Tobermory in Sunshine

Having risen betimes to scrape the night's accumulated hail and ice off the car windscreen in order to drive to the pier along slippery roads in the dark to catch the early ferry, a trip to Tobermory for the trivial purpose of getting a haircut didn't seen such a good idea, but everything changed when the sun came out.

One of the pleasures of a trip to Tobermory on the ferry, along with the good humour in the passenger 'lounge' and the courtesy of the crew, is the chance to see ships from a different angle. The Tobermory lifeboat remained tied up while we were there, but....

....Ferguson Transport's Leslie Anne, which had been tied up next to the ferry, came out immediately after us on our return journey and raced us for the first mile.

This is the Fraserburgh- registered scalloper Jann Denise, FR80, which has been working the Sound just off Kilchoan. She's seen against the backdrop of Coll.

With the sun out and snow on the hilltops, we had fine views of the coast to the east of Kilchoan. This is Ben Hiant with the Maclean's Nose fish farm in front of it - not that you would have known it was there but for the well boat Viktoria Viking alongside one of the cages collecting another harvest of salmon.

This picture is just to the east of the previous one, and shows one of our favourite walking areas. Maclean's Nose is at centre left, with the knoll of Stellachan Dubha rising behind it. The land to the right extends all the way round to Camas nan Geall.

We're seeing the consequences of the considerable reduction in fares, particularly affecting vehicles, which has come in with the recent introduction of the Road Equivalent Tariff. Normally, these winter sailings might not have had a single car on them, but there was one on each of the four crossings we observed.

What a difference the sun makes.