Romance Lives! Gigha to Bangor 17 August 2025

 

This is the yacht moored next to us at Gigha.
Early this morning we watched the guy aboard sitting on the foredeck, in what looked like his PJs, fiddling with something for ages.  It looked a bit odd, as if there was a problem that needed urgent attention.

Then, he raised a string of flags up parallel to the furled jib.
What a romantic!!

We delayed leaving as long as we could in the hope of finding out what the answer was.  In the end we had to leave.  Let’s think positive!

We left at 10ish in flat calm conditions, to head for Bangor.  It stayed warm and dead calm all the way. Amazing.

Mull of Kintyre lighthouse 

About 7 miles north of The Maidens we saw at quite a distance, a load (technical term) of dolphins.  There were really quite a lot of them, spread over a couple of miles of water.  At the northern end of the pod I am fairly sure we were seeing Bottle Nosed Dolphins (we had seen a small pod of them near the Mull), and at the southern end of the pod I am pretty sure they were Common Dolphins.  My bit of uncertainty is because they were far away. Pity we didn’t see them closer.

We also saw Harbour Porpoises on several occasions, and the Grey Seals along the route were doing a lot of dozing with their snouts in the air.

The Maidens as seen from the east side.

Arrived back in Bangor at 16.30 after a wonderful run - probably the calmest we’ve ever had.

Boat bird list was just 18 species, but included Storm Petrel, always a special bird to see (and smell, if only we could get close enough).

Our route:



Thanks everyone for the company - on board, and online.

















































































































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