Acarsaid Mhor on Rona

Sunday 6 August

Once the rain eased, l’arrêt was brought into commission to putter the crew ashore to explore the delights of Portree. In spite of the hype Mate read in the tourist brochure, they didn’t find it especially inspiring, but a little too ‘tacky touristy’, with one notable exception:

MATE RATES
Skye Batiks on The Green – beautiful hand-woven fabrics made into practical, functional tops and accessories, as well as pretty batik prints for skirts, pants and more. Ethical, honest, genuine interesting people and great coffee!

Sometimes Mate’s motivation for wanting to visit a particular place verges on the completely barmy. We know ‘Rona’ as a training vessel based on the South Coast of England, that was crewed by a schoolfriend of Second Mate while the latter was enjoying trips aboard ‘John Laing’. Here it is an island between Skye and the mainland, with an anchorage renowned as one of the most beautiful on the West Coast of Scotland. Not surprisingly, it was very busy with moored boats, but the wet and windy weather discouraged my crew from venturing ashore to explore.