MV Dirona travel digest for Hebrides 2020


Show Hebrides 2020 travel log map Click the travel log icon on the left to see these locations on a map, with the complete log of our cruise.

On the map page, clicking on a camera or text icon will display a picture and/or log entry for that location, and clicking on the smaller icons along the route will display latitude, longitude and other navigation data for that location. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at //mvdirona.com/maps/LocationCurrent.html.


   

6/1/2020: Sunrise
Our last sunrise from the Isle of Gigha as we get underway after nearly ten weeks here. It's time for us to get a load of fuel and do a deep provisioning. The days are getting long here at latitude 55° north as we approach the June 20th summer solstice. Today the sun rises at 4:40am and sets at 9:59.
6/1/2020: Gigha Fish Farm
After seeing the fish farm building at Gigha from a distance for weeks, we finally got a closer look.
6/1/2020: Islay & Jura
Looking west to the Sound of Islay between the isles of Islay (left) and Jura with the white fence of McArthur's Head Lighthouse prominent on Islay. George Orwell spent time on Jura, hoping to cure his tuberculosis, and while there penned his masterpiece novel 1984.
6/1/2020: Jura House
Jura House, on the Ardfin Estate, is a heritage-listed manor built in the 1800s for the laird Colin Campbell. The grounds included an impressive Victorian garden that was open to the public until the property was purchased in 2010 and transformed into an exclusive golf course and resort.
6/1/2020: Ireland
Ireland visible in the distance, 25 miles to our south.
6/1/2020: McArthur's Head Lighthouse
The dramatic McArthur's Head Lighthouse, built in 1861, is perched on a bluff along the east side of Islay with a long flight of stairs leading down to water level.
6/1/2020: Sound of Islay
Spectacular scenery on Islay to our south as we pass through the eleven-mile Sound of Islay separating the isles of Islay and Jura.
6/1/2020: Dunlossit House
Dunlossit House, part of the 18,500-acre Dunlossit Estate on the Isle of Islay, was completed in 1905.
6/1/2020: Carraig Mor
Flowers in bloom near the Carraig Mor light just south of Port Askaig on Islay.
6/1/2020: Helmut Schroder of Dunlossit II
Helmut Schroder of Dunlossit II moored at its home base of the Islay Lifeboat Station at Port Askaig. The station building is on the left, and the large white building on the right is the Port Askaig store and post office.

We always enjoy seeing the capable RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) vessels and posted many pictures of them during our 2017 cruise through the British Isles. The RNLI is the largest lifesaving organization in the UK and Ireland, and receives no government support. All funding comes from membership and the staff is almost entirely voluntary. The Helmut Schroder of Dunlossit II at Islay is a Severn-class vessel, the largest in the RNLI fleet, with a top speed of 25 knots, a 250-mile range, and self-righting capability.
6/1/2020: Eilean Dhiura
The ferry Eilean Dhiura runs from the Feolin ferry dock on Jura, pictured, across the Sound of Islay to Port Askaig on Islay.
6/1/2020: Caol Ila Distillery
Caol Ila, established in 1846, is the largest of eight whisky distilleries on the small isle of Islay.
6/1/2020: 10.3 knots
On large tides, the current can run at five knots through the Sound of Islay. We're getting a nice 2-knot push as we pass through at the start of the turn to ebb.
6/1/2020: Bunnahabhain Distillery
The Bunnahabhain Distillery on Islay was established in 1881.
6/1/2020: Paps of Jura
The Paps of Jura are three conical-shaped mountains with a highest point of 2,575 feet (785 m). Paps is an old norse word for breast, reflecting their shape.
6/1/2020: Rubha A Mhail
The Rubha A Mhail light station on the northern tip of Islay, first lit in 1859.
6/1/2020: Fish Farm
Working boats at a fish farm off the northeast side the Isle of Colonsay.
6/1/2020: Sheep
Sheep grazing in rugged terrain off the northern tip of the Colonsay. The Scottish scenery is really impressive.
6/1/2020: Buffers & Rags
Milky-colored water when washing the buffer pads and rags we used for waxing the topsides.
6/1/2020: OB14
Fishing vessel OB14 working south of the Sound of Iona.
6/1/2020: Iona Abbey
Iona Abbey viewed as we pass through the Sound of Iona. St. Columba landed at Iona from Ireland in 563 and established a monastic community with a goal of Christianizing Scotland. The lavishly illustrated Gospel manuscript The Book of Kells was transcribed at Iona and later taken to Ireland for safekeeping from 9th-century raiding Vikings. On our 2017 cruise through Scotland, we anchored in Iona Sound and toured the abbey. Later that year, we viewed the original The Book of Kells at Trinity College in Dublin.
6/1/2020: Loch Buie
The Caledonian MacBrayne ferry Loch Buie moored at Fionnphort on the Isle of Mull from where it runs across Iona Sound to the Isle of Iona.
6/1/2020: Military Ship
What looks to be a military vessel patrolling the area. The ship was too far away to read its name, and we couldn't find any on-line references to the distinctive yellow and black chequered pattern on the bow.

Update 06/04: Blog reader Reed McGuire gave us the answer. It's the Marine Protection Vessel MPV Minna, one of Marine Scotland's three fisheries patrol vessels.
6/1/2020: Staffa
The remarkable Isle of Staffa that we visited on our 2017 Scotland cruise. Staffa is Norse for ‘Pillar Island'—the cliffs around Staffa are composed of vertical, hexagonal basalt columns similar to those at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. The cliffs themselves are a sight, but an additional attraction is cathedral-like Fingal's Cave, its opening visible at far right.
6/1/2020: Spinnaker
We've seen a few commercial boats and small fish boats underway, but this is the only pleasure craft we've seen today.
6/1/2020: Ilse of Mull
The fabulous view east across the Isle of Mull to the mountains on the Scottish mainland. We initially were planning to anchor for the night in the Treshnish Isles to our west, but the anchorage looked rather exposed and another recreational boat was already there.
6/1/2020: Ulva
Dramatic slopes on the southwest shore of Ulva.
6/1/2020: Gometra Harbour
Anchored for the night in Gometra Harbour between the isles of Gometra and Ulva with a view south. This view does expose the anchorage to southerly weather, but we're not expecting any winds in that direction.
6/1/2020: Oil Sep Filter Change
Changing the RACOR Oil Sep (Oil Separating) filter. This filter is specified to be changed at 750 hours, but they only rarely can go that long before causing excess crankcase pressure so we change ours at 500 hours. This one is being changed even earlier at 350 hours.

Here's some background on these filters: for emissions reasons, engine manufactures have to redirect the crankcase vapors back down the engine intake to be burned. But burning the oily mist can itself cause emissions problems. To the ease the difficulty of getting an engine emissions certified, the manufacturers all use the finest filter possible. This eases emission certification, but the filters plug quickly and a plugged-up filter shows no signs (unless you measure the crankcase pressure), other than causing external oil leaks. The correct solution is to move to a coarser filter element. We'll do that once we use up these fine filters.
6/1/2020: Fluff
A big layer of fluff in the dryer lint catcher after we washed the rags and power buffer pads we used for waxing the topsides. We didn't put the buffer pads in the dryer, but they likely dropped enough fluff into the rags to produce this.
6/1/2020: Evening Calm
A wonderfully calm evening in beautiful Gometra Harbour looking east towards the Ulva shore.
6/1/2020: Deer
The deer on the Gometra hills above the anchorage reminded us of the first moose sighting on our trip to Newfoundland, Canada.
6/1/2020: SSCA Burgee
Replacing our Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) burgee that we fly from the bow. They are well-made and usually last a year or so, but eventually succumb to the conditions.
6/2/2020: Charging Profile
Our charging profile for the past three days, showing our time on batteries and on the charging source. At 04:47 on June 1st we started the main for the 8:34 run from Gigha to Gometra Harbour, but the rest are all auto-starting the main to charge the batteries, with a few small runs for some control system testing. When at anchor, we'd normally see 'Gen' interspersed with 'Battery' instead of 'Main'. But now that the generator is disabled, it's all Main. We're heavy consumers of power, but even for us the time between needing to charge the batteries is shortening up as the batteries age.

Hearing the main starting in the middle of the night when we are sleeping is definitely a little unusual, but we're expecting it, so it doesn't startle us awake. And while the main is certainly louder than the generator when it's running, the stateroom is much quieter than when we are on passage and we sleep just fine, particularly knowing that the batteries are being kept healthy. Having autostart on the main combined with 9kW of charging power and a 240V inverter means we still can make water, do laundry and run the oven. Without this setup, the generator being down would be an emergency requiring immediate attention instead of a problem we need to resolve soon.
6/2/2020: Seals
Seals sunning on the rocks north of our anchorage.
6/2/2020: Propane
We just emptied the first of the four propane tanks we installed in Portland to supply our cooktop and barbecue, and are switching over to the second tank. The leftmost two are plumbed into the house system with a valve between so we can quickly switch the house from an empty to a full tank. We'll swap a full tank for the empty one so that when we consume the second tank we can just turn the valve again and be quickly back up and cooking on the third tank.

We're very grateful to Mechanical Services Ltd. in Portland, UK for sourcing the tanks and parts for us so that we could have a full load of propane. Filling propane tanks on foreign countries is never easy.
6/3/2020: KVH
The cellular coverage in Scotland is rather spotty in places. We had good coverage until we entered the anchorage, but tucked behind the hills we were without signal. As usual, our KVH V7-HTS satellite system works great here, so we're connected up just fine as usual.
6/3/2020: Gometra
Looking west from the anchorage to the rugged and beautiful Isle of Gometra.
6/3/2020: Wind
A small system is passing through and we've seen gusts up to 32 knots from the north. We have good protection from that direction, so it's hard to even tell on board except for the anemometer readings.
6/3/2020: Control System
We recently simplified the wiring of the digital outputs on the Raspberry Pi by moving 16 of the m to a i2c to Digital I/O chip (Philips PCF8574). It's a nicer and cleaner design, but we're at least temporarily regretting it. When the PCF8574 is used as an output device and a pin is set back to 1 (off), it can cause the device to reset and return all 8 pins to 1. We suspect it's an i2c bus voltage problem causing a device reset, but can't prove it and haven't yet put an oscilloscope on the problem.

For now, we've worked around the problem by doing a write verify and re-write cycle to ensure that the state of the chip is correct when done, even if it does reset during the update.
6/4/2020: Monitor Failure
We have six Lenovo L1900P monitors installed on Dirona, four in the pilot house, one in the salon, and another in the master stateroom. In 2018 we replaced the two leftmost pilothouse monitors after one failed and the other had become less bright and rather fuzzy. These monitors are on 24x7, so its not unreasonable that they would fail after eight years.

The monitor that shows Maretron N2kView just failed again this morning after only two years in service, which is annoying. We missed that N2kView display and found a quick and easy temporary solution to just run N2kView Mobile on a Fire tablet.
6/4/2020: Ardnamurchan Lighthouse
Rounding Point Ardnamurchan, the most westerly point in mainland Britain, in overcast conditions. The 36-meter-tall Ardnamurchan Lighthouse stands 55 metres above sea level. The light was built in 1849 from a design by Alan Stevenson, uncle of author Robert Louis Stevenson, whose family designed most of Scotland's lighthouses over a period of 150 years. Currents can run 1.5kts around the point and heavy seas develop a good couple of miles off when the tide opposes a strong wind. We rounded in calm conditions and could approach quite closely.
6/4/2020: Simon Princess
Specialized Delousing Vessel Simon Princess of Hammerfest, Norway operates along the Norwegian coast and in Scotland. The ship is designed to transfer penned fish on-board, delouse them and either return them to the same pen or to another.

Hammerfest was the longest stop on our 2019 Hurtigruten cruise along the north coast of Norway, where we visited the sobering Reconstruction Museum that described how the city was destroyed by the Nazis during World War II and later rebuilt.
6/4/2020: Eigg Lighthouse
Eigg Lighthouse, on the islet islet of Eilean Chathastail off the Isle of Eigg, was designed by David A. and Charles Alexander Stevenson and completed in 1906. Rising beyond is the plateau of Beinn Buidhne on Eigg.
6/4/2020: An Sgurr
1,289ft (393 m) An Sgurr rising from the center of Eigg. The volcanic-formed peak is made up of column-shaped structures created as lava cooled, similar to those at the Isle of Staffa.
6/4/2020: Beinn Buidhne
At the northeast side of Eigg, dramatic green slopes rise to the plateau Beinn Buidhne.
6/4/2020: Rainbow
Rainbow over the Isle of Rum to our west.
6/4/2020: Lord of the Isles
The Caledonian MacBrayne ferry Lord of the Isles rounding the southern tip of the Isle of Skye en route to Mallaig on the mainland.
6/4/2020: Mallaig
Passing Mallaig, on the Scottish mainland to our east. The town is a major ferry terminal to the Hebrides islands and the terminus of the West Highland Line scenic railway that we rode in 2017.
6/4/2020: Hirta
The 275ft (84m) Marine Protection Vessel Hirta, one of Marine Scotland's three fisheries patrol vessels, overtaking us just north of Mallaig. The ship mainly does offshore patrols, whereas the 138-ft (42m) MPV Minna we saw earlier focuses on coastal patrols. It's interesting that we don't recall seeing any marine patrol vessels during our several-week cruise through Scotland in 2017, yet we've seen two of the fleet of three in the past few days.
6/4/2020: Ornsay Light
The Ornsay Light, on the tidal island of Ornsay off the eastern side of the Isle of Skye. The light was built in 1857 by the Stevenson brothers, Thomas and David.
6/4/2020: Isleornsay Harbour
Local boats moored in Isleornsay Harbour between the isles of Ornsay and Skye.
6/4/2020: Loch na Dal
The Hirta turned into our destination of Loch na Dal ahead of us and was at anchor by the time we arrived. Our intended anchorage was about a mile farther towards the head, so we each had plenty of swing room. :)
6/4/2020: Replacing Monitor
Replacing the failed monitor required removing all three sections of the pilot house dash. The monitor no longer is in production and we're down to "only" four spare monitors now. Hopefully they will last us for the next few years.
6/4/2020: Storm Coming
A large low-pressure system is passing over the northern UK and we're expecting strong northerly winds for the next several days. So we'll stay at Loch na Dal at the Isle of Skye until the storm passes through.
6/4/2020: Ronja Harvester
Later in the afternoon, the 223ft (68m) fish carrier, Ronja Harvester of Alesund, Norway, anchored off the mouth of Loch na Dal north of the Hirta. We saw several Ronja ships during our time in Norway.
6/5/2020: Hirta
The view south from our anchorage at Loch na Dal on the Isle of Skye this morning, past MPV Hirta to the Scottish mainland with rain coming in from the right.
6/5/2020: Lowering RPM
Reprogramming the Dynagen TG410 main engine controller to run at 1100 RPM rather than 1200 RPM. It provides the same output, the alternator temperatures are not materially changed, but it’s much quieter. We're already so used to the main engine running as the generator now that neither of us woke up when it started last night shortly before midnight.
6/5/2020: Baking Bread
Preparing the ingredients for another loaf from our bread machine. We're really loving having fresh bread whenever we want it.
6/5/2020: 42 knots
The winds settled down overnight but within the past few minutes spiked to 42 knots. That storm is upon us.
6/5/2020: Kinloch Lodge
The luxury hotel Kinloch Lodge above our anchorage at Loch na Dal on the Isle of Skye. The former 16th-century hunting house was rated by Conde Nast as one of the best hotels in the world and has a Michelin-starred restaurant. We'd be happy if we could just go in for a pint.
6/5/2020: Main Engine Warning
We haven't seen a main engine code since 2017. In fact, we've only seen three sets of codes in 11,000 hours of operation. One was a faulty cam position sensor or wiring that was fixed under warranty, one was faulty injectors, and this one looks like another minor sensor or wiring issue.
6/6/2020: Wind
As the storm passes through, the winds have been blowing pretty steadily in the 20s from the north for the past 24 hours, with frequent gusts over 30 kts and some up to 42 knots. We have reasonable protection from that direction, so only small wavelets are passing through the anchorage.
6/6/2020: Removing Exhaust Hose
Before addressing the generator valve seat issue, the engine manufacturer Northern Lights has recommended we check the exhaust system. Normally, the water level in the muffler will be down near the level of the output pipe. When the engine is shut off, some water will flow back, but in a well-designed system this shouldn't come close to filling the muffler. Excessive water levels in the muffler could get up into the engine under some conditions, and saltwater can cause valve seat erosion. Here we are removing the exhaust hose to check the water level at rest.
6/6/2020: Checking Water Level
The water level inside the muffler is only an 2.5 inches, which is fine. But the generator hasn't been run for a while, so we will recheck after running it at load.
6/6/2020: Gen High Load
Running the generator at a high load of 40 amps to recheck the water level in the muffler.
6/6/2020: Rechecking Water Level
After running the generator at high load, the muffler still has only about an 2.5 inches of water inside. The muffler and exhaust system are operating correctly.
6/6/2020: Testing Capacitor
The past few days we've noticed a light coating of rust flakes around the main engine and the tray above it (visible in picture at bottom right). The shroud fan that forces air up the stack is rather rusty and if it were spinning the wrong way, this could be the source. A failed capacitor can cause an AC fan to run backward, so here we are testing the capacitor. We found that it had indeed failed, with a reading of 8 microfarads on a spec of 6.
6/6/2020: New Capacitor
Our replacement capacitor was a little larger than the original, so we had to mount it in a different location. The new capacitor will ensure the fan rotates in the right direction.
6/6/2020: Removing Light
The overhead space between our generator and the ceiling is rather limited, and the engine room light mounted directly above consumes a large chunk of that. So much so that James broke a bulb recently when jammed over top working to free the exhaust elbow from the exhaust hose. Today we decided to remove the light entirely and replace it with a number of small LED floodlights.
6/6/2020: Light Position
Testing out a position for one of the new engine room lights. Unusual for him, Spitfire is seated the background ignoring the process entirely.
6/6/2020: Spitfire
James sat down for a break while working on the new engine room lights and Spitfire immediately jumped up for some attention.
6/6/2020: Another Light
Trying out a location for a new light above the aft end of the generator.
6/6/2020: Mocked Up
The new engine room lights mocked up and held in place with tape. We've decided to go with one above the main engine to the right of James, another above the generator above right, and a third, not visible, directly above the door to the lazarette.
6/6/2020: Space Above Gen
The final install showing two of the three new lights, one shining on the gen and the other above the door to the lazarette. Look at all that space above the generator!
6/6/2020: Brighter
Looking forward to the two new engine room lights, one above the gen at upper right and the other above the main. We love having more space above the generator, and the light also is brighter and whiter too.
6/6/2020: Rain
Rain and low clouds, looking up to the hills north of our anchorage at Loch na Dal on the Isle of Skye.
6/6/2020: Cell Reception
Cell reception at very poor at Loch na Dal. If any part of the house is between us and the nearest tower, it won't work at all. So we taped the phone in front of the windows where it has good reception.
6/7/2020: Choc Chip Muffins
Delicious chocolate chip muffins for breakfast this morning, using the recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction.
6/7/2020: HVAC Duct
The HVAC system in the guest stateroom wasn't producing any heat. The duct had come off the heater, so it was an easy fix.
6/7/2020: Pole Star
The 169ft (51.5m) lighthouse tender NLV Pole Star anchored off Loch na Dal with the Scottish mainland beyond. The ship, owned by the National Lighthouse Board, maintains the lighthouses in Scotland and the Isle of Man. We saw it passing by Gigha mid-April.
6/7/2020: Swapping Propane
We recently emptied the first of the four propane tanks we installed in Portland to supply our cooktop and barbecue. The leftmost two are plumbed into the house system with a valve between so we can quickly switch the house from an empty to a full tank.

Here we are swapping the empty tank for a full one so that when we consume the second tank we can just turn the valve again and be quickly back up and cooking on the third tank.
6/7/2020: Wind
The winds have settled down somewhat, but still are blowing in the high 20s. Conditions should be calm tomorrow though.
6/7/2020: Oscilloscope
Investigating an I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) bus problem where a device is resetting under some circumstances. I2C is a two signal line bus and here they are both shown on the oscilloscope where clock (SCL) is the top waveform and data (SDA) is the lower one. We're looking for noise on the bus or voltage spikes that might cause a device reset.
6/8/2020: Sunrise
Golden sunrise as we are underway from Loch na Dal shortly before 5am.
6/8/2020: Kylerhea
The village of Kylerhea to our west, on Isle of Skye, with 2,425 ft (739 m) Sgurr na Coinnich visible in the distance behind the foreground hill.
6/8/2020: 14.5 knots
The current in Kyle Rhea, a narrow passage between Skye and the Scottish mainland, can run up to 8 knots. We're getting flushed through with the flood current and are doing 14.5 knots where normally we'd be making 9 knots at 2000 RPM. This isn't quite the fastest Dirona has ever gone. The record is 15.1 knots below the Ice Harbor Lock and Dam on the Columbia and Snake River system.
6/8/2020: Upwellings
Upwellings across Kyle Rhea as we transit in a strong flood current.
6/8/2020: Kyle Rhea Light
The Kyle Rhea Light on the Isle of Skye, with a better view to 2,425 ft (739 m) Sgurr na Coinnich.
6/8/2020: Loch Alsh
Heading west along Loch Alsh. Visible in the distance is the Skye bridge between the Isle of Skye on the left and Kyle of Lochalsh on the Scottish mainland on our right. On our 2017 British Isles cruise, we brought our bikes on a train from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, and rode along Loch Alsh to tour 13th-century Eilean Donan Castle.
6/8/2020: Kyleakin
The village of Kyleakin on Skye
6/8/2020: Kyle of Lochalsh
Kyle of Lochalsh on the Scottish mainland, with the Lochalsh hotel prominent along the waterfront. This was the terminus of our train trip from Inverness.
6/8/2020: Caisteal Maol
The ruins on the Ilse of Skye of Caisteal Maol, a Mackinnon clan fortress dating from the 15th century.
6/8/2020: Skye Bridge
Skye Bridge, connecting the Isle of Skye by road to the Scottish mainland. In the rather strict definition of Hamish Haswell-Smith, who penned the authoritative and frequently referenced Scottish Islands guide covering the 168 Scottish islands greater than 100 acres (40 ha), the Isle of Skye no longer qualifies as an island because a bridge connects it to the mainland.
6/8/2020: Kyleakin Lighthouse
The Kyleakin Lighthouse, built by the Stevenson brothers in 1857, was decommissioned in 1993 when construction of the Skye Bridge began.
6/8/2020: Mowi ASA
Mowi ASA facility just north of the Skye Bridge on the Isle of Skye. The Norwegian fish farm company operates in Norway, the Faroe Island, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and Chile. After a 2006 merger, Mowi ASA became the world's largest salmon and trout farming company with 25-30% of the global market.
6/8/2020: View to Skye
Looking north to the fabulous Skye scenery as we exit Loch Alsh.
6/8/2020: Raasay
Ruins along the south end of the Isle of Raasay, possibly from an early 20th-century mining operation.

Update 06/17/2020: Blog reader Doug Miller provided some details. It was an iron ore mine dating from World War I and was controversial in using German prisoners of war as labour. More information is at Memories of Raasay's WWI German POWs.
6/8/2020: Hallaig
The Caledonian MacBrayne ferry Hallaig moored at Raasay.
6/8/2020: Trotternish Landslip
First view to the Trotternish Landslip on the Isle of Skye. Several huge landslides took place during the post-glacial period, creating the spectacular formations Skye is famous for.
6/8/2020: Belt Dust
We are seeing an unusual amount of belt dust building around the newly-installed main engine auxiliary drive belt. Normally this engine has no visible belt dust. On close inspection, the belt is correctly installed and it's the correct Deere part number and the same part number as the belt that was previously installed for several thousand hours.

Two possible theories are: 1) power generation loads have been higher than usual since, with our primary generator down due to a valve seat problem, the main is serving double duty as both a propulsion engine and as generator, or 2) the "new" drive belt has experienced some oxidation in storage and is throwing off the thin layer of oxidization and will quickly clean up and not throw any more dust.

We tend to use the power generation capability of our engine fairly heavily, often operating HVAC, dryer, and oven, when underway so usage doesn't seem much different from usual. We suspect 10 years of storage has led to some belt oxidization. If it stops throwing dust, that will confirm that theory.
6/8/2020: Ronja Supporter
The fish carrier Ronja Supporter moored off Portree on the Isle of Skye.
6/8/2020: The Storr
The 2,359 ft (719 m) Storr hill on Skye is one of the best examples of the Trotternish Landslip.
6/8/2020: Marie Bhan IV
The fishing vessel Marie Bhan IV bobbing in the swells. The winds are blowing less than 15 knots, but a good-sized swell is rolling south through the Sound of Rassay.
6/8/2020: Waterfall
Multi-tiered waterfall below The Storr on the Isle of Skye (click image for a larger view).
6/8/2020: Old Man of Storr
The Old Man of Storr, a fantastic pinnacle rock created by the the Trotternish Landslip. We got a closer view to the formation on our day trip to Skye in 2017.
6/8/2020: Fish Farm
Part of an extensive fish farm operating off the Trotternish Peninsula, with some more dramatic Skye scenery beyond.
6/8/2020: Floating Line
We passed several buoys with long floating lines drifting behind them. These are particularly dangerous as the lines are thick enough that our spur cutters probably wouldn't do much good if we accidentally ran over one and we'd likely end up with line wrapped around the prop. Leaded line is safer for everyone.
6/8/2020: Diatomite Factory
Ruins of a diatomite factory on Skye, built in 1899.
6/8/2020: Mealt Falls
Mealt Falls are a popular tourist destination, with a viewpoint built in the cliffs at upper left.
6/8/2020: Kilt Rock
Kilt Rock, so named because it looks like a kilt when viewed looking north from Mealt Falls.
6/8/2020: Pillar
One of several freestanding pillars at Kilt Rock.
6/8/2020: Eilean Flodigarry
The islet Eilean Flodigarry, foreground, with the dramatic formations on Skye behind.
6/8/2020: Eilean Trodday
Lighthouse on the offshore islet Eilean Trodday. Just visible on the right are one of the island's spectacular columnar stacks.
6/8/2020: Shiant Isles
Passing the Shiant Isles to our west. One of the isles, Garbh Eilean, has a striking sea arch that we viewed while passing through the group in 2017.
6/8/2020: Pot Holders
It's a fairly calm day, but still rough enough in the swell that the pot needs to be secured on the stove. It's not that common for us to need to do this.
6/8/2020: Entering Loch Mariveg
Approaching the narrow and shallow channel into Loch Mariveg.
6/8/2020: Antares Charts
The charts don't show good detail for many of the anchorages in Scotland, so we augment them with Antares charts. These are unofficial, large-scale boating charts produced by boaters focusing on the West Coast of Scotland. The charts run on a variety of devices—we loaded them up on our phone to display side-by-side with our Navionics charts.
6/8/2020: First Smell
Spitfire getting a "first smell" of the Outer Hebrides at beautiful Loch Mariveg. We'd stopped here on our 2017 cruise and were looking forward to visiting again.
6/8/2020: Cellular Reception
We weren't expecting any cellular reception in Loch Mariveg, but managed to get some by mounting the cell phone up on the stack.
6/8/2020: Dinner
A relaxing dinner in the cockpit on a warm and sunny evening in Loch Mariveg.
6/8/2020: Olly Alston
After dinner, we had a great chat with Olly Alston, who stopped by to say hello on his way home from fishing. And he offered us some delicious freshly caught mackerel that we enjoyed for dinner the next night.
6/8/2020: Sunset
Golden sunset at calm and peaceful Loch Mariveg.