Sailing? What sailing?

I know I am in Scotland because the boat moored next to me is called "Whigmaleerie"! I have no idea what it means but it is unmistakenly Scottish isn't it? In fact I am in Oban and this is the first time I have been able to find a signal for my wireless modem since I was in Campblelltown. I can't complain about the weather can I? I spent yesterday drifting slowly north up the beautiful Sound of Luing where the main hazard on that day was sunstroke. The occasional seal which stopped to look at me looked as sleepy in the sunshine as I felt myself. I also saw the first dolphins of the trip.
Pilot Books provide all sorts of information for the wandering sailor to supplement the charts and, quite properly, contain lots of warnings about the hazards to be expected. It's true that there are places around here which can be quite dangerous in heavy weather. Around the famous Mull of Kintyre, for instance one is warned of "tremendous seas" which can engulf a small boat. In pleasant summer weather such as we've had for the last month it could be the Mediterranean. I had to motor the whole way around the Mull in flat calm; it was slightly disappointing, but only slightly!
Oban seems to make its living selling the idea of Scotland which we used to get rammed down our throats by the BBC on New Years Eve. Andy Stewart, remember him? I think the original culprit reponsible for creating the whole tartan romance was probably Sir Walter Scott, who was himself a Scottish legal officer a Sheriff I think, and ought to have known better. Sailing slowly up this coast now virtually uninhabited, you can see, if you look carefully through binoculars, the ruins of stone cottages on every island, even the small rocky ones, which reveal that there use to be plenty of people here. The story of what happened to them in the 18th and 19th centuries, betrayed by their former tribal chieftains and shipped off to the colonies is not at all romantic.
However, they do brilliant Fish & Chips in Oban!