Saturday 20 June

After that light-hearted intro from Tortola, we whisk back northeast across the Atlantic to the Hebrides. Quite a nice day with a little breeze, the sun winking in a thousand mirrors in the sea and the ferry just docking on its customary lunchtime call here. It will depart in 75 minutes' time at 2.30pm for the second crossing of the day to Ullapool. Although these islands have a reputation for poor weather, we usually belie that in spring. It makes me smile when speaking to cyclists who ride from Barra to Lewis, assuming that the wind will come from its prevailing direction (southwest), only to run into our springtime northeasterlies. Apart from the latter part of the week just ending, we've had some very nice spring weather. I'll conveniently forget the winter extremes, like 113 mph winds in the middle of January.