Tobermory, Isle of Mull, Inner Hebrides, Scotland
We had been watching the weather reports for the last couple days and had an indication that today would bring strong winds to the Inner Hebrides…quite unusual for this time of year. Knowing this helped us to decide in advance where the most protected place would be for us to hunker down for the day. Without question, the best site in the area was the northeast corner of the Isle of Mull, in the harbor of Tobermory, arguably the most colourful, photogenic, and quaint town in all of Scotland (Figure A).
We found a good anchorage, which allowed us to set up a Zodiac shuttle by mid-morning so our guests could go ashore in order to stroll along the main street, visit the museum, poke around the shops, join a tour in the Tobermory distillery (which produces a fine, peaty, single-malt Scotch whisky), eat lunch in a local restaurant, and/or stop for a pint at one of the two picturesque pubs. Even in this well-protected bay, we still experienced very strong winds, which shredded the trees atop the hills overlooking the bay and blew leaves all over the water’s surface.
At midday, a mayday call was made by the single-handed skipper of a 36-foot sailing yacht called Blue Spin, who had lost control of his boat in the fierce winds just outside the main harbour area. Captain Oliver immediately relayed the distress call to the staff who were ashore at the landing site with several Zodiacs. Two Zodiacs instantly set off to render aid or rescue, whichever might be needed. A few minutes later, the local RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) rescue boat 17-39 also responded. Our Zodiacs reached Blue Spin first, just as she was drifting out of the lee of the island and into the big waves in the open water, and stayed with her until the rescue boat arrived. In these severe conditions, rescue boat 17-39 could not safely approach Blue Spin to get a line to her, so we took aboard a crew member from 17-39 into one of our Zodiacs and with his help, after two attempts, we were eventually able to secure the yacht to a long towline attached to the rescue boat (Figure B). The other Zodiac managed to salvage Blue Spin’s rubber dinghy, which had ripped loose in the nearly hurricane-force winds. The quick action by the rescuers resulted in not only the sailor’s survival, but also the survival of his sailboat and dinghy. He acknowledged to us later that he is now living on borrowed time.
By the time the rescue operation was finished, the severe winds had made conditions too risky for National Geographic Explorer to remain at anchor in the small harbour, especially since she was surrounded by several smaller vessels that were now dragging their anchors and being pushed around. We got everyone back aboard in the early afternoon, lifted anchor and shifted a short distance to a new anchorage site just around the northern point of Mull, and stayed there for the rest of the day in remarkably calm waters…in spite of the strong winds and occasional will-o-waws that came spinning past us. Of course, we were very comfortable and protected aboard ship at this time, and Hotel Manager Henrik surprised us with fresh raw oysters and draft Guinness in the Lounge just before the evening Recap. Conditions began to improve in the late evening, as predicted, and we got underway again to continue northward on our journey through the Scottish Isles.
