Here we are in Oban, a bonny West Highland town and the gateway for Calmac sailings to Mull and the Hebrides. It looked fine on arrival – the esplanade in bright sunshine and the scene overlooked by McCaig’s Folly on the skyline – but today it is gey dreich, a not uncommon
situation in these parts. After spending so much of the cruise in distant Orkney and Shetland waters this feels much like home waters again, but there is still a fair distance to go, round the Mull of Kintyre and into the Clyde estuary. Now sailing single-handed since the Mate went home from Mallaig with a bad back, and making gradually for Sanda (off the M of K) where there is a folk weekend and the Bowling Harbour Ceilidh Band, of which the Skipper is an occasional member, is appearing. Have written a humorous sea song “The Bowling Belle” for the occasion.