This is a slow week on a boat for people who would rather watch a shoreline than tick off sights. No sailing skill is asked for. You need to be steady on a ladder and happy in a small cabin.

The pace is the tide's. We move for two or three hours most days, anchor in a different sea loch each night and go ashore by dinghy when there is something to walk to. One crossing, to the Shiant Isles, is open water and can be lumpy. If the forecast is poor we stay inside, and nobody minds.

What makes it is the trawler and the people on her. She fished out of Stornoway for thirty years before the refit, and the skipper worked on her as a boy. Twelve berths, one long table and a wheelhouse you are welcome in. Otters most mornings. Signal almost never.