Isle of Skye - October 6, 2008

Today, we awoke with the Isle of Skye off to the starboard and out of our porthole.  I was not sure of our position as we dined in Mauritania.  We had pancakes with American bacon and I followed that up with a second course of Scottish Kippers in honor of us passing the ancestrial home of the MacLeods.  I knew they were going to be a treat since I could smell them coming as they came up the dumbwaiter next to our table.  They were VERY strong in both smoked and fish flavor.  Our tablemates commented that I needed to eat them with some slabs of butter, which I added and that alone made the dish taste better.  I finished the plate, but that dish would stick with me the rest of the day.  I just could not get rid of the taste despite repeated brushing. 

Isle of Skye was stunningly beautiful, even at the distance we observed it.  As we passed the area of Skye where Dunvegan would have been seen way off in the distance, the overcast sky opened up a bit and the sun illuminated the island.  Off to the port, the Isle of Lewis loomed out of the fog, another ancestrial home of the MacLeod's.  We would later pass Ullapool, where Murdoch McLeod, my great great grandfather originally hailed from prior to apparently making the trek to the north coast in search of work.

Our course today would take us to the tip of Scotland, past the Orkney Islands and back down the North Sea side of Scotland.  After dinner, we passed by Peterhead.  I was monitoring the ship's position in our cabin and went up to the Boat Deck to see what I could see at the appropriate time.  Off to starboard, you could see the lights of both Peterhead and the oil processing facilities farther north.  Boddam light was clearly visible and helped orient me to where we were.  Today was quite a day for the MacLeods, seeing our all of our Ancestrial homeland via water via the greatest ship in the world built by proud Scots.