1 nightFull moon
The Moonrise Run
Oban to Tobermory through the Sound of Mull. Cast off at dusk, supper under way, anchored by midnight with the bay to ourselves.
28 nm · all levelsfrom £390
Act II 22:30 · Moonrise
Five ways to spendthe dark.
Every departure is timed to the moon, not the calendar. We sail when the tide gate opens and the light is right, and we tell you the hour a week before.
3 nightsWaxing gibbous
Small Isles Nocturne
Rum, Eigg and Canna, sailed after dark and explored by day. Shearwaters come home to Rum at midnight; we drift underneath and listen.
94 nm · all levelsfrom £1,180
4 nightsNew moon
Aurora Watch, Shiants
February, no moon at all, and the Shiant Isles to leeward. If the aurora comes it comes around two; we keep a watch rota and wake you.
120 nm · all levelsfrom £1,640
6 nightsFull moon
The Long Dark to St Kilda
Forty-one miles of open Atlantic beyond the Outer Hebrides. For people who want to stand a watch, steer by a star and earn the landfall.
260 nm · some experiencefrom £2,650
Any nightYour moon
The Whole Boat
Selkie and her crew for up to six of your own people. You pick the moon; we plan the passage around the tide gates and the weather.
skipper's choicefrom £2,100 / night
Act III · 01:20 · Sound of Mull
Then the fog comes in off the point.
Visibility drops to a quarter of a mile in as many minutes. Mairi takes the helm, the horn sounds one long blast every two minutes, and somewhere to starboard a sister ketch answers. Nobody speaks. Guests tell us afterwards it was the best twenty minutes of the trip.
- Visibility
- 0.2 nm
- Horn
- 1 long / 2 min
- Speed
- 3.5 kn
Act IV 03:10 · The darkest hour · Aboard
Selkie, a ketchbuilt for long nights.
0stars visible from the helm tonight
No lights ashore for forty miles. By three the Milky Way is bright enough to steer by, and we turn the deck lights off entirely.
“After sunset the sea stops performing and simply is. Most people have never seen their own shadow by moonlight. Out here you will.” Mairi Calder — skipper, 31 years on this coast
Vessel
54 ft bermudan ketch, teak on oak. Launched 1978, fully refitted 2024.
Guests
Six, in three double cabins. Never more, so everyone gets the helm.
Light
Red deck lighting only after dusk. Your night vision arrives in twenty minutes and we protect it.
Included
Foul-weather gear, all meals, a dram at anchor, and a printed log of your passage.
Act V 05:12 · First light
Thirteen full moons.Six berths each.
The 2027 dates are on the chart and four are already spoken for. Tell us which moon you want and we will hold your berths for seven days.
Landfall Tobermory 05:40 · breakfast is bacon rolls