Well yesterday was a fine spring day here on the west coast of Scotland, the wind blowing in from the west had a cold bite to it, but out of the wind the suns warmth and strength could be felt.
A fine day for a boat trip I thought, I had received an invitation to join the skipper of the Sea Leopard on a 3 hour cruise from Ardfern on Loch Craignish out to the Coryvreckan, oft described as either the 2nd or sometimes 3rd largest whirlpool in the world, however a better word to describe it would be maelstrom, its a tidal race between the isles of Jura and Scarba, where the undersea topograghy and opposing tides can at times create extremely turbulant waters, and at one time in history was marked on the admirality charts as a no go area.
Unfortunately yesterday, the Coryvreckan was fairly quite, but none the less an impressive force of nature, a trip out on the vessel Sea Leopard with skipper Lindsay as your guide is highly recommended to any visitor to the area.
During the trip I took a few snap shots, many off which where similar the same, but I have sorted out a few to give you a flavour of the area



View back from the Sea Leopard down Loch Craignish



Ruins of an old croft on the shores of Island Macaskin, very probally as a result of the highland clearances, it's probable that the crofters where shipped out to Jamacia where the Malcolms of Poltalloch had estates.



the northern tip of the Isle of Jura, home to a pair of nesting Sea Eagles and a plethora of other wildlife including ferral goats thought to have swam ashore following a shipwreck in the area of a spanish galleon



a few of the ladies from Jura, fat with pups taking in the rays of the sun



between the northern tip of the Isle of Jura nd the Isle of Scarba, the maelstrom that is the Coryvreckan, as I said it was very quite yesterday, but can be impressive at times with huge standing waves, I will have to go out with Lindsay again to capture this impressive sight on film



out past the maelstrom and into an area called the Great Race an area of turbulence caused by the different levels in water to the west of the Coryvreckan and a view down the west coast of Jura



from the Great Race looking back at the northern tip of Jura and the moon rising in the east

http://www.craignishcruises.co.uk/

http://www.whirlpool-scotland.co.uk/

Well thats all folks cue the music

Chris