June 16 – 22, 2025 – Campbeltown, Kintyre Peninsula to the Isle of Gigha, Scotland
As On Liberty continues her determined journey through the wild and storied waters of the United Kingdom, Amy and Joe welcome you aboard for the latest leg of their father-daughter adventure aboard their Outer Reef Classic 820 Cockpit Motoryacht.
This week’s passage takes us from the rugged Kintyre Peninsula to the tranquil Isle of Gigha, Scotland—where tides clash, wildlife surprises, and the spirit of exploration thrives!
Excerpt:
We rounded the Mull of Kintyre to the rousing (endlessly repeating?) chorus of Paul McCartney and Wings and headed into the Inner Seas of the West Coast. Massive hulking sea cliffs to starboard, the sun shining on the distant fields of Ireland to port. Lines of seabirds strung out like commuters – black guillemots, gannets, cormorants. Shearwaters rose and fell as they swooped around us like swirling benediction crosses. The tide ripped around the headland and made the water boil and crest in some places, smooth and eddy in others, as the different currents collided with each other and the rocks below. We were fighting the tide, slowly creeping around the corner of the headlands.
Tom put the hammers down on the engine and powered us up to 14 knots of boat speed to make 9 knots through the water. Kelly pressed our new toaster magnet, a tartan bagpipe, and an encouraging “Scotland the Brave” rang out. Tom eased off the engines as we finally worked through the strongest part of the tidal race, and I saw a rounded brownish fin off the port beam. A basking shark! Then a second! It looked like a mama and her teenager scooping up plankton swirling with the currents, their noses just breaking through the surface in a spot of calmer upwelling, eddying water.
Basking sharks are the second-largest fish in the world, after the whale shark. They typically grow to 26 ft / 8 m but can reach even longer lengths. The North East Atlantic population are classed Endangered on the IUCN Red List and are a protected species in the UK. We slowed way down and kept watch for others. Basking sharks are gentle giants and not especially fast movers. Their dark fins looked a lot like the small wavelets all around us. It was a lot easier to watch out for whales with their big blowing puffs of breath! But “slow is pro” and we proceeded with caution. I logged our sighting with the Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust online tracker to contribute to some citizen science.
We dropped the anchor in Claggain Bay of Islay, and Tom drove me in on the dinghy for a beach landing to go explore... READ MORE
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