The year so far...

... has been a hectic one! Highland Tiger arrived in Oban on a foggy day in January having completed the journey up from Liverpool in ten hours (with an overnight stop in Northern Ireland en route). Previously used as a survey vessel, she was in good shape mechanically, but a bit scruffy and we set about knocking things into shape.




As well as the physical jobs that needed to be done, there was a lot of red tape to be hacked through and a nerve-wracking battle to be waged with HMRC VAT. It turned out that we were in the right and they were wrong, but I guess I'll get bored waiting for an apology.

As new owners, even thought the boat was commercially coded, we had to arrange for a marine surveyor to carry out a full inspection. In addition, when delivered the boat was called "So Fyne" - not a name we wanted to keep, especially after a Google search pointed to some very disgruntled sea anglers who had chartered the boat some years before and some rather dubious entries on YouTube, Facebook and other social networking sites. 'Nuff said. So forms were filled in and cheques sent off and more red tape attacked until finally everything seemed to fall into place and slowly bookings started to come in.

June and July saw us heading for St Kilda for two eight night trips with 'Elizabeth G' which we've used for the last two years since we sold our small cruise ship 'Chalice'. The weather was kind and the wildlife amazing with the best dolphin and basking shark encounters we've ever had.

Then it was back to work with Highland Tiger, and before we knew it it was August...