Sailing through the Hebrides is a journey through a stark but endlessly beautiful landscape.
Even compared to much of the American West, the Scottish islands are empty. It is hard to grasp that these places were once filled with small farms and villages prior to the clearances of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Now, there are not even all that many sheep left there. I had a sense of melancholy as I went by much of Mull. Maybe, had my ancestors not been among those more or less forced to emigrate, I might not have have felt this so strongly.
After a couple hours of sailing we came to Mull's largest town, and the charm and energy of Tobermory gave a sense of the liveliness that this island might once have had in dozens of other places. Tobermory is famous of its brightly colored houses.
Ted pulled up to one of the docks and tied up. This was the first time we have been able to come and go as we please instead of needing a tender to go ashore.
I noticed a jellyfish floating nearby.
We enjoyed walking through town. There were lots of little shops, though not many had anything of interest to us.
We had a coffee at a café. And we just enjoyed the colors of Tobermory.
We were surprised to see that the Screen Machine had followed us here. We were tempted to get tickets, but neither of us felt like we needed to see Elvis a second time.
When we got back to the ship, Iggy was getting ready to barbecue some venison steaks for dinner.
In the evening, there was a little bit of a shower and afterwards we were treated to a double rainbow.
Somehow, all the color in the sky and on the ground started to blend together into a harmonious display of color and light.
