Two months spent cruising around the Western Isles this past Summer has left us begging the question: Where else in the world can you enjoy unspoilt scenery, abundant wildlife, sparkling clear waters, sun bleached beaches and deserted anchorages with little semblance of commercialism? Nowhere! The Caribbean is too touristy. Likewise, much of the Pacific. The Galapagos Islands are both expensive and restrictive, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and New Zealand’s Bay of Islands, perhaps, but too far away, and anywhere in the Mediterranean is going to be too hot.
Scotland’s west coast has so much going for it. For a start, these waters are within sailing distance from the south of England without the 90-day restrictions and other bureaucracy imposed on us by recent political upheaval. And if you pick the right time of year – May to mid-June, and sometimes early September – you have the best of the weather too. Up here you will come across only few other yachts all day, and the scenery is spectacular, but the best part is the abundance of wildlife. The Western Isles are Britain’s best kept secret. Perhaps it is because of the lack of active sailing in these waters compared to the south that dolphins and porpoise come playing around your bows on an almost daily basis. Birds are in abundance: Fulmars, Gannets, Guillemots, Kittiwakes, Petrels, Puffins and Razorbills and, if you are lucky, the odd Golden Eagle or two soaring overhead. To watch their antics in flight, on and under the water, is enough to
