Lazaway Life

  The heart of Portpatrick, where Bacchus and his pards hang out Left Bangor just after 14.30 to go to Portpatrick for a night - just to make the most of good weather and a good forecast.  As it happened, there was 12kn SSE wind at the top end of the forecast, and a NE swell giving a lumpier sea than we anticipated.  Not in the slightest a problem, and with the temperature up in the 20s and the sun shining, it was a lovely trip - just 2.5 hours. No cetaceans, but there were a lot of birds - Guillemots, Razorbills, Gannets, Kittiwakes, Manx Shearwaters, Fulmars.   Fulmar and Gannet checking us out along the way  (amazing these photos are taken with a phone). Approaching Portpatrick  Loads of space in the harbour when we arrived, and the Harbourmaster was down within minutes with details of the code for the toilets and to make sure we had electric. Lazaway in Portpatrick harbour  Coffee and cream cake when we tied up, followed fairly quickly by a beer on board sitting on a sunny warm fly

  Clive, Judith, Gordon adding a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ to the humour of the day. Off we went at 14.00 for a short trip - for those who have not been out on Lazaway before - amazingly that includes Anna, Judith and Clive.  We were also delighted to have Sara, Anna’s long time friend, with us - she also was on her maiden Lazaway voyage.  Katie was also able to come - happy days. Katie, Sara and Anna The weather was almost perfect - calm sunny warm. Great for cetacean watching - if only there were some cetaceans.  Actually we did manage to see a small group of Harbour Porpoises - probably 6 or 7 animals.  Too far away to get a picture. We crossed the Lough to Blackhead, on to the Gobbins and then Isle of Muck.  We then turned east to get farther out, close to the area where we saw the large group of Common Dolphins a couple of weeks ago.  Strangely, they appear to have moved on. A busy flybridge - but still no dolphins or whales. A turn to the southeast, towards the Copelands, warrant

  Cross Island, John’s Island, Old Lighthouse Island or Bird Island.  Take you pick!  It is one of the two outer Copeland Islands, the one without the lighthouse (that is Mew Island), and is home to Copeland Bird Observatory (and many memories). Susie’s cousin Claire is over visiting and so a short excursion on Lazaway was called for - who needs an excuse?!  Fortunately the weather was very kind with warm light SW winds and plenty of sun. Susie, Mary and Claire.  The new staff uniforms are looking good! With time constraints meaning a longer trip was not on the cards we decided to do a loop of the outer Copelands.   And as we have done before we called into the north end of the channel between Mew and Old Lighthouse Islands.  The many Puffins that we have seen here previously are now all gone - they have left the colony and will now be out at sea - but we were rewarded with quite a large number of seals - 40 - 50 animals.  They were mostly Grey Seals, though it is likely that there wer

  Watching the 6am sunrise at Gigha Early start this morning to catch the tide.  We left Gigha pontoon at 06.00 with only the slightest of southerly wind, and no rain - all the rain had been used up while we sat outside having dinner yesterday evening. What a wonderful meal. Our progress south encountered an interesting array of sea states - all of them benign.  As we got close to Machrihanish we picked up an Atlantic swell that became quite lumpy, not rough but still the boat moved about quite a bit. Kintyre peninsula from the Machrihanish end. Beautiful morning.  Then as we reached the bottom end of Kintyre we encountered an area of quite rough choppy water - tide induced. This was soon followed by the rest of the Irish Sea which was dead calm, glassy calm for a lot of it. At the north end of the North Channel there was a 10 mile stretch that was thronging with seabirds in all directions.  Guillemots, Razorbills, Gannets, Kittiwakes and Storm Petrels, totalling thousands of birds. Gl

  These two pictures were our views for pretty much all our journey today. We had to travel indoors due to many rain showers coming through - damp and dreich. Thank you Ne for the excellent nautical advice. We started the day with a short walk to the south of the marina at Ardfern, where we spotted an Osprey, and the road verges are thick with wild flowers.  No butterflies though. While we did this, Gordon had bought himself a Joker Valve for the aft toilet onboard, and couldn’t delay getting his hands dirty replacing the old valve - great after breakfast enjoyment. We all met at Lucy’s cafe at 11.00 for a brunch.  The food was very good, the service was shockingly slow.  Complaint made, and no tip left. We left our berth at 12.30, to head for Gigha. The Paps of Jura engulfed in rain The constant steady bashing through the waves, the throng of the engines and the squeak of the window wipers was soporific. Four hours of uneventful progress. Except, during the first hour and a half, we m

  This reflects the day rather well. As you can see today has been wet, and windy, but not at all miserable.  A short walk in the morning at Linnhe Marina, in the rain and the wind, set the scene for the day.  We walked to Stalker View Cafe (it might not be called that) for morning coffee and buns, then the short walk back.  That was our exercise for the day. The forecast had changed - not for the better - and so we needed to set off earlier than we had anticipated.  We left Linnhe Marina at about 11.30 through the narrow southern entrance - much quicker than round by the northern entrance that we arrived by.  We plugged south into the wind, with quite wet rain on occasions.  Passed Oban - we were going to go on the inside of Kerrera, but in poor visibility and with the sea state on the outside not being too bad, we decided to take the outside route. It was much too windy to make cetacean watching possible, and even bird watching was pretty hopeless.  We had to travel inside the cabin

Lazaway at its berth in Oban yesterday evening  This morning’s activities were multifarious.  Top of the list was watching the activity in the harbour.  In particular the changeover of guests on the small Inner Hebridean fleet of cruise ships - Friday is the day. Four of the Majestic Line boats were in harbour (they are based out of Oban) and all busy saying goodbye to one lot of guests, then getting rid of all the empty bottles and dirty laundry, then restocking food, drink and fuel.  The chef on the one beside us, the Glen Etive, was very engaging, and tortured us with the smell of bacon butties this morning. Next on the list of activities was a trek to the top of Pulpit Hill with its superb views over Oban and the seas beyond Kerrera and out to Mull.  These are shown in this blog on 12 July 2022. Last, but not least, was a trip to Tesco’s - more supplies needed. Into Tesco’s from the beyond. You’d think we were going to have a party! This is a retail establishment we didn’t visit! A