The uninhabited islands and some amazing sea life

To the south of Barra and Vatersay (which was connected to Barra in 1991 via a causeway) lie several islands that were once sparsely populated by some very hardy people but are now uninhabited - except temporarily by the occasional group of equally hardy rock climbers and ornithologists who choose to wild camp on them for a few days in summer.

With the winds remaining fairly brisk from the N to NW, two of the islands, Pabbay and Sandray have open bays facing the south-east and, although they are described as ‘occasional anchorages for settled weather only’ in the pilot books, we decided to give them a try.

First up was Pabbay and the sandy beach looked fantastic as we nosed into shallow water, as close to the land as we dared, to gain shelter from the gusty breeze.

Clean, sandy seabed but you can see the slight swell rolling in

Perfect sandy beach

Although the anchor dug itself reassuringly deep into the sandy bottom, we never quite managed to get out of a rolling swell that seemed to be amplified for a couple of hours before high water and so we had a rather disturbed night. However, venturing ashore in the dinghy the following morning we met a group of very tough rock climbers who are camping on the island for 5 nights; they’d found the wind very irksome in the night so, without mobile phone signal on the island, they were extremely pleased when we relayed the latest weather forecast for a period of much more settled weather ahead.

We moved on to Sandray, just three miles or so to the north, motoring in the novelty of light wind.

The Meanish anchorage in Sandray - with Vatersay and Barra in the distance

About a mile from the beautiful anchorage we picked up a big pod of Bottlenose Dolphins who started to play in our bow wave so we kept our speed up as we came into the bay to see if they’d stay with us. Miraculously they did and, even better, they remained with us for about an hour after we’d dropped the anchor, frolicking around Maunie and giving us a tremendous show. A lone sea-kayaker called Nigel was on the beach when we arrived so he swiftly launched his canoe and had the delight of dolphins breaching all around him; the heavy rain was hardly noticed!

There’s a video of the action here – the only disappointment was the heavy rain when we flew the drone to capture some of it:

https://youtu.be/X4I4DZ0EMYY

With the wind continuing to drop throughout the evening, we both slept soundly and left at 07.00 the following morning for the 15nm passage to the island of Eriskay. There wasn’t a breath of wind and the water was mirror calm (this is very unusual for the Hebridean Sea!) so we could clearly see seabirds, seals and then something rather larger on the surface.

We killed the engine and drifted noiselessly to within a 100m of a slow-moving black fin and then had a mesmerising 30 minutes as a large (we’re guessing 22ft) basking shark swam in slow concentric circles around us, eventually passing down the length of the boat almost within touching distance.

Here’s a video of the shark: https://youtu.be/DzWU1uXf1Nc

So, as you’ll imagine, we are feeling pretty pleased with ourselves for taking the chance to head to the more remote islands and the excellent natural harbour of Acairsaid Mhor on the east side of Eriskay turned out to be a great overnight stop.

Looking west, with Fuday and the north tip of Barra to the left and
the southern edge of South Uist to the right

Looking east above the entrance to the harbour,
with the Cuillins on Skye visible in the morning sunshine

Once anchored, we walked into the little village and celebrated with an excellent lunch at the Am Politician, the only pub on the island. It’s named after the SS Politician which was wrecked on a reef near here in 1941; its cargo included 240,000 cases of whisky bound for Jamaica and the island’s population managed to ‘salvage’ about 10% before the police and customs officials arrived. A dim view was taken of the locals’ initiative, and several were fined and even imprisoned briefly but the story became the Ealing Comedy film ‘Whisky Galore’ which was re-made fairly recently.

The pitch was formally recognised by FIFA in 2015
as one of eight unique places to play the game in the world

Apart from the pub, the island (joined to its much larger neighbour, South Uist, by a causeway in 2001) has a small ferry terminal for passengers and a few cars coming from Barra so it’s on the Hebridean Way Cycle Route - from Vatersay all the way up to the Butt of Lewis. It also has an interestingly undulating football pitch which must give the home team a distinct advantage, as if the prevailing westerly winds weren’t enough of a challenge!

We rather fell in love with this wee holiday home, built inside the thick walls of the ruins of an old crofter’s cottage.

The view down to the little ferry terminal for the Barra - Eriskay ferry

Graham also thought that this place, overlooking the entrance to the harbour (you can see it in the bottom right of the first photo of this post), would be a good fixer-upper project.

Mainly because of the spectacular views across to the Cuillins on Skye on a clear day such as today.

The view from the front door

We  are now in Lochboisdale, South Uist, to re-stock, use the washing machines in the excellent little marina and, most importantly, to welcome a new crew member who arrives by ferry tomorrow evening.