Cruise Highlands Route 2021 – s/y Nashachata II ready for new challenges.

We plan to set off in May this year and, heading west through the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, Danish Straits, reach Stavanger quickly. Sailing north along the Norwegian fjords we will visit the picturesque Lofoten and sail along the straits to Tromso. On the way back, we take the direction to Shetland and Orkney Islands, heading for Inverness, right at the entrance of the Caledonian Canal. Sailing along the Caledonian canal, we will cross the Highlands, the northern part of Scotland known for the production of the most famous single malts, where traditional methods of whiskey production are still cultivated. In 1822, King George IV visited Edinburgh. The town mayor, Walter Scott, toasted his health on the best whiskey, Glenliviet, smuggled out of the Highlands then. King George ordered that only Glenliviet to toast his health "loyal toast" from now on! Elizabeth Grant, in „Memories of a Highland”, describes Glenliviet whiskey as "a long wooden whiskey, as smooth as milk and with a real smuggling flaw!" After crossing the Caledonian Canal and greeting the monster from Lochness, we will visit the Islay Island. The smuggling of whiskey from the Islay Island to the neighboring provinces of Scotland was on such a scale that the Custom Office requested a special vessel to constantly patrol the Islay shores and capture contraband. Illegal distillation and smuggling continued to flourish long after John McDougall obtained a license in 1815 and opened a legal distillery in Ardbeg. Smuggling, which could not be stopped by any customs action, only declined towards the end of the 19th century. On the way south, we will visit Ireland, where, this royal drink was invented. So we will visit the town of Bushmills located near the Giant's Causeway. Legend has it that the Irish giant jumped from here to Scotland with a barrel on his back. Perhaps that is why the people of the Hebrides still speak the same language (Gaelic - derived from Old Irish) as the people of Northern Ireland in County Antrim. From Dublin, we are going to Biskaj Bay, we will sail to A Coruna, were the oldest lighthouse in Europe, named Hercules, will greet  sailors. After tasting one of the the best seafood and octopus from the Galician sea cuisine, we sail further south, through Porto and Lisbon to the well-known Albufeira marina.

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