Elizabeth G was looking her very best with a total makeover inside and out for her first cruise of the season. Our four crew, Skipper Rob, Chef Steve, Wildlife Guide Vivi and Bosun Sarah were ready to welcome our first guests of the season on board yesterday on a 6-night cruise to Magical Mull. Our next Magical Mull Wildlife Cruise is September 26th 2015.
The onboard menu is already getting rave reviews with bubbly and Granny Mary’s amazingly light scones on arrival and fresh langoustines for the first dinner on board, anchored in Tobermory Bay; a taste of magic indeed!
Today (Sunday), lunch was Wild Mushroom and Blueberry Risotti with Apple Salad while anchored in beautiful Loch Drumbuie, famed for its sunsets. A walk ashore will help build up the appetite again for dinner with locally caught cod in Harrisa crumb for the main course.
We have been asked for the recipe for Mary’s scones – so here it is! Granny Mary’s Scone Recipe Mary is 87, Rob’s mum-in-law, Emma’s Granny and very much head of the family.
Mary is a massive fan of Elizabeth G and she and Rob had a great overnight stay on the boat last summer. She loves making the scones each week for the new guests.
The number of wildlife sightings are already stacking up with bottlenose dolphins, great northern divers, arctic terns, Manx shearwaters, lots of shags and red deer on the list so far.
This was our third annual cruise with this excellent family business, and our first on the Elizabeth G (previously we had been on the Lucy Mary), and we are already booked back on the Elizabeth G in 2026 to the Flannan Isles. Getting to St Kilda has been on our bucket list for a long time, and when the weather turned bad two days before we embarked, we were resigned to being lucky to even get to the Outer Hebrides. During the early bad patch, skipper Iain worked his magic to keep us away from the rough seas and winds, whilst finding us idyllic inlets to explore and overnight in, whilst Trinity our steward and Izzy our chef kept our minds off the weather with great food and great service. Onboard and on our daily trip ashore, our wildlife guide Gill kept finding loads of wildlife and plants to wonder at and be educated on, so spirits were actually quite high despite the weather, which alleviated slightly a day or so in and allowed us to run across to the Outer Hebrides, where the pattern of great food, great service and great nature spotting continued. And then, late in our ten day window of opportunity, skipper Iain gave us the great news that the weather had improved to the point where a dash out into the Atlantic was feasible, but only for a one night stay. The next day, and with an extra early start, we hunkered down while the Elizabeth G used her stabilisers to the full in what was still a bit of a swell to us landlubbers, such that we arrived a few hours later “shaken but not stirred” at St Kilda. After a quick lunch, we headed ashore for a magical 5 hour visit, with incredibly clear and sunny skies overhead from the moment we arrived on the island, with rain only starting to appear as we headed back to our floating hotel for our well deserved dinner. The following morning we toured the rest of the archipelago, and marvelled at the stacks and the impossibly large numbers of seabirds everywhere.
John and Aileen MacLean: 31 May 2025St Kilda and the isles of the Outer Hebrides