June 2010

Hello again. I've been so pre-occupied by facebook that I am afraid I have been neglecting the blog a bit. it's been a pretty busy few weeks with lots of visitors about and fairly mixed weather. We've seen loads of birds about over at the loch including puffins, guillemots, black guillemots, great northern divers and eagles, but no dolphins in yet. We had a couple of minke whales in the loch for a few days and there has been regular porpoise sightings and the seals are looking great. There should be pups by Wednesday this week if they haven't been disturbed too much.
We've had lots of old friends on the boat recently along with lots of new ones which has been great.You can catch up with them on the Misty Isle Boat trips facebook page by clicking the link to the left of this blog.
Drew Sim has started his trips to Coruisk with his new vessel the Sea Eagle and we wish him all the best and look forward to working with him and his wife Mary. Good luck guys.
Don't forget that Saturday the 19th is the Elgol Gala Day. You are all welcome to come and join us for the boat race (no charge) which starts at 11am, or after you have enjoyed the activities at the hall come with us on our trip to Coruisk at 2.15pm. All money raised from this trip goes to Mallaig Lifeboat so come and support a very worthy cause.
The Elgol Gala is always a great day out and we look forward to seeing you there.

April 26th 2010

Hello.
In case you haven't heard yet over £1000 was raised for the RNLI at Donald's party, and in case you hadn't twigged he was actually only (ONLY haha!!) 50. Congratulations Big Dan on both counts.
There haven't been an awful lot of visitors around but that's to be expected from now till about the middle of May. However we did have a lovely day today with a photo shoot for the autumn Boden catalogue. It was a bit windy early on so we just stayed in Slapin and they did the shoot there. They certainly took plenty of photos so hopefully the Misty Isle will appear somewhere in the catalogue. They wanted a dog for the shoot so we offered Eachann but very wisely they opted for Seonaid and Iain's wee Jack Russell Skye instead. They all seemed happy with the days work, in fact so happy they started dancing on the shore. Really nice crew to work with and we hope to get the chance to do it again sometime.
It may be some time till the next blog thing as Stuart is whisking the laptop( or toplap as Seumas calls it) of to laptop casualty as he reckons it doesn't work properly and I know how these things always end up more complicated than you think.
Anyway, it's been nice and thanks for calling by.
Anne

April 18th 2010

Hello again.
Firstly Many Happy Returns to Donald on reaching the big 60...I knew you would overtake me and reach it before me. I don't know yet how much was raised for the Lifeboats but I will let you know when I find out. Sorry there's no pictures of the birthday boy here but my scanner isn't working and all the best ones are locked up in my old computer but I will post some as soon as I can. Try the link below for a photo but I don't know if it will work.

It's been a pretty busy week here in Elgol . The Misty Isle was very busy for the first few days but then it quietened down as people headed home at the end of their holidays. I hope not too many of you got stranded with the 'no fly' zone. At the start of the week we had a large singing group who entertained everyone on the boat and a group of international travel agents( or perhaps an international group of travel agents?) which can't be a bad thing,just a pity they didn't sail with the singers and they could go home and promote our musical cruises.
We had the painters in at the start of the week too so thank you Glenda for doing the high bits and Audrey for your fab ehm,... paint tray holding.The place looks really smart now with a lick of paint and the new pictures up.You should come and see it...and while you're here why not take a trip on the Misty! Heather was on biscuit duty a couple of times this week as Calum was busy with school and there's not much call for chimney sweeps these days.
Not much new on the wildlife front. We had seen our first basking shark by this time last year but the weather was a lot warmer.
We had a lovely couple on the boat who have been thinking of doing the trip for quite some time. They emailed us afterwards so I'll just put their comments on as I know Stuart is very busy this weekend so won't have the time to add them to the usual page on the web site.

What a pity we waited all those years before taking a trip on the Misty Isle! We had been promising ourselves that we would do it "one day". It has taken over thirty years for that day to come around. We know that when God made time, he made plenty of it; but we think we took this too literally. Thank you for a fantastic day. The atmosphere on Misty Isle was friendly, welcoming and relaxing - a lovely "family" feeling, and special thanks to the tiny distributor of biscuits! It was not just the fantastic scenery that made our day. It was the wonderful family Mackinnon. Thank you.

Bob(Snr) & Jackie

How nice is that?
See you next week.
Anne

http://www.trawlerphotos.co.uk/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=74767&ppuser=3737

Firstly well done to Melanie and the team for raising the fantastic sum of £400 for Marie Curie and Highland Hospice with their soup and homebaking afternoon last week.


What a fabulous couple of days we have had here. It's been just like summer and apparently the temperature today touched 20 degrees.
The last few days out on the Misty Isle have been wonderful with a couple of porpoise sightings and plenty of seals,oyster catchers and eider ducks. Also the deer have been seen on most days over near the memorial hut and they look like they will be very glad of the green shoots brought on by this warm weather.
We will miss having the children about down at the shore as the school goes back tomorrow. Never mind guys, it's not too long till the long summer holidays.
The forecast for the week is very good with a high settled over us so if you are still on holiday come on over to Elgol for a trip on the Misty Isle to Coruisk.
See you.
Anne

Tomorrow, Friday, there will be an afternoon of soup and fabulous homebaking in Elgol Village Hall between 1pm and 3pm with all proceeds going to Marie Curie Cancer Care and Highland Hospice. Please try and make it along and help support these great causes and remember, Elgol homebaking is world famous for a very good reason!!!

What a perfect start to the season. Blue sky,warm sunshine,seals and some of Hermione's lentil soup. I think Stuart has some video but here are a couple of photos from Seumas.

New Season

So, here we are back in the water and ready to go. First trip due to be today but the weather yesterday was not good so we couldn't get to Elgol. However Seumas is now on his way round and tomorow Friday, we will be back in business. First sailing at 11am. Yippee!! I think they call this the 'lambing snow' and apparently after it we should have fabulous weather. The boat is looking very smart with all her new paintwork and varnish. When we were painting the hull and oiling the decks I couldn't but marvel at the craftsmanship that was put in to her building. She is a credit to her builder Percy Mitchell of Mevagissey as,it seems,were all his vessels. She is definitely the 'finest shup in the tred' as Para Handy would have said and surely the best way to enjoy this particular trip.
Hermione had an opening day at her shop/cafe on Saturday and she is now open for soup, sandwiches,teas,coffees and her famous home baking as well as a selection of local crafts and her bespoke Elgol Painted Floats.
Coruisk House is open again for meals and B&B, and John and Gail at the Cuillin View Coffee Shop have been open all winter for specialist coffees etc.
Rosecroft and Rowan Cottage are also up and running but I think it is usually a bit later for Cnoc Ban.
Here at Sealladh na Mara we will just have one letting room this year but I haven't been taking bookings so if you arrive in the village with nowhere to stay it's worth asking me at the Misty Isle Boat Trips kiosk at the shore.
The little people on the right are our awesome P1,2and3 shinty team who took part in their first tournament recently and made us all very proud with their excellent performance. Well done guys!!(that's girls and boys now apparently.) Also a big thanks to Mairi and Lorna for all they do for them.
Hope we will see you soon.
Anne

A Taste of Summer!

It worked OK last time so I am back.
We had loads of dolphin sightings last year on Misty Isle Boat Trips and I tried to upload a short video. It didn't work very well so I have found some nice photos taken from Misty Isle by ourselves and some of our passengers who kindly sent us their pics. It doesn't matter how often we see the dolphins it is always a great thrill and we are really looking forward to having them back this year.
It's just over a month to the start of the season but at the moment we have snow on the ground. Maybe since we have had the coldest winter on record we will also have the warmest summer!! Here's hoping.
I have been given a couple of dates for "What's On" in the village:
Friday 16th April....Dance to 'Peat Cutters' in aid of Mallaig Lifeboat. 8pm onwards with donations collected at the door.
Saturday 19th June...Elgol Gala Day.
Boat Race, Bouncy Castles,Crofters Olympics(always great fun!) Baking, BBQ,Stalls etc and a dance at night.I will post more details nearer the time.
August 7th...ANDURIL..."Up and coming German Celtic Rock Band inspired by RunRig."
That's all just now.
Keep warm.
Anne
A big thanks to Bob MacMillan of www.skye-birds.com and Stuart for the great dolphin shots.

Winter in Elgol

Iam new to this so please bear with me.I was sitting here watching the latest blizzard hiding my view of Garsbhein when it occurred to me that the new season starts at the end of next month..you can tell I am a glass half full type! Anyway, I just thought it would be nice for people who only get to see our beautiful island in the summer to get a glimpse of what it looks like in winter so I will attempt to post some pictures to give you a taste.
If this actually works I will be back.
I know it is a bit late but Happy New Year to everyone and we look forward to seeing all our old friends and lots of new ones after the 1st April.
All the best.
Anne