Farewell Scotland - and a Change of Plan

We left Scotland yesterday (Monday) and are now in Ballycastle, N Ireland.  We felt we'd had a good go at Scotland:  14 islands, inumerable lochs on islands and the mainland, birds, dolphins, seals in quantity.  And more good food and even good beer than we might have expected.

We met White Magic in Coll and sailed together to Bunessan in SW Mull and then Colonsay.  That took us through the Threshnish Islands, where we stopped to see the puffins on Lunga (see above) - amazingly not at all shy of people (one theory is that the people deter the the skuas - their real enemy).  Then past Staffa and Fingals cave and through the complex rock-strewn tide-races of the Sound of Iona.  All memorable stuff.  Our last Scottish harbour  was Port Ellen on Islay, where they have a rough approximation to a marina!  It was only the second time in the month of June that we could step ashore without using the dinghy!

The point of plans is to change them.  And we have.  Continuing passages and stays in remote places, with worries about whether the anchor will hold when the gale hits, where we will get water, whether we can get ashore to buy food, not to mention whether we can get some washing done, take their toll.  More on Val, who is still suffering from a frozen shoulder, than on me.  And the thought of another 7 weeks in western Ireland, in broadly similar conditions, with the added bonus of the exposed Atlantic coast was uninviting.  Val finally decided she'd had enough halfway from Scotland to Ireland so we whimped out, changed course and will return down the east side of Ireland where there are several marinas and smaller waves (we hope!).  We're still working on the plan, but it will mean missing some of the people we had hoped to see in the west.  Luckily the timing is right so we will still see Marion and Grant, but now in Dublin.