Host ship RCGS Resolute can accommodate 146 passengers. (Image: Boomer Jerritt)
Funny to think that I never used to like ocean cruises. Now I’m hooked after dropping anchor at Royal Dornoch, Machrihanish and other world-class links with One Ocean Expeditions.
(Editor’s note: Sadly, One Ocean Expeditions has ceased operation since this article was published.)
Until I met up with One Ocean Expeditions I had never been a fan of ocean cruises. I found shipboard life confining and entirely too sociable for my curmudgeonly nature.
But then golf was added to the mix. Last year my wife and I were passengers on the Canadian line’s inaugural Fiddles and Sticks golf cruise of Atlantic Canada, with tee times at Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs, as well as Highlands Links and Crowbush Cove. You can read more about that journey in my feature article, Cruise and Golf Canada’s Atlantic Coast.
And this June we embarked from Dublin on One Ocean’s inaugural eight-day Scotland and Ireland Golf Expedition, with stops along the way that included Machrihanish, Ballyliffin, Royal Dornoch, Castle Stuart and the “lost course” of Askernish, on the isle of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides.
It was an incredibly satisfying once-in-a-lifetime journey to far-flung links that belong on the bucket list of every serious golfer. Our ship, RCGS Resolute, featured all the modern amenities, the cuisine was consistently excellent, and our young yet widely experienced crew quickly became new friends.
Until recently, One Ocean focused exclusively on its expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. But already the team has got this golf thing down pat. We were never late for a tee time and our clubs always arrived from the ship on cue. For non-golfers, the cruise, which ended in Edinburgh, offered shore excursions that ranged from bicycle tours to sea kayaking and cheese and wine tastings.
I’ll be publishing a feature story about the Scotland and Ireland Golf Expedition in the weeks to come. But I wanted to start getting the word out about this fabulous experience in plenty of time for interested readers to make their booking for 2020.
