"What's the story, Balamory?"

We left Belfast at 8pm and following another wonderful sail on an almost flat calm sea we arrived at the Isle of Mull at 7am today. I was up at 6.30am and went up to the top deck to watch the ship ease her way along the eastern edge of the Ardnarmurchan peninsula (Àird nam Murchan is Gaelic for 'headland of the great seas') and the hills looked so peaaceful, gently revealing themselves in layers in the soft grey morning mist. The ship eventually came to rest just inside the picturesque bay where the colourful town of Tobermory lay reflective in the early morning light. The town is very well known to many youngsters as the venue for a children's television programme called Balamory where the main characters each live in one of the colourful houses and the opening song is "What's the story, Balamory?"

Following another excellent breakfast, passengers got ready to disembark on the ship's tender which threaded its way past the numerous yachts lying tied up to their buoys and deftly deposited us at the quay at one end of the town. During the morning I climbed a hill to a gallery where photos by Islandscape, a Mull blipper, were being exhibited and then returned down for a delightful blip meet with Treshnish where we spent a very relaxing hour in the glorious sunshine chatting about life on Mull, blip and photography in general.

Back on the ship I was just in time to enjoy lunch of the most amazing seafood which i suspect had been purchased from Tobermory fishermen. I then spent a very relaxing couple of hours taking photos and sketching - The scenery was simply stunning with the backdrop of the clear blue sky and although I had taken so many photographs during the day, this one of the painted houses simply had to be the blip.