A rare combination

Despite what they say we do get lots of warm sunshine here in
Scotland, and it doesn't get much warmer than it was over the weekend.
Generally with a high pressure area plonked over the UK it also means
little wind but this was the exception on Saturday and Sunday.
I got together a scratch crew of Julie, Lynne and Sheena and we
undertook an epic voyage to Millport from Largs, some 3 miles, and
anchored off the pier in the sure knowledge of a timetable that no
paddle steamers would be interrupting our evening. When we took the
photographs there wasn't a breath which is the norm on an evening but
then a brisk Easterly picked up and stayed with us all weekend,
tremendous sailing weather and being on the water it was just a
comfortable temperature on board. Ah if only it could be like this
every summer.

Thanks to Lynne for being photographer and for her sommelier duties
pouring the wine.

Dinner

Just as I was leaving the ship one of my shipmates gave me a fresh lobster to take home for tea. I was a bit circumspect that the crustacean would survive the three hour bus trip back in my suitcase to Glasgow, but it did. 10 minutes marinating in boiling water changed Eric from spotty black to red. Very tasty with a little bit of garlic butter.

The week progresses

As ever at this time of year we have been busy here on the Isle of Mull. A lot of folk going across to the Island for their holidays along with day trippers on coaches and either due to a water leak or shortage, tankers full of Oban water. Today we had 6 coach loads on our first trip out of Oban with 550 passengers.

At the start of my fortnight we had glorious weather but then on the Monday morning we woke to fog across the Bay, as the week progressed it took longer and longer each day to burn away so we were manoeuvring at slow speed when we were in it. On Friday this resulted in us running two hours late but we did do all of our trips, the lifeline
service continues.


This is a picture of the radar and each of these yellow dots is the return from a target, most likely a yacht or fishing boat moving about the Sound of Mull just near Craignure. A busy bit of water and
probably quite scary for the yacht skippers caught out in the fog as they will not necessarily have the radar we do to detect other vessels, but they will be able to hear our fog signal and know we are
out there somewhere.

By the way, I find it strange how some of my colleagues dislike all yachtsmen, considering them to be an impediment to the stately progress of the ferry, conveniently forgetting that CalMac doesn't own Oban Bay and the £121 million subsidy we received last year was paid no doubt in part by these bloody Wafis's taxes. Ho hum.


Today we had a rather elegant passenger ship anchored off the North Entrance to Oban, the Costa Voyager. Presently of Italian register and quite a handsome vessel in comparison to a lot of other modern passenger boats. A very impressive flair on the bow which you can see better on this photo.

Unusual visitor

The Club Med 2 visited Oban today, anchored just outside the North

entrance its little landing craft have been ferrying their passengers
back and forward to the landing stage in the bay.

I had a walk up Pulpit Hill last night and took a couple of photos of the Bay. Looking good in the sunshine.

This is the Oban Distillery with our local Tower in the background.

Round Mull Race

Spent quite a lot of time dodging yachts today, some like these were
racing others were pottering and on occassions sitting with their eyes
closed. The sun tried to break through but never really managed it,
unlike the rest of you. Well done to Andy Murray and a very worthy
talented opponent in today's semi's.

Not so warm here

Looks like a heat wave for most of the UK except for our bit here out west, still it's quite pleasant. I went for a walk along the Oban prom last night and didn't need a hat! Sailing as 3rd Mate this time, off to meet up again with my old fire extinguisher chums today.