Craobh Haven, Gigha and Jura

On Tuesday afternoon, we left Ardfern and sailed to Craobh Haven. We stayed on a mooring buoy at Eilean Bhuidhe, which is where Daddy's friends Mark and Helen live.

We met Mark and Helen's son called Ben who sailed across the Atlantic with Daddy when he was 3 (he's now 20!) Later after we were in bed, Mark and Helen came to the boat.

The next day we went ashore after home school, looked around Craobh Haven (which is very small) and met Mark and Helen and their other son Magnus.

Me and Fergus became friends with Magnus and we played Xbox with him. We borrowed Mark and Helen's RIB and went around Shuna island. We both got to try driving.

We had dinner with Mark, Helen and Magnus of home made pizzas. After dinner we went fishing with Ben. Ban caught lots of shrimps and we used some to catch fish. Ben caught a 4.5lb Pollock which he kept to eat and I (Archie) caught a 3lb Pollock which we put back.

On Thursday we moved the boat into Craobh Marina in the morning as the wind was forecast to get strong. In the afternoon after home school we borrowed a car and we went to the Kilmartin Museum where Jacqui works. We learnt about the writing language "Ogham" and learnt about the history of Kilmartin Glen and the cairns, standing stones, markings and artefacts that have been found there. We met Jacqui at the museum and she showed us where she teaches archaeology lessons for school visits. Unfortunately it is too far for our school to visit!

On Friday we did home school and chilled out on board because the weather was a bit rubbish, and Daddy's friend Mark, who he worked with on a big project at Oyster, came to visit. We had some cake at the cafe in Craobh.

On Saturday, we sailed out of Craobh and had a nice sail down to the island of Gigha. When we arrived the annual raft race had just finished and there was live music ashore. We went wading on the beach and we saw crabs.

Yesterday (Sunday), we hired bikes and went for a bike ride.

We rode up to the North end of Gigha and went to a beach. We waded out and found a hermit crab.

We saw a seal sitting on the rocks, and we saw a standing stone called the "Giants Tooth". The standing stone is at a place called Gigha called Tarbert which means a narrow place.

There are places called Tarbert in many places in Scotland. Daddy told us a story about Tarbert on Kintyre:

"In 1098 one particular Viking, Magnus Barefoot, claimed the ‘island’ of Kintyre. He was granted control by the Scottish King Edgar of all islands west of the mainland in exchange for peace. This reportedly gave him every island a ship could reach with its rudder set. Refusing to recognise the narrow strip of land which connects West and East Loch Tarbert, Magnus had his men carry him and his longship from west to east, creating the first mainland island!"

After lunch we rode to the South end of the island, where there was a big fishing pier, and landing strip and some wind turbines. Then we went to the cafe and had an ice cream before we had to give the bikes back. At the Cafe we saw the "Furbochs", which are small furry animals placed around the island for children to find. https://visitgigha.co.uk/Furbochs

Mummy let me (Archie) try her e-bike but it was a bit too big!

This morning (Monday) we left Gigha early and I (Archie) had a lie in as it was wet and windy. We sailed across to Craighouse on Jura. We went ashore, there is a distillery, shop and cafe.