The Little Minch

Bliss
Sat 21 May 2016 19:24

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Great name, it's the sea between the Inner and Outer Hebrides, above The Hebridean Sea and below North Minch.
We woke to rain this morning in Loch Harport, but less wind than of late, the forecast concurred, we are in the only area of the UK which doesn't have gales!
Having spent 3 nights on a swinging mooring out in the loch, I am ready for the luxuries of a marina, hot water, being able to go ashore without bailing the rainwater out of the dinghy and without having to don full wet weather gear just for the short hop to land. So we're off, across the Little Minch to Loch Maddy on North Uist. I remember looking at the map on our wall at home and thinking that we really wanted to get to the Outer Hebrides, but it just seemed that bit too ambitious, and the stretch of water separating the Inner and Outer Hebrides seemed that bit too daunting, with it's terrifying and infamous Atlantic swell. And yet here we are, half way across, motor-sailing into a light northerly wind, while the rest of he country has gale-force sou'westerlies.
We sailed along the north-west coast of Skye and couldn't believe the scenery, the broken cloud changing the appearance from one minute to the next, the fantastic rock formations, towering cliffs, cascading waterfalls, even more impressive after the significant rainfall recently! This is the way to see these islands, and we have them all to ourselves, not another leisure boat in sight. We've seen one fishing boat and something huge carrying what looks like wind farm parts, apart from that, diddly squat.. Lots of sea-birds mind, and I'm ever hopeful of a dolphin or whale, and obviously we have to keep a look out for periscopes as we missed the submarine information broadcast, again, this morning.