April 23, 2026
Originally I had hoped to stay in Scotland for most of the spring, but over the winter I contemplated my primary goal for having Home Free, which was to see the world by bike and have my hotel travel with me. Scotland is too cold for me to really ride much (despite having wonderful scenery). I have changed my plan and I am going to see as much as I can, as fast as I can and get south.
With that in mind, I am rushing through the events. The boat has suffered some new maintenance issues and still I am working hard to see as much as I can before leaving by mid-May. First the work.
Before leaving Largs there were a couple of items that were not completed, in particular some gel coat work, and since then two new problems have popped up, including a failure in the grey water system and a leak in my starboard side stabilizer.
With the help of Herman (crew until last weekend), the grey water system was examined, flushed, blown out, cleaned and voila, everything works again. Just in case, I put a spare manual pump on board in case I was desperate for a solution in some strange port.
For the starboard stabilizer, it is the same seal leak that I had on the port stabilizer in Colombia in 2024 and I will need to remove/repair/replace the hydraulic ram that drives the arm. For that I will likely return to Largs and get help as it was a physically demanding job and I am not sure I want to tackle it alone again.
Despite these issues, I have covered a lot of territory. Since the last post, I have been to:
- Portavadie (already covered)
- Tarbert (already covered)
- Cambeltown
- Kerrera Island
- Oban
- Corpach
- Isle of Skye
- Inverness
The trip to Cambeltown yielded a nice bike ride, well, nice that I was on the bike, but on my return to the boat it was near freezing and it hailed twice which was painful and chilling. I visited a golf club that my friend Kevin suggested, but no golfing for me.
After leaving Cambeltown near the tip of Kintyre, I rounded the mull of Kintyre in pretty good weather and found an anchorage for the night in Loch Na Cille (near the Island of Danna). It was a good spot until the middle of the night when the wind swung around enough to cause some rolling, but still it was nice to be at anchor and test out some of the anchoring systems and equipment.
Next we visited the little village of Kilmelford and were, apparently, their first visitor of the season. The nice bit was that we got a spot on the pontoon and didn’t have to take a mooring ball. Mike, I think he was the owner, was a real character and I enjoyed a long conversation with him when paying. We had a long walk to get to a little resort near the village for a drink.
From there it was a quick run to Kerrera Marina on Kerrera Island. There is a nice walk along the island path to a ruined castle and also a good place to eat at the Marina.
Herman needed to return home and so we moved to the Oban transit docks on April 17th and visited the local castle, the Oban distillery and McQuaig’s Tower.
We weren’t able to get a tour of the Oban distillery while Herman was here, but I did go on a tour on the Saturday.
After the distillery tour I left immediately for Corpach which is at the entrance to the locks of the Caledonian Canal. I kept the boat tied up for a few days while touring Island of Skye and Inverness with a rental car from Fort William.
There are a lot more things to say, but a little interlude with some thoughts about overarching things during this speedy run through Scotland. First is the beautiful little yellow flowers along the side of the roads (and everywhere else). Second is the (mostly) tiny roads. Many minor roads are barely one lane wide with passing areas along the route every 500m or so. Finally, the landscapes cannot be adequately captured by a camera of any sort. It is a beautiful place.
Given all of the beauty, it would be overwhelming to show the pictures, but a few of the more interesting places included Storr, the Quairang and Fairy Glen.
There were many great places to see, some were not accessible because parking lots were full, time was short or they were under construction. Here are a few of those landscape photos . . .
Next up was the drive to Inverness and a quick visit to a museum and art gallery, some shopping and listening to some live music. A couple of photos from this experience.
Finally the drive back to the boat took me through the Loch Ness monster tourist traps and while I wasn’t trapped, I definitely got stuck there for a few minutes to take a picture.
After returning to the boat, it occurred to me that I had a few hours left with a rental car and I was at the base of a well known mountain (Ben Nevis) and why shouldn’t I climb it!? Well because I got to the base at 5pm and its a 6-7 hour round trip adventure. In the end I climbed about 380m of altitude and about a quarter of the way up, but it was fun and great weather to be outside. I would like to come back some time, perhaps, to try to climb this mountain (Total height is about 1345m, I climbed about 380m)
As I write this I am sitting in Tobermory on the Island of Mull. I moved the boat there today and so there is still more adventure to be had, but that’s for another time.