Four of us (three sisters and one brother-in-law) decamp to the sea, taking the non-landing cruise around the ‘small’ islands. Small relative to Skye, that is. By any other standards, Eigg, Muck, Canna and especially Rum are rather large islands. The boat takes just over six hours to complete the round trip, starting and finishing at Mallaig harbour and pausing for around 10 minutes at each of the islands in turn.

Despite a chill breeze off the water, we spend much of the afternoon and evening on deck. I learn to recognise gannets in flight, distinguish a guillemot from a commorant at a distance, manage to capture a rainbow on film, but fail to do the same with seals. The panoramic vista provides many opportunities to view and capture the changing weather patterns. I am particularly pleased with one series of pictures of a storm looming over Rum. 

Never one to avoid a challenge, I vie with Sheila to take the best picture of the sunset, despite cloud obscuring the sun at the crucial moment. The jury’s still out on which of us is the winner.

For someone who is always busy, always finding yet more things to fill my time, the experience of standing still, doing nothing but staring at the water or passing scenery for hours on end is strangely calming. The on-board fish supper is everything we’ve been promised and rounds off the day nicely.

[Tomorrow: no piglets!]