058:27.364 N
005:02.976 W

Kinlochbervie II

We went on a Midsummer’s Day Walk last night, leaving at 1030pm and returning at midnight, still only dusk. To our utter surprise, we spotted a young Stag lying in the long grass right in the middle of town; he was magnificent and sat looking at us as we looked at him.

There was much anticipation this morning with the scheduled arrival of the most enormous fishing boat any of us have ever seen. A few stats:
Cost £8M to build 3 years ago
Goes to sea for 1 week at a time
Fishes 150 miles off shore / half way to Denmark
Catches Cod, Haddock and Blue Ling (the latter are fished at a depth of 500m)
Returns with 50 – 100 tons of fish
Met by 6 x 40ft refrigerated lorries to whisk the fish away.

It was mesmerising to see this ship arrive in the tiny harbour, we then all stood and watched the very slick job of offloading 1,500 pallets of fish. For those of us arriving with a bag, Willy the local coordinator was happy to fillet us a cod; he commented when skinning our cod that it must be very fresh as the skin was difficult to remove. When asking how much he wanted, he waved us away and told us to enjoy. I guess when you have caught 1 million (?) fish, what is three fish less.  A great start to the day.

It was very calm so Bol scrubbed the hull and rudder, after we’d turned TC around on the pontoon he did the other side; one problem with pristine waters is that it is possible to see the weed growing right down to the bottom of the rudder.

It was also calm enough for Bol and Harry to fly the drone around Loch Clash next door; great views captured below in really fabulous weather.

We’ve just returned from a very happy Happy Hour with our neighbours, it was reassuring to check our plans for our approach into Stromness with Nick and Anne who have done that passage over a dozen times. We plan to break the journey in the Kyle of Tongue for one night, we may not have mobile signal in which case our next blog entry will be from the Orkneys.

So tomorrow we sail around Cape Wrath and off the top of the country, what a memorable way to spend my 2026 birthday...