Epic 7-day RIB adventure: 885NM around Scotland’s most remote islands

Every year for the past four years, a small group of friends have pencilled in a week or so into the diary for a trip to the Scottish west coast. We have all become friends over the years through various channels of boating in some shape or form, either in yachting or RIB events in Ireland. We originally came together back in 2019 to plan a trip to Scotland, which at the time, crossing the Irish Sea seemed like a daunting task! We had a great itinerary and had everything all booked for the summer of 2020 but unfortunately, COVID hit and scuppered our plans! However, the excitement of doing such a crossing and having the week or so to tour the Scottish isles still raged inside us!

Roll onto 2025, and having done the west coast in September 2022, April 2023 and May 2024, we were gearing up for our fourth trip to the Scottish coast. We had all planned to take the 5th to the 14th of May off with hope that we would get reasonable weather at this time of the year. It generally is a great time to go as the full season hasn’t kicked in just yet, so accommodation, berthing and restaurant reservations are easier to get. Over the years the boats and equipment have grown slightly and this year we were using two Redbay 1050 RIBs, one equipped with a single Yanmar 370hp V8, and the other with twin Suzuki DF350A outboards. We had a total of six crew between the two boats, all of whom had done the west coast in previous years.

We departed Cushendall on 6^th May at around 1030. The crossing of the Irish Sea was flawless with nothing more than 10-15cm waves.

We continued for about 60 nautical miles before stopping in Tayvallich for lunch. An absolutely stunning little loch with a real treat at the end of it in the form of a beautifully protected anchorage with wonderful food in the Tayvallich Inn. From there we headed towards Corryvreckan, the third largest natural whirlpool in the world. We have a habit of passing through here on a slack tide which still makes for interesting navigation but in full flow you can hear the roar from miles around. We still managed to set a few top speed runs through here! From there we continued our sightseeing afternoon with a stop at Tinkers Hole, a stunning anchorage surrounded by white sandy beaches, and the small island of Staffa, with the wonderful Fingal’s Cave. We then made the short hop over to Ulva for the night, meeting up with some treasured friends along with a party that went on well into the night!

The following morning we had arranged to depart early in order to make the most out of the great weather we were getting. We departed Ulva at 6am and navigated our way through Tiree and Coll before crossing out to Castle Bay on Barra on the southern tip of the Outer Hebrides.

Thursday the 8th of May came around and we had another early start! We decided to head over to Tarbert on the Isle of Harris as the guys very kindly gifted me a bottle of their gin the previous year and I just had to get some more. It was fantastic! We stopped in Tarbert for a brief breakfast and a tour of the distillery. We then shot up the inside of Harris and Lewis and moored up in Stornoway to grab some lunch and to top up the fuel tanks as there were many more miles to come for the day! With the tanks brimmed, we continued north, around Cape Wrath and onto Stromness on the Orkney Islands for the night. Another 200-plus-mile day!

We decided to take it a bit slower on the morning of the 9th having had a couple of big days previously and slipped lines at around 11am. We cruised down south to John O’Groats (something I didn’t think I would ever say!!) and explored the caves that surrounded the famous lighthouse. Incredible landscape and sea life and thousands of seabirds surrounding us at all times.

It was interesting because it was a few hours before any of us had realised that there are simply no trees on the coast at all, a stark reminder of the conditions that are commonly found on this coastline. We continued south, with a quick pitstop in Wick, to Inverness where we stayed for the night. It was a bit of a shock to the system to be in a big town again having spent the previous few days in such barren but beautiful areas. We said goodbye to three of the crew then as they had other commitments which felt almost like it was the end of the trip for us all. However, we had the task of getting the boats home!

Saturday morning came around and we had planned to get out of the marina and into the lock system as early as we could, so we were the first two boats into the system of that day. The excitement and nerves of the unknown with boating in a canal made for an interesting couple of hours but the canal staff were absolutely incredible and made it very easy to settle in and enjoy what was certainly a slower pace of life! We meandered our way up through the first few locks and canals before discovering Jacobite lock, where we stopped for lunch. It was great just to sit back and watch the world go by with the canal and the walking and cycling pathways that hugged it. From there we continued climbing up to Loch Ness. Unfortunately, we didn’t spot any monsters however, after a morning limited to 5 knots, a burn across the loch was well needed! We averaged 38 knots across the loch and we could not believe that we were seeing depths of up to 220 metres at points! At the south end of the loch lies Fort Augustus, a really stunning little village that surrounds the five locks that will bring us up to our resting place for the night. The lock masters were very kind to get us through these five locks before they finished up for the night as it meant the following morning we could continue without a hold-up.

We woke on the morning of the 11th of May ready to give the canal all we have for another day! We had in our minds to try and get to Fort William in the day but we all knew that would be a tall order. Having gone through the five locks in Fort Augustus, we were able to start moving and make our way over to Loch Oich.

Day number seven came around and waking up in Tobermory was definitely worth the extra 35 miles or so the previous evening. There was a beautiful calm over the town, again at this time of the year there aren’t as many coach tours and small cruise ships which makes for a slightly more relaxed trip! We added a bit more fuel into the boats to make sure we would have enough to get us all the way home and we slipped lines at 10am. We stopped in Oban on our way. As we normally base ourselves out of Oban it was nice to call in for a coffee and familiarise ourselves with a place we have made so many great memories. From there we cruised down to Easdale where we have made some great friendships throughout the years. The history of this small island is incredible and having the opportunity to walk around and explore the island never ceases to amaze us. We had lunch booked in the hotel on Jura so we didn’t hang around for too long before shooting down the Cuan Sound and making our way to the pontoon just off the distillery. A quick stop in the distillery’s gift shop and we were on our final leg back to Cushendall on the North Antrim Coast.

We were not in the bay five minutes when the two famous John Deeres of Redbay came shooting down the road to the pier with our two boat trailers attached, Tom and Conor rolling out the red carpet as always and looking after us very well. We washed the boats down, deflated the tubes and strapped everything down ready for a night of driving back down to Kerry. After a quick look around the workshop at Redbay and an hour of telling stories of our adventures, we hit the road!

It was hard to believe that after everything we had done, we were only gone for seven days. In total we covered just over 885NM with an average moving speed of 24.5 knots. The two boats performed flawlessly. It was great to have the cuddy cabins to store luggage and to take turns catching up on some sleep! We were incredibly lucky with the weather window that we had, however, with the previous three years it had not been as good to us but we still managed to get some great cruising while sticking to the west coast and Inner Hebrides. The only question is… where will next year take us!