Lazaway Life

  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 Se...

  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, totallin...

  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 ho...

  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. ...

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 establis...

  Looking out towards the entrance to Loch Scavaig this morning, before lifting the anchor at 08.00 Just outside Loch Scavaig is Soay Island, left, and Skye on the right.   Soay was bought by Gavin Maxwell (author of Ring of Bright Water) in 1946 to establish a shark oil factory from Basking Sharks.   The business lasted only 3 years.   The island currently has a population of 3. We’ve decided to head back inside the outer Inner Hebrides because there are strong winds forecast for this evening and tomorrow.  More shelter farther in, and we need to start heading south, to position ourselves for the trip down the Irish Sea.  After leaving Scavaig we were soon joined for a brief spell by 3 Common Dolphins, whilst also seeing Harbour Porpoise several times, and indeed Grey Seals and Harbour Seals. Common Dolphins on our bow. Common Dolphin checking us out. We passed Rum, Eigg, Muck and were soon passing Ardnamurchan Lighthouse.  The sea was very calm until...

Approaching Loch Scavaig on the SW corner of Skye After a bit of supplies shopping in Mallaig and a morning coffee, we set off at 11.30 just in front of one of the departing ferries. Our destination was Loch Scavaig on the south side of the Isle of Skye.  On the way a Minke Whale surfaced a couple of times. Minke Whale near Aird of Sleat, south Skye It was just over two hours to reach where we wanted to go. Loch Scavaig is described as one of the (if not THE) most dramatic and awesome anchorages in Europe.  It is also renowned for its unpredictable weather and sudden squalls, due of course to its surrounding topography.  Sgurr Dubh Mor (944m) and its foothills form the back drop to the anchorage - these are part of the Cuillin range of mountains on Skye - and they really are dramatic and awesome. We had to dodge a couple of these beautiful old yachts as we approached the entrance to Loch Scavaig  Lazaway at anchor in Loch Scavaig Loch Scavaig nestling in the Cuillins...