Our last evening in Scotland, after a beautiful afternoon exploring Gigha Island, was capped off with a man on a sailboat in the harbour playing the bagpipes as the sun set over the island. A fitting end to an amazing 2.5 years in a lovely, friend-filled and picturesque country.

The trip to Bangor is just over a 60 mile day. We could complete it all during daylight hours (at least Scottish summer daylight hours!), but we had to get an early start in order to do so. We (the parents) woke up and were happy to see the wind was from the west. As all the kids were still sleeping below, we were happy to be able sail off of the mooring and out into the Sound of Jura. When Eliana woke, she said that she “need(s) a wee, but it is TOO rocky” – and so requested help from “mama” for her trip to the toilet.  Afterwards, when asked if she was hungry, she replied “yes, can I have some bread with lettuce and chorizo?”  We honestly never know what to expect out of that one!

After everyone was awake, the wind shifted to be more from the SW than west and we motor-sailed from Glenacardoch Point. However, before we had reached Kintyre Point, the wind was back to 15kts from the west and we were off.  Throughout the day, we had generally favourable winds.  It was a bit of a roly-poly upwind ride at first, but later the wind backed and the ride smoothed out considerably. At all wind angles, the boat behaved beautifully. In the end, we pulled into Bangor Marina by 1830 that night.