Tarbert 2007: Peace, Love and Reefing.

Well, we're back safely from Tarbert after finishing slightly above our usual bringing-up-the-rear position in 10th place out of 13. Generally, the view looked something like this:



This year's crew in the evocatively-named Sunsail 76 were skipper Ken, plus us two, Cheryl, Bisi and Mark, plus two Beryl Bravo lads, Paul and Angus. The weather was fairly lively at times, particularly on Sunday afternoon. The BBC was reporting gusts of around 36 knots, so it got a bit bumpy. Great sailing weather, but not really in the spirit of picnics in he harbour!

Saturday night was more surreal than usual. Here's the crew all dressed up in our best hippy gear for the Saturday night fancy dress.



We're outside the Anchor Hotel in Tarbert in the picture. Inside, the decoration in the bar was different to last year, with the ceiling covered in draped cloth. Very exotic, we thought. As it began to rain outside, though, it became apparent that the cloth wasn't there for decoration, but instead to prevent dust and dirt covering the bar while the roof was being replaced. We were soon trying to find spots inside where we weren't being dripped on, while the staff tried to find enough mops and buckets to keep the floor reasonably dry. An odd evening.

Sunday was an interesting day's sailing, with strong winds at the beginning, lightening during the middle, and strengthening again in the afternoon, so that we entered Kip Marina with the weather blowing an absolute hooley.

Missy was suitably dressed for anything that the weather could throw at us.