057:06.322 N
005:49.575 W

Mallaig

Today was definitely worth the wait; we woke to sunshine and clear blue sky together with a hustle and bustle on the pontoon with everyone keen to get moving.

We’ve had a fantastic sail from Tobermory to Mallaig, the sun shone and the views were fabulous in all directions. Isabelle is now teaching sailing at UKSA and racing on Etchells at the weekends so having her at TC’s helm is poetry in action. She reads the gusts and waves beautifully and TC flew at 7+ knots up the rest of the Sound of Mull until the Ardnamurchan Peninsular came into view.

We took a celebratory photo with the Ardnamurchan Lighthouse in the background; now we’ve rounded the western most point of the British mainland, we can apparently tie heather to our bow as we journey north from here!

Passing Muck, Eigg and Rum was so special, having heard about them for years, to see them in the dazzling sunshine was very rewarding. Skye could be seen in the distance with its dramatic mountain ridgetops touching the clouds, we are looking forward to getting to know Skye a bit more over these next few days.

We were pleasantly surprised that despite the wind being pretty much on the nose, after one large tack, we were then able to aim directly at Mallaig for the rest of the journey. We did resort to the engine for the last hour as the chop was increasing and our tidal gate was slipping but we were keen to arrive (and it is still chilly).

The day was totally exhilarating and really memorable for (sadly) Isabelle’s last day.  We followed a ship into the busy commercial port of Mallaig, and are now tied up to a pontoon.

We certainly feel like we are moving away from huge well protected marinas; mostly now we are finding pontoons that generally come with some sort of swell.

But we are safe and all is good on TC, especially after a lovely happy hour in the cockpit and a delicious meal on board.