The Svalbard Triangle – Oban / Zuza – Day 4

Finally – a proper night’s sleep. No orange-light alarm clocks after a three-hour Air Canada doze, and no midnight wake-ups as my system fights to differentiate an afternoon nap from overnight sleep. It was simply a proper, eight-hour rest.

Which was good – because no moss will grow on us today. We’re boarding the sailing vessel Zuza, and there is a long way yet between hither and yon.

We start with another breakfast at Oban Brasserie. Everyone else sticks with their favourites, while I opt for the Perle signature breakfast this time around:

It’s quite good, but I think I prefer the eggs Benedict.

I also finally get the chance to take a few pictures of the Perle Oban’s lobby bar:

Lovely spot – we’ve really enjoyed our evening drinks here

We finish packing up our gear and run it down to the front desk. One of the first questions we had last year when booking accomodations was whether Perle Oban would be willing to hold our bags for a whopping six days while we’re at sail, and they said it would be no problem at all. Very pleased that they made that offer and – better still – that they’re living up to it!

With our bags off and away, I then go to move the car. While we could have parked at a municipal parking lot, we prefer to have as few moving pieces as possible – so we opted to use JustPark to rent someone else’s driveway for the five nights. (Is there anything that Silicon Valley has yet to disrupt?)

The process was as simple as we could have hoped. We paid them, they gave us a pin on Google Maps (and a picture of said parking space), and I confirmed the start and end time. Job done.

Except I hadn’t started our parking window until roughly an hour after we left on our transfer. Oops. Thankfully, that was easy to change – and at no additional charge, either. I even manage to change the car’s language from Espanol back to English. The victories are adding up.

Meanwhile, my wife has gone to Subway to pick up lunch for the four of us. We initially looked at picking up some food from one of the local shops, but then we figured were simply better to go with a known entity.

A brief pause to text Zuza – and message them on WhatsApp – to see where we should meet them.

No reply. Hmm.

Ah, well. Time to get ready for our transfer to Mallaig. Except one more wrinkle – there’s a parade along the way:

That’s the thing about travel. You know that something is going wrong, but you never know what exactly. I could have thought about this trip for ten years on end, and I never would have imagined that our transfer could have been disrupted by a rogue parade to celebrate the reboarding of the Around the World Clipper ships for their final sail to Portsmouth.

Thankfully, the parade sets off roughly 30 minutes before we’re due to catch our cab, and – for perhaps the first time in parade history – it actually leaves on time. Unreal. And we actually manage to catch the parade:

Or the root end of it, at least

We check out from the Perle Oban, and are pleasantly surprised to find that there are no unexpected upcharges. Just the extra 10 GBP per day for parking – which I’m very glad we booked, as it made arrival that much easier..

Our driver from Oban Taxi arrives five minutes early, which is properly on time by our way of thinking. And all the bags fit in the Hyundai Tucson – though only barely, so we’re very glad we asked for the larger vehicle.

The drive between Oban and Mallaig is quite pleasant:

Better still, it gives me sufficient time to finish off my previous blog post. People ask how I manage to write as much as I do – it certainly helps that I can type upwards of 120 words per minute, but I also work on this blog all the time, even if it means balancing a laptop on my knees while winding our way through the Scottish highlands.

During the trip, I finally relent and call Zuza – instead of texting them – and the phone is immediately picked up. We can’t board until the designated start time of 2 pm, but we are welcome to drop our bags off early if we’d like.

We arrive in Mallaig roughly two-and-a-half hours later – but at the ferry terminal, rather than the harbour. The ferry worker says we should just be able to drive down one of the side roads. And we spot Zuza!

But we’ve also been led astray – we can’t actually reach the harbour from this side of the jetty. So we call back our driver and ask if she can – pretty please – take us to the other side of the harbour. She very kindly agrees to do so.

Total cost of the drive is 240 GBP, but it’s well worth the cost – we’re able to leave our car in Oban, where we’ll be dropped off at the end of the cruise. The train may well have been cheaper – barely for four people, but still cheaper – but it would have involved a changeover in Fort William, plus getting our bags on and off the carriage. It was another set of moving pieces, and we do hate extra moving pieces.

We reach Mallaig Harbour, and it’s just a matter of getting the harbour master to let us through the gate and we’re able to walk over to Zuza to drop our bags. Our skipper, Peter, says that they’ll be ready for us at 2 pm – though a little later wouldn’t hurt, either.

Off to explore Mallaig:

We start – of course – with an ice cream, and follow it up with a walk around the harbour. There’s a very credible secondhand books store here, and we’re tempted to pick something up – but we’re good on ebooks, and very short on luggage capacity. So nothing this time around, but it was nice to browse.

And we spot a jellyfish along the way:

Back to the harbour, where we officially board Zuza.

The tallest ship on the left – our home for the next five nights

There is no welcome glass of champagne, just an awkward step over the railing, but we immediately feel at home.

Peter starts by introducing the rest of the crew – First Mate Teagan and Chef Caroline – and covers the all-important safety briefing. We’ll need to wear life vests when in front of the front steps whilst on the move, and we should muster at the central lifeboat should we need to abandon ship. There were other parts, but those were the key details.

Well, apart from the welcome biscuits:

We then settle ourselves in the bridge to discuss the plan for the week. Is there anything particular we’d like to see? Well, wildlife of course. Would we like to head over to Rùm overnight, and then head up to Canna or Eigg tomorrow? And perhaps over to Lunga to spots some puffins? Yes, we would – very much, indeed.

We also meet the two other guests joining us for the week – who seem lovely, and not at all put out by how they’re sharing the vessel with us and the kids for the next 5 nights.

Down to our cabins to settle in and get unpacked:

It’s a tight squeeze, but there’s a surprisingly vast amount of storage room:

And no issues storing my camera bag. I’m able to put it into the miniature closet area:

There are trade-offs, of course – like having to shower overtop of the toilet:

And a very tight sink:

But such is the price we pay for adventure.

It’s then time to set out for Rùm.

We want to get there before nightfall and we’d be tacking into the wind, so Peter opts to motor for this first leg – but we should be able to sail for much of the trip.

The views are stunning:

The Isle of Skye comes into view in the distance:

And we bid farewell to Mallaig:

I’m astounded by the way light moves through the Hebrides:

And we spot a bit of wildlife, too:

Manx shearwaters for the most part, I believe – birders are welcome to correct me if I’m wrong!

Eigg drifts past in the distance:

The wind is picking up, but we should be in a safe harbour once we get the Rùm.

Might end up with a spot of rain, too:

It’s been quite warm these past few days, but it’s cooler out at sea – there’s a drop of 10 to 15 degrees, at least.

Eventually we reach the harbour at Kinloch:

Peter says that there’s usually four boats here, but today there are well over a dozen. Everyone has the same idea – this is a perfect place to get out of the weather. Speaking of which, it has started to drizzle and spit.

The Provident – a teaching ship for youth

We anchor out in the water. No one is running a generator, or a motor of any kind. It’s remarkably peaceful.

Time for dinner! During our cruise over, Chef Caroline came up to ask us about any food restrictions or preferences we might have.

Tonight’s dinner is trout, served with roast potatoes:

The kids are not huge fans of seafood, so Caroline has kindly made them some plain pasta.

And for dessert, a flourless chocolate torte:

Artfully shot to hide the fact that I’ve already eaten part of it

Alcohol is not included, but it is reasonably priced – I get a very large glass of white wine for 5 GBP, and follow it up with a local beer.

Peter then comes by to discuss the plan – we had initially thought of going for a wander on Rùm, but he’s suggesting we save that for tomorrow – and then head to Eigg for an afternoon visit. Sounds great to us.

Somehow it’s already past 10 pm and we are surprisingly tired, so it’s time for bed.