Saturday, September 20, 2008

Up super early today at 4:30 a.m.! Out the door by 5:00 a.m. to drive to Kennecraig, by Tarbert, to catch catch the 7:00 a.m. ferry to Port Ellen, Islay. The road to Kennecraig, although nicely marked, is still very winding and far too fast - my nerves were just about shot after going down that road and back today! Nice on board ship though. Had a very good full breakfast on board. It is a nice 2 hour crossing. Arrived in Port Ellen just after 9:00 a.m. Drove to Bowmore. Stopped there for cake to take while visiting and had coffee in a tea room. Drove on to Port Askaig where we caught the much smaller ferry over to Jura. Only maybe a 10 minute journey to Feolin, which consists of absolutely nothing but 1 stone house, in which Dad's cousin, Isa (McInnes) Darroch and her husband, Donald, once lived. All of the other Islay-Jura ferry passengers were heading to Craighouse on Jura for the funeral too. It was very crowded at the church and we had to stand in the vestry instead of the main part of the chapel for the service. Short simple service. After we came out side we were amazed at how many people came out of the tiny church. Saw Neil's children, Ewan, Margaret and Mary Ann at the door. Spoke to Johnnie MacVicar, Mitchell MacVicar, Catherine Kennedy, John Kennedy Jr., Mamie McInnes and Johnnie's sister, Christina. Recognized some other cousins - Donald Ewan Darroch, Willie McDonald - I'm sure there were more that I should know, but don't. Did not attend burial as it was miles away at Inverlussa along a narrow and sure to be crowded road. We returned to Feolin for ferry. Crossed to Islay at about 2:15 p.m. Arrived at the Fletchers', who lived in cottages along a treed and walled road off to the right of the road from Port Askaig, before you come to Brigend. Peggy, Alisdair's widow, lives with her divorced daughter, Margaret, there. Margaret's daughter, also called Margaret, was there with her gamekeeper husband, Scott, and their 2 small children, Abby and Robbie, ages about 2 and 4 years old. They left and Peggy's youngest son, Rondy Fletcher, came in. Had very good soup, sandwiches, cake and tea about 3:00 p.m. Had to leave by 4:40 p.m. to get Port Ellen for the last ferry back to the mainland at 6:00 p.m. The evening was nice and we had a lovely sail back to Kennecraig. That was the last of our sea cruises for this trip. Been to 4 islands and on 9 ferries now. Back at caravan by 9:00 p.m. Had leftover sandwiches and tea. Journal writing and dishwashing. Dad was reading through Robert McMillan's research.