Whale watching and Island exploring

My recent visit to Harris and news from Sam of her introduction to the joys of sailing reminded me of my own Island sailing adventure with friends back in the 1990s. I joined the crew for the second week of a family holiday.
Our first adventure was to the island of Rona in search of a cave chapel. At one time when the island was still inhabited this Cave had been used as a Chapel during the summer. Well we found it and had a little service in it. There was seating for about 8 people and a rock with a hollow which could have been a font.
Sailing from Skye to Harris we were accompanied by a Minkie whale. For about 10 minutes it dived around us always diving again just as one caught up with the camera and reappearing on the other side of the boat! We visited Tarbert and Rhodel and then navigated round Harris to Tarransay.

This was a beautiful day -for paddling and bathing, wondering across the island among the sheep or climbing the hill to fish in the Loch! This was before the BBC invaded this quiet Island, which was inhabited only by sheep and a few cattle.
We sailed homeward round Harris and the south side of Skye finding a small anchorage below the Cuillins, which were visible for once on that calm evening.