Day 12 Ulva - Coll

We decided to leave the anchorage as soon as we woke up but we were not going to set an alarm. As it happened we woke around 7am and immediatly left, the plan was breakfast at the Treshnish Islands.

These small islands are about 7 miles west of Ulva on the route to Coll and have a reputation for both seals and puffins. It was too early in the morning for there to be any wind for sailing and what wind there was, was coming directly from our direction of travel so we motored and made some hot water. When we arrived we found a great spot to anchor amongst three other boats.

Linda made some breakfast and we ate it the cockpit to the sounds of sixty+ seals plighting their troth or other such ritual. It was an amazing stunning place that I could not easily capture on camera, I have however made a valliant effort and you will see the attached photo's.

After breakfast we launched the dinghy and went ashore. I connected a long line because I could see that the tide was falling and I didn't want our dinghy beached on rocks as it is far too heavy for us to lift (A lighter dinghy is on the wish list). We walked up the hill to the place where we could see the puffins taking off from. Well what we saw next was something I would never have expected, hundreds of tame puffins all on the cliff top happy for humans to approach. They were swooping down to the sea and back to the cliff edge where some were busy digging burrows. What the photo's don't show is the smell, I am not sure if the smell comes from poop or is just the animal smell. What I can only tell you is that it was simply outstanding, the best thing we have done on this holiday by far.

After our stop we returned to our boat and set off for Coll. We had a change of direction and there was just enough wind to sail so we did. As time moved on the winds built and we eventually hit 8.2knts so it did not take long for us to arrive in Coll, I think we arrived at about 1pm. We messed about trying to find a suitable place to anchor, far enough away from submerged rocks, far enough away from fixed mooring buoys and with enough water that we won't bottom out at low tide.

Once we were anchored and settled in had some tea and cake read our books and then went ashore at around 2pm. Only to find that both the restaurant and cafe stopped selling food at 2pm. We also found that the post office is only open in the morning!

Tomorrow is another day, Linda is keen to post her thank yous to the girls from Coll in the hope that they get a Coll frank. I am not sure that they will but I do hope so.