The Kinvigs visit and a wee drop of the good stuff

After a couple of weeks away from the boat, and Jenny learning to drive a tractor (another story), we came back to Harris with some additional crew. My elder brother and 2 of his three kids (Madeline and Cameron). As we found out on our return, the weather had been truly horrible, so we had made a wise choice.

The first stop was 30 miles south of Harris – Loch Maddy. We had been warned that the pier was under refurbishment, and it would be noisy. They were not joking. The noise was horrendous. Luckily come 7.00pm the work came to a stop. We went to the hotel for a pint and some quiet and I did try and persuade my newly 19 year old nephew to get the beer’s in – but he had forgotten his money and his ID (a bit of a recurring theme! He will go far!)

On to Canna

We decided that the younger members of the crew may enjoy getting the Kayak out so we headed for Canna as it offers a large sheltered bay to play in the water. We also did the customary trip to see the puffins. To avoid boring everyone, I have skipped yet more photographs of Canna and the Puffins.

A Change of Crew

We now had to collect the next set of guests from Oban. Robin (my younger brother), Kenny (who came out with us earlier in the year) and Danny (last on the boat in 2019 when he helped us sail to the Baltic). As is the story of the year, the first 2 days of the trip were to be very poor so we decided to do a walk round Kerrera (you may remember we did one last year in the pouring rain – well guess what it was pouring again this year!) on the first wet day and spend a day in Oban on the another (ok, so we may have visited a coupler of whisky shops…..).

And we are off

Islay

First stop was Islay. Guess what? They have a few distilleries on Islay – who knew!! , Well ok, we did. Danny had purchased some bottles from Bunnahabhain a year earlier, so we thought we had better collect them. It would be silly to go all that way and not stop at another one on the way, so we also stopped at Ardnahoe (a new distillery opened by a bottling company in Glasgow, who have decided to get into making the contents). We had originally planned on hiring a car (Jenny had volunteered to drive a bunch of reprobates around). But after establishing that they wanted the first-born child from each of us and all our worldly possessions in payment, we went for the bus out and Taxi back option. I should say at this point that Danny is a bit of a collector of whisky and has been known to purchase one or 2 fine bottles in his time.

At this point I need to say that this was one of the best tasting sessions I have ever been to (and I have done the odd one or three). Not just because the drams were 3 times the size of any others I have had, not because of our host admitted that the scar on his head was due to an encounter with the kitchen floor after a rather intense tasting session but because he said that as most of the whisky is stored in central Scotland you can ignore all the crap about how the salt air enters the barrels. What you need to know is the barrels make the whisky. He then went on to spend 30 mins talking about sherry and how it is made and the Solero system that is used to blend it. This is what makes the sherry casks and hence the flavour of the whisky if stored in sherry casks. Most whisky starts in American bourbon casks but it is often finished in other casks which changes the taste of the whisky.

Needless to say we made it back to the boat in one piece (along with a few bottles of whisky)

The Sound of Jura and east Loch Tarbert on Jura

The next day we decided to head for the west side of Jura (through the sound we had walked alongside the day before. But clearly, we were concerned that we may have insufficient supplies for such a trip, so Danny and Kenny set off round three distilleries on the trusty Bromptons while we headed up the coast to “catch ” them at the far end.

North past Iona and Fingles Cave to Tobermory

We stopped at Tobermory for the night and went out for dinner. Again, you have all seen many pictures of Tobemory so have not added any here. Needless to say we also visited the distillery and purchases were made.

We then sailed up Loch Sunart to a small marina at Salin. Run by a really nice couple who moved up from England in about 2009. There is a very picturesque walk above the bay

Then back to Oban

We had to leave Feath in Kerrara (Just opposite Oban) for 3 weeks as we had a couple of weddings to attend. If the weather in the west had been good we would have come back between the wedding , but, as it turned out, it was nothing special. By the time we returned in mid/late August the weather had at last improved.