorings .

Cycle and a Swim

Despite the wind , the weather was not that bad , so we got the Bromptons out and Cycled down to Arisaig and back. Beautiful Cycle

The Chief Engineer Arrives

Another reason for hanging around Mallaig, was we had some guests coming to sail with us. This firs was Kenny, who is also Feath’s Chief Engineer . It was noted that he did not turn up in his white overalls. We had a 4 day weather window to get some sailing in before the next strong winds came in so we decided to head North to Plockton. The land of Hamish Macbeth. A bit of a gusty and wet day. Timing is key as the tide can run at 8 Knots through Kyle Rhea. No one wants to be the idiot trying to go the wrong way.

We then headed North again to Shieldaig in Loch Torridon. Again another poor day. But even in the rain it is a dramatic spot.

The weather improved so we sailed back down to Oronsay. I small inlet on the south east of Skye.

Then it was back to spend a couple of days in Mallaig awaiting others to join us while the next storm came through.

Kenny and I also took a bike ride down to the Arisaig cake shop

Crew change over and a quick trip to Canna

My Brother and his partner Sue turned up and shortly after we had 2 friends (Jim and Jenni) from Australia arrive (been a long term plan to take them sailing for a couple of days ). As the weather looked good we thought we would take them to see the Puffins on Canna

Alas, Jenni and Jim only had a couple of days in the schedule for sailing so we had to get them back to Mallaig – and pick up out next crew.

A trip to the Outer Hebrides

We had a good spell of settled weather over the next few days when we picked up Jo and Pete (friends from Dunblane ). It just so happens they love Canna and had stayed many times. They had not been back for 20 years so that was our first stop. We also took Jo round to see the Puffins from the water .

The following day it was a 5 am start to get to Mingulay (our favourite island in the outer Hebs)

The following day we sailed up the east coast to Lochboisdale

We then headed back to Mallaig via Canna

As I write this, we are at home in Dunblane . Have left the boat in Mallaig on a mooring. We had intending being back for 10 days ( Dentist and other appointments we had made before we left) but we are staying home for another week while another big front comes through. A fairly lengthy blog , as despite the weather we actually did a lot ( and actually other than the wind , we had a fair amount of sun)