Just as James and Jennifer Hamilton were ready to move even farther up the west coast of Scotland, riding out the coronavirus pandemic in some of the more remote harbors there, they passed a milestone. “We just crossed 11,000 trouble-free hours on our John Deere main engine,” James wrote on their blog, mvdirona.com.
The Hamiltons, a high-tech couple from Seattle, now have put about 75,000 miles under the hull of Dirona, a Nordhavn 52 they bought new in 2009. They’ve been living and working aboard since 2012, and have completed one circumnavigation and two Atlantic crossings. After spending the winter and spring cruising everywhere from Amsterdam up to the Arctic Circle, they had expected to spend this summer in the Med. The virus got in the way.
Instead, they headed for Scotland. On May 31, they passed the milestone on their 266-hp John Deere main engine, but later that day they ran into a problem with their Northern Lights 12kW genset. James wrote that it was still working, but it had a failing valve seat; if they continued to run it, he worried that the problem would only get worse, and potentially more expensive. For the time being, the John Deere would have to provide propulsion and power generation.
But that didn’t put a crimp in their cruising. The next day the Hamiltons awoke in the Isle of Gigha, and headed north. The days are long there this time of year; sunrise was at 4:40 a.m. and sunset at 9:59 p.m.
The Hamiltons cruised past the dramatic McArthur’s Head Lighthouse, built in 1861 (see the picture above). A long – very long – flight of stairs leads down to the water. It’s on the Isle of Islay, where there are no fewer than eight whiskey distilleries; the largest was founded in 1846.
They also passed the Iona Abbey, where St. Colmuba landed from Ireland in 563 and established a monastic community with the goal of spreading Christianity throughout Scotland. They passed rugged hills with sheep grazing; they passed the Isla of Jura where George Orwell, hoping to cure his tuberculosis, wrote 1984. What they did not pass were many other boats; they mainly were on their own.
The Hamiltons anchored for the night in Gometra Harbor (see the picture at top), between the Isles of Gometra and Ulva, with a beautiful view of the Scottish mainland. Dirona was the only boat there. The Med was a long way away. Read more:
