June 13 Oban and Jura

We left the canal and headed toward Oban. We had  a dock friend named Joey who told us to visit his wife when we passed by their home which we did. So we anchored at approximately 56.38.1N, 05.18.2W at Joey and Verna's place arriving around noon. We dinghied ashore and Verna showed us the their lovely house which used to be a rail road station. They did a great job decorating it.  We were treated to lunch while we exchanged sailing stories. Joey was headed for Oslo when we saw him last in Kristiansand, Norway docked next to us. There was a big sailing race in Oslo. About 2pm we were on our way to Oban.

Upon approach we heard a SECURITY from a large cruise ship. The town is largely industrial, with a big cruise ship terminal and many city like buildings. The marina that was there has become defunct. We used a mooring ball on offer from a sailing club. It was quite a hike to town but we visited a few places to get a feel for the town. We pulled anchor at 5:45 am to get to Northern Ireland with the best currents and tides. Charles is so good about figuring that out.

Architecture in Oban. A reasonable sized city with  a cruise ship dock, mooring balls for visiting yachts. The town was semi industrial with tourist trends located after exiting the Caledonian Canal. this old building has been re-purposed . Could it have  been a church? 

Tuesday June 14th- Heading toward Port Ellen 

At Verna's we were given a CD that had the entrance details for getting into the single malt scotch distilleries by boat. The charts are very vague so this we needed information.

We left Oban at 5:45 am and headed toward Craig House which is the home town to the distillery of Jura. 

We got a town mooring ball and visited the Jura distillery. it was a quick tour but enough to have us purchase some goods. 

Gorgeous Table at the sampling room 

A map of the Islet area where all these great distilleries are located.

Chart Describing the contrasts a good single malt might have.

Cool clock

After our quick tour and purchase at Jura Distillery we went to the tea room and had scones, clotted cream, butter  and strawberry jam.  

A walk down the road brought us to the Catholic Church which has a great photographic collection of the town's history. It is amazing how hard people worked to make their living and the family connections you could see. 

We topped our evening with a lobster dinner at the Jura Hotel after drinks.

The next morning we headed for the Lagavulin distillery. It is narrow and rock lined and not very detailed on the chart plotter. Verna's charts were to help us.  We cautiously entered and got a mooring ball.  It is very tight in there and we needed to be on a high tide. We were told that the next tour would be tomorrow at 9 am.  So we left. Headed for Port Ellen.