View from the office window.

What an amazingly good weather week this is turning out to be,
particulary given that it is the Whitsun holiday and we are regularly
carrying over 600 passengers per trip. Good weather and holidays in
my experience seldom seem to coincide but we seem to have cracked it
this time.
A view from my cabin window when in Oban, showing the Calmac Terminal.
The interior of the ship is now reaching sub tropical temperatures
but as 2nd Officer this trip I am treated to the luxury of an opening
port (window) and with the judicious placing of a fan it keeps my
cabin to a temperate temperature. Junior officers, e.g. 3rd Mates, of
course do not need an opening port and it is clearly not warm enough
in the Chief Engineers cabin to justify the air conditioning being put
on yet.
And yet another sunset, but even this photo doesn't really do justice
to last night's natural show looking out west over Mull.

In the news

In the Daily Record today a good photo of our back end packed with happy passengers   

Holiday weekend

I can't recall a busier day than this one, it is the Whitsun week and today we have been full virtually all day here on the Isle of Mull.  We have carried over 3,500 passengers, 750 odd cars, 7 coaches and a pile of motor bikes and cycles.  It has been a bit fraught at times and even now at 21:00 at night we are still running half an hour late, but everyone that wanted to has got across to Mull.  Fantastic weather for it.

TV Moment

T

onight, Tuesday 21st at 9:00 pm BBC2 is Town, a programme about the bustling port town of Oban.  There is a good chance that yours truly may have a small part. 

Warmest day of the year

It must have been, I managed to get sunburnt again despite slapping on
the sun block and wearing a hat. We had a grand sail to windward and
then it died, this is a picture of my sailing companion John.

The leisurely cruise continues

Day three of our little cruise we spent overnight in Troon and as
forecast the wind died down and went round to about the SSW. When we
left at 10 we put up full sail and as the day went on the clouds
dissipated and the sun shone all the way to Kames. The NW swell of
the previous day was replace by a SW chop that made conditions on
board a little boisterous with the rolling but we continued to make
steady progress at 4 to 5 knots up the West Kyle. Arrived in the
sunshine and picked up one of the many vacant moorings off the hotel.
Ashore for fish and chips and noted that nothing has changed since
last year. As usual the wind died away altogether to leave us with a
calm and lovely evening. For the day we sailed 31'and for the season
111'

Sailing away

An old friend John and I have been out sailing for two days now.

Tonight finds us in windswept Troon, we should know better it always
blows old boots whenever we come here. We set off from Largs this
morning and sailed under a little jib to Lamlash where we had lunch
tied up to a mooring buoy and then a very bumpy 14' across to here.
Quite big following seas with a F5 to 6 NW'ly behind us but we
survived but going ashore tonight I was all over the place with my
newly found sea legs. If the weather forecast is correct then we
should have a S or SE'ly tomorrow which will waft us up to Kames for a
meal ashore there. Still blowing from the NW just now though.

The photos are of the sunsetting over Great Cumbrae last night, a
Fifer in Largs and looking North towards Goat Fell on Arran as we
entered Lamlash Bay, spot the snow on the tops.

Old friends visiting

The last fortnight has been a quiet time for me, my two weeks on the
Isle of Mull is nearly over, slightly extended this time due to
manning problems till Thursday this week. Today is the end of the
Bank Holiday weekend and the old paddler is in Oban for four days,
heading back to Greenock tomorrow. Co-incidental with the holiday we
have had four days of rain, and on Saturday a near gale.
Despite this we have been very busy with traffic going out to Mull,
many of them nice English folk visiting the dear green brown place, I
do feel for them given that 300 miles South of here it is scorchioo.