We were in Millport having a chill, but all good things come to an end because it was time to pop around the corner and collect our friend Karen. She was coming up from Liverpool to stay with us for a few days. So on the day of her arrival we left our mooring and popped around the corner to Largs to collect her. It was a motor, as we had no wind but it's only a short trip through some pleasant scenery so the trip felt quite nice.
Once we arrived in Largs, we did all the necessary things like laundry and showers and we had just finished our showers when Karen arrived with Steve. I had two towels, that were just too much for the washing machine, so I washed these by hand and asked Steve to hang then over the guard rails. This is exactly what he did, not thinking that pegs would be a good idea. A few minutes later, I looked to see where the towels were and they nowhere to be seen. The inevitable had happened and the towels had blown off and were under the boat. One we managed to get quite quickly with a boat hook, while the other we had to get the fishing rod out and use the hooks on the line to snag the towel. It was all a bit of a palaver and Steve's excuse was weak, as it was "I have a tumble dryer at home". While Beverley and Steve fished for the other towel, I rinsed one of the towels out and Karen cleaned in and around our bin to a much higher level of cleanliness than we keep Salty Lass to, as she is a germ freak.
After Steve had left, we took Salty Lass back to Millport and the start of her holiday. We had hoped to go ti the anchorage, but it was a bit windy there so, we went back to the mooring as they are good moorings at £10 per night, they are quite reasonable. The next morning Karen and I went for a walk around Millport and we went to the smallest cathedral in the UK, for me the thing that had really attracted me was the fact that they had a rope swing. It has been ages since I used a rope swing, but it was such a laugh. I had a couple of gos screaming all the way. After our walk we went back to Salty Lass for lunch. Now I had hoped to do another walk with Karen in the afternoon, but she was so tired from all her travel that she had a sleep, so I got caught up on work.
The next day we left Millport and headed North towards Rothesay on the island of Bute. It was an incredibly relaxing sail, with lots of tacks and plenty of time to get Karen into the way of things on Salty Lass. it was also a time for Beverley and I to really practice our close hauling. We are so much better now on that point of sail, we even look rather professional. There was lots of wind shifts in the sail so we kept on having to adjust the sails, but we had quite a few hours sail, before we decided to drop the sails and put the motor on. It was my turn to do the marina manoeuvrer, and it was quite tight coming in, but I was fine and I came into the berth very well.
After we had tied up to the dock and got Salty Lass all sorted it was time to explore the town of Rothesay. So we looked at the castle in Rothesay, looked at the big ferry coming in and had some chips which we fed to the gulls.
The next day Karen and I caught the bus over to Ettrick Bay on the other side of the island, Karen had a huge cheese cake at the tea rooms which are there. After the cheese cake we put on our costumes, which is the first time it has got out of the cupboard since we have bought the boat. Karen ventured the water first and I joined her, the water was very cold, but I felt brave just going out in the water. in the end Karen and I got our knees wet. No very good but better than last year.
We decided to walk back, using Bute Island West way, which was supposed to take two hours, but we only walked part of the walk, so our walk was a lot quicker, but we enjoyed it just the same. Along the walk we say an old church that looked rather majestic, with its roof gone. We soon arrived at Port Bannatyne, where there is another small marina along with an anchorage at Kames bay. Karen and I found a playground so we enjoyed being kids again.
