The Admiral arrived in Edinburgh, so I left Kincsem at the mooring and rented a car in Fort William to drive to Edinburgh to meet her.  A nice drive, certainly, and a couple of days of tourism in Edinburgh in fantastic weather did not disappoint. 

 

Holyrood Palace, the lower end of the Royal Mile

Our way back to the boat we dropped in on Sterling castle and the Kelpies – two humongous horse statues.

 

When we re- joined Kincsem, all was fine and the weather was still spectacular! 

 

Sunshine, temperatures in the 20s and to the delight of the Admiral, no wind.  So motor vessel Kincsem was soon off to explore Rum, then Muck and finally Eigg, again.

 

The view from the Castle on Rum

On Muck

Of those three, Eigg clearly is our favorite, maybe because there’s some decent food to be purchased, even a decent restaurant!  We rented bikes for a day and explored the entire island of Eigg. 

 

And then we learned from our neighbors in the anchorage that the hike up the shark fin of Eigg only takes 2 hours each way or even less – so off we were the next morning to confirm that that was true! 

Up the Shark Fin on Eigg

 

Last season we had insufficient time to explore Loch Moidart and its castle so I was keen to check it out this time.  The entrance is tricky but with GPS and the Antares charts, it‘s child‘s play.  We found the bar had about 70 cm more water than predicted and found a great anchorage just East of the castle – right where the charts display an anchor sign!

The anchorage in Loch Moidart

 

The last time we were in Tobermory (August 2022) was less than optimal because of some serious swell that bent into the harbor.  This time, there was not a ripple to be seen although we did enjoy some sailing (upwind) to get there.  Unfortunately we were again not lucky enough to secure a reservation at Café Fish or a tour at the distillery.  But the whiskey was for sale even to us unorganized sailors! 

 

Oban was the next stop to meet up with our old friend Annette who arrived on the train.  After two weeks of sunshine, Scottish weather finally caught up with us.  The first drops hit before Annette set foot on Kincsem.