05.38am 7 June 2023 Every day since we arrived back at Zoonie on 9 April we have heard and seen the cuckoos, wherever we have been between Oban to Skye, many cuckoos. With their propensity to hatch and then turf the resident chicks out of the nest to their deaths, this cannot be doing the …
On a six-month sabbatical from a bus driver’s life in aggressive, intolerant and impatient Oldham (his words), Lewis (not his real name) had taken up the reins of the day tour driver/guide, and when he explained he would not be talking to us while driving the group murmur was favourable and understanding. Off we whizzed …
Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing Onward the sailors cry Carry the lad that’s born to be king Over the sea to Skye… Though the waves leap, soft will ye sleep Ocean’s a royal bed Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep Watch by your weary head We weren’t escaping like Bonnie …
The two-blue-carriage Scot Rail train runs on the line from Inverness to the Kyle of Lochalsh, at the foot of the road bridge across to Skye, so its survival seems assured, and thus it is a valuable lifeline for anyone using the pretty little village just two stops going east; Plockton. We waited on the …
To Adventures Beyond The Cruising Almanac Tide Tables P 14 and Admiralty Tidal Stream Atlas NP218 became my books du jour for my research on when would be best to set off through the narrows. At the end of last year’s Ireland West Coast and Scottish island cruising we decided we’d had enough challenge for …
Bron and Ken aboard! With the Coronation under our belts and the memory of the priceless impromptu bagpipe rendition given by twin young ladies at the Waypoint Bar and Restaurant on Kerrera, Zoonie made her way across the Firth of Lorn under genoa alone on the afternoon of 8 May 2023. After passing three shy …
Position 47:29.30N 12:45.10W It is 05.20am on the 9th of June, our oldest grandson Henry’s twelfth birthday and it is a sulphuric daylight. For three days now we have been running before the generous SW Azorean High trade wind, in fact an uneasy confluence of fast moving air above the High and beneath powerful Low …
But first a few photos from our walk yesterday. The motor launch you see is one of the two stored on the quay from the whaling days I mentioned to you. Bumble bees abound here as do the pretty, slimline lizards, and we watched Lasers, Optimists and 420 racing dinghies from all over the Azores …
On the eve of our much anticipated day around the island the replica whaling boats typical of the Azores were out racing each other in a brisk wind. Many years ago when I was on the Stavvy in Horta the local Sea Scouts, who made up much of the watch crew on that particular voyage, …
Position 17:44.98N 32:57.94W As we three Musketeer yachts, Jori ahead and Anna Caroline behind, came through The ITCZ I wondered if we had gone through a time warp, no ships, no planes, no vapour trails, no news, just almost daily chats with the other two yachts; us Three Musketeers, would we arrive in Horta, Faial …