Socialising in Largs

Trip Start May 06, 2008
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Trip End Sep 30, 2008


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Saturday, May 17, 2008

Today was set to be a highly sociable day in terms of meeting with friends  and indeed it proved to be the case, only more so! We were expecting our old friends from Manchester, Peter and Cherrill Wyche to join us during the afternoon. However, it was an awful morning and the forecast wasn't brilliant, so we tried calling them at home (gone) and on their mobile ( turned off, saving battery or something, a peculiarity of many females that I know...) so we turned to hoping for an improvement in the weather instead. We did some laundry and tidied the boat in readiness and at 12:30, met with John & Hilary, fresh from a 2 week sailing holiday in Croatia. It was super to see them again, especially as they looked so well and healthy. We had a pleasant lunch and then returned to the boat whence John & Hilary gave us some advice on anchorages, pubs, moorings, castles and baronial homes - they really are experts on the western highlands and islands!
 
At around 14:15, Peter & Cherrill arrived and by now, whilst windy and cold, at least it was less windy and it did look like it was calmer out on the Clyde. John told me that ''in France, they have the Mistral, in Greece & Turkey they have the Meltemi  and here we have the f*&^%$ East wind!!!'' Whilst we were settling Peter & Cherrill in and saying our farewells to John & Hilary, we were delighted to hear a knock and see our IBM friends, Stuart and Ann Crump, who are also planning to explore Scotland by boat, albeit on a 38' power boat called Jomima. Those of you that have read this blog series from the beginning and who also have good memories, may recall that Stuart and Ann spent a day with us when we were in Saltash, in August 2006. If you want to read more of their travels, including hunting the newly cremated ashes of someone's father in the Seine, here is Stuart's blog :-  http://www.stuartcrump.com/
 
Returning to the present, Stuart has had Jomima delivered by road from Newark and she is now safely in the water in Holy Loch. They popped down for the day by car to see how we were and I'm afraid, we were not able to spend much time with them as we were keen to depart to find a mooring somewhere in the Kyles of Bute ( we couldn't anchor, no windlass but we'd contacted a man names David Belding, recommended by John Connelly, who promised to have a look on the following Tuesday). Instead, we agreed to meet the following Tuesday, windlass permitting, when we could explore Loch Long together.
 
Eventually, we were ready to depart and did so at 15:50 and once out of the marina, were scooting along at 6 knots+ under the genoa alone. We were soon in East Kyle and then in West Kyle and running out of options for moorings when we found a privately owned one in Tignabruaich, near Cames Bay( a nearby boat assured us that it had been serviced and was up to the task of supporting Celtic Warrior). By 19:30 and after 17 miles, we were down below, drinking champagne courtesy of Peter & Cherrill and enjoying the aromas of the chicken and garlic bake that Julie had prepared whilst we were travelling along.
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