fellow firth of clyde-r here so I love the point about seeing the Waverley pass the subs!
Family and I went for a trip on Waverley last summer and it was great. Seeing the engine in action up close really is something for someone who's so used to moving bits around.
And when she gets up to speed on the open water it really feels fast.
Being self taught, I often wonder the same thing. I don't know that this is "THE ANSWER" but I was impressed by the job done here of curating a bunch of disparate CS materials (including some from the universities you mention) into some kind of structured learning approach https://github.com/jwasham/coding-interview-university
As the url suggests, it's got an agenda about interview prep but the materials do not - they're straight up CS resources. Like I said, this may not be exactly what you want, but it could be helpful.
On a different note, I have completed the Stanford Algorithms Course part 1 (currently working on part 2) and I can recommend it.
For me it was leaving my PM role at a digital marketing agency for a developer role on a small but focussed product team. It was a sidestep in terms of remuneration and initially had fewer prospects for career progression, but only once I made the move could I see how toxic the agency environment had been and how much more rewarding the engineering work was (for me) than project/product management. I have since moved on to work for a startup. I work 100% remotely and love what I do and it wouldn't be possible if I didn't take the risk on that earlier move.