We chartered a Beneteau Oceanis 423 called Sapphire from Skye Yachts in Armadale, Skye. What a wonderful week - crewed by Ruth, John, Fiona and Malcolm. Thankyou for your skilled assistance and sense of humour, long live the quarted thwartermaster!

We were planning on circumnavigating Skye anticlockwise via Rodel (Harris) going to Castlebay and back around the Small Isles. The weather chart dictated otherwise so we returnned from Harris via Lewis and the Shiants, so at least we were on the correct side of the Minch in the event of a blow.

26/6 Armadale -> Plockton 23nm
27/6 Plockton -> Loch Stockinish 68nm
28/6 Loch Stockinish -> Tob Lemreway, Loch Shell 21nm
29/6 Tob Lemreway -> Shiants (Puffins) -> Badachro, Gareloch 29nm
30/6 Badachro -> Plockton 33nm
01/7 Plockton -> Arisaig 47nm
02/7 Arisaig. Around Eigg we saw Basking Sharks of which we lost count! (Lagg Bay for lunch) -> Armadale 32nm (we managed 9 knots at one point, with a following gale. Interestingly John used his altimeter to measure wave height so we did a max peak of +10metres and a max trough of -10metres ie 10m waves so the 9k was surfing downhill, with not much sail!)

Lewis

Leverburgh and Harris

Shiant Islands

Charlestown