A (motor) sailing we shall go
My, how time flies when one is busy. And despite what looked like a lazy schedule, Friday and Saturday proved to be non-stop. Much of our time was spent visiting with fellow sailors sharing boating stories and getting acquainted or, in several cases, reacquainted. Hats off to Ken and Rita Fischer and Martin and Wendy…
Appy Friday
Greetings friends, and thank you for your patience! We spent Monday night aboard Encore somewhat exhausted after a flurry load-out during a -2 foot negative tide. Underway at a leisurely 7:10am Tuesday morning, we enjoyed a massive ebb tide from Bainbridge Island and following south winds all the way to Port Townsend, motor-sailing the 37+…
Enter 2026!
Greetings all and thank you for your interest in my blog. You will note your opportunity to unsubscribe when you receive this … should you desire to do so! Three things are worth of note about which I will be posting more regularly and with pictures: SY Encore at Shilshole Marina following fitting of her…
White Mountain, Barnaby Buttes, and Louis Lake – a short hiking adventure to central Washington
As a former neighbor and friend of mine since 1968 in Pocatello Idaho, Joe Hearst and I go back a long way. Besides hanging out off and on, hiking and camping on local hills, and playing kick the can at his place during the four years my family lived in Pocatello, Joe & I hiked…
Trip finale: 30 June – 2 July – Edinburgh to Boston
On 30 June we had a short drive from Bridge of Allan to Edinburgh … the land of MANY roundabouts. A signature event on our first day in Edinburgh (“eh din barro”) was visiting the National Museum of Scotland the central foyer of which is shown below. The visit clarified my understanding of Scottish history…
29 June – Inchree to Bridge of Allan
Glen Coe is another incredibly beautiful but grief-inducing place especially if you’re of Scottish descent. It is the site at which an entire village of some 30 souls perished under the sword of the King’s troops on 13 February 1692 who were sent there to “quell” the clans. Mind you, the King was the King…
28 June – Dunvegan to Inchree
Today was to be another very busy day – but not quite as busy as we had hoped. it took us down the western part of the Isle of Skye and – alas – not by ferry but instead the bridge back to the mainland and on to Fort William and Inchree. It was happily…
27 June – Sallachy to Dunvegan
Portree is the capital of Skye and a bustling place, particularly during tourist season. Its courtyard sports another heart like the one we had seen in Aviemore. It was a wet and windy day as we visited the eastern coastline first (left), looking out across to other islands in the Inner Hebrides group (right). They…
26 June – Aviemore to Sallachy west of Dornie via Dalwhinnie and Loch Ness
Stopping by the Dalwhinnie Distillery was a nostalgic trip for me. My last visit here was 39 years ago when I raced some 80 miles up from Dunoon, Scotland in a rental car to fetch a case of Scotch whisky. Mom, Dad and I had visited the preceding spring, 40 years ago, had a distillery…
25 June – Ballater to Aviemore
Balmoral Castle and its environs, along the River Dee, is everything one might expect of a monarchial abode and then some. We arrived as the place was opening to visitors under cloudy skies. Placard showing the layout of Balmoral Castle Main tower from entrance (left) and west tower (right) Prettiest view from the west -…
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23-24 June – Stornoway to Ballater via Rothes
I didn’t anticipate I would fall this far behind in blog posting. More than a full week! Monday, 23 June – Stornoway to RothesThe day kick-started early with a 6am cab ride to the ferry in time for a 7am underway on a Caladonian-MacBrae ferry from Stornoway, Lewis Island, Outer Hebrides. While I’ve always enjoyed…
21-22 June – Stornoway
21 June – Erisort to Stornoway I awoke early – as usual – and snapped a nice sunrise picture at Erisort before we got underway. Having been quite blustery for our arrival the evening before and during the night, the breeze had subsided comfortably before we got underway . Temperatures, at least, had risen a…
Shiant Island Videos
In my last posting, a few days ago because bandwidth has been a huge issue until we reached the “mainland,” I suggested viewers check out Matt and Amy’s Sailing Yacht Florence – and still do! I rushed to post and neglected to link three videos I took at the amazing Shiant Islands sanctuary. Here they…
18 and 19 June – Dunvegan, Isle of Skye and Tarbert, Isle of Harris
18 June – Carbost to Dunvegan, Isle of Skye I served as today’s “navigator” and took pleasure last evening in laying out a multi-leg planned track to Dunvegan yesterday. We will start doing this more regularly aboard SY Encore!Today was a good-winds and otherwise banner day starting with a short upwind leg, a second hour…
Catch-up from yesterday!
Yesterday I ran out of time trying to post three videos that related to our visit to Loch Harport on the Isle of Skye on Wednesday, June 17. Here they are. We have two relatively short legs to go to reach Stornoway by Saturday. Today will take us past the Shiant Islands southeast of Lewis…
To Castle Bay – 14 Jun
The day started early with 0330 reveille to weigh anchor at 0400 to gain advantage from a spring flood tide.and set off to Castle Bay on Barra Island nearly 70 miles west. We passed another Stevenson light to port followed by the town of Tobermory known for its distillery. Our initially smooth ride turned quite…
Underway From Oban!
As expected, life aboard Cloud 9 has presented precious little opportunity for picture taking let alone journal writing. I was writing this 13 June entry, it was 8:30am on the 14th after coming off watch. (We got underway at 0400 to transit to the Outer Hebrides.) As of this posting, it is Thursday, 19 June,…
Oban … “obin”
I could live here. But one must first get here, and we took the train from Platform 6 in Glasgow’s Queen Street station. Trains are wonderful conveyances. Ours was comprised of three coaches that all appeared more or less alike on the outside. The lead coach, at least, had an engine that would rumble to…
Greetings from Glasgow! (and the journey to get here)
Snaps from the first leg: 11kg left, 10kg right (left); Low-tide walk-aboard ferry Kaleetan (middle); Lunch with Andrew at Saigon Cafe near Occidental Park. Greetings from Glasgow. Manageable jet lag is upon us after two smooth flights on both of which the sun never set! Such a real-time celestial mechanics demonstration is very cool. The…
One-week countdown
With a week to go before our upcoming two-part adventure in Scotland, excitement is growing. Flyaway is a week from this afternoon! Yesterday we took SY Encore out for a four-hour spin with our travel companion and friend Chrys Hansen. Winds were classic summer time north 10-15kts under clear skies all afternoon. We practiced heaving…
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Stewart Travels 