Cruise of 2008, Port Ellen on Islay.

There now seems to be a good depth of water around to the pontoon berths and the charity organisation that maintains the pontoons are very helpful.

We stopped in Port Ellen on the return leg of our 2008 cruise, partly because the Crinan Canal was closed for repair but also because our water pump failed necessitating the ordering and fitting of a new one. Westfield, who provide parts for the Mercedes OM636 engine, provided excellent service managing to mail a new pump to us in less than 24 hours.

This seal would follow each boat entering the harbour in the hope of some easy food.

Port Ellen is not always this empty, in fact when we arrived we took the last available berth. With gale force winds forecast everyone but us (we were waiting for our water pump) left to go round the Mull. However a rather fortuitous weather system meant the Mull was sitting between two low pressure systems so while the rest of the country had gale force winds we didn't have enough wind to sail and ended up motoring.