A New View at Last... and Pepper's Cow-Pat Spa Day

We did it — we finally left Craobh. After six days tied up, we were more than ready to get back out there and look at a different set of hills. Not that you can ever get bored of the scenery up here; it changes every five minutes. But still… movement felt good.

We’ve set ourselves a little challenge: visit at least six new places before we head south at the end of July. Today was supposed to be the first — although, in true Halcyon Sea fashion, we didn’t end up where we planned.

The idea was to anchor in Puilladobhrain. We slipped through the Cuan Sound, unfurled the genoa, and happily pottered along at 3 knots. Only a couple of hours to run, no rush. Nick checked AIS and saw five boats in the anchorage — plenty of room.

Except when we arrived, there were nine… and another heading in behind us.

Given our limited anchoring experience, the thought of spending the night playing bumper boats when the tide turned didn’t appeal. So we did a graceful 360 and headed back out.

Nick’s first thought was Loch Aline, but Tracey was determined that our “new places” challenge wasn’t going to fail on Day One. A quick look at Captain’s Mate revealed an anchorage at the top of Kerrera — Mhor Bay. Sheltered from the east through south to west, and the winds were SW/S, so perfect. AIS also showed Mogambo, a superyacht owned by the founder of WhatsApp, sitting there too. If it was good enough for him…

We dropped anchor with only two other yachts nearby. Bliss.

Pepper, however, had other priorities. She was desperate to get ashore, so Nick launched the dinghy and off they went. What returned to the boat was… indescribable.

Pepper had discovered cow pats.

Not just discovered — embraced. Rolled in. Immersed herself in. She was delighted. Nick was not. She was absolutely covered. He marched her straight into the water for an emergency bath. She was horrified. Justice.

Once she was vaguely presentable, he let her off the lead again (no animals around, thankfully). Pepper then decided she’d had enough of boats and refused to return when called. Nick eventually gave up, walked back to the dinghy, and told her he was leaving. That did the trick — she sprinted after him and leapt into the dinghy on her own, much to his surprise.

After showering Pepper, we sat on deck with a glass of wine. Pepper suddenly started barking — she’d spotted an inquisitive seal popping up to see what all the fuss was about. We enjoyed the view for about half an hour before the clouds rolled in and we retreated to the saloon, where Nick made a wonderful salmon pasta bake.

And just like that, our first new place was ticked off. Five more to go… and hopefully fewer cow pats.Read more