The News, from Lossiemouth

We start the day with a big Scottish breakfast at an outdoor cafe on the quai. Another tropic day in Scotland.

But we have trouble paying for our breakfast. Ørnulf gives the young serving girl a handfull of pounds, bought at our local bank in Norway. Which the café doesn't accept. Wrong pounds. Do they only take Scottish pounds here. "Sorry, we only take British pounds here." A new look at our cash reveals funny letters and no Queen. Apparently we have been given pounds from Cyprus!

Today we are invited to visit a good friend's mother, Mary Hovenden, at nearby Seacove. Mary has a lot to relate. We've been sailing incommunicado since leaving Norway on the seventh of July. But when almost 90 year old Mary starts talking about explosions in London and the Olympics we are confused. Are her thoughts wandering back to The War? I'm afraid it's the "Babette" crew who aren't quite with it! Soon we're caught up on the latest tragic events. We think back to that lovely, peaceful morning, "Babette gliding gently out of Flekkefjord, on skimmering blue waters. Who would have imagined that bombs were soon to explode in the London Underground.
Mary lets us check our e-mail on her Mac. She's glad she learned to use the computer at the age of 79. "Or I would be so isolated today" she says.

As Ørnulf and I take a long walk along the nearby cliffs we look out over Moray Firth. That's where we'll be sailing tomorrow.