Bangor to Port Ellen - gateway to whisky heaven! 01 August 2023

 

War memorial in Port Ellen on Islay. 

We’re off again!  Woohoo!!!

We slipped ropes at 10.30 at Bangor to set off on our next wee trip.  Our original plan had been to set off to explore the Outer Hebrides over a two week period.  However the recent July weather has been so unsettled and wet (lots of places have had 250%+ rainfall compared to a normal July) and the winds have been strong and variable.  The jet stream is in the wrong place apparently.  And just at the moment the forecasts for the next couple of weeks is not different. 

The Maidens.  
Current lighthouse nearest, and the old lighthouse
(where the Shags breed) on the left farther away 

 We had planned to start 3 days ago, but today was the first good day for getting up past the Mull of Kintyre.  Anyway, off we set and have had a brilliant journey north.  Cloudy, and a bit dreich at times, but calm and great tidal currents with us.

A real feature of this trip has been the number of Storm Petrels along the way.  More than we have ever seen before.  Beautiful little birds (and they smell lovely).


Storm Petrels.  
A little bit smaller than Starlings,
 and they dance on the water.  
Lovely.
Pic by Richard Crossley, Wikipedia

Alisa Craig Gannets passing us on their way home.


Just off the bottom of Kintyre we called Port Ellen to ask if there was room in the inn (our other option was Gigha) and were told that there was lots of space - at the moment.  So we sailed north for the next 2.5 hours watching on AIS as other boats headed into Port Ellen.  Would it fill up before we arrived?

Islay, as we approach Port Ellen.

When we got here, there was indeed plenty of room, so we are now settled into a sheltered berth, in a place that we all really like.




How lucky we are.

Boat bird list is a modest 23 species  

Our route: 










































































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