Friday 24 July

Photos are proving difficult to load due to the slow internet connection here. It only lets me do one at a time! So will have to be a bit more selective!

This morning we were both awake at about 4 am and the view outside our boat amazing . Not a breath of wind and dawn breaking. Perfect reflections of the boats in glass like water, with grey streaked cloud and blush coloured sky. Sadly that had all been replaced with low black cloud by 8 am. Still calm though and after breakfast we sorted the dinghy and rowed ashore to the pontoon. We have been here before and always wanted to come back. It has that Hebridean feeling of windswept wild countryside with fields and hedgerows of wild flowers and beaches of white sand. We hired bikes from the shop ( Gigha only has one) and set off to explore the long thin island. Although not a huge island it took us about 4 hours after which we had a beer in the Gigha hotel garden. Getting back to the dinghy it seemed the wind had got up considerably and We got pretty wet on the way back to Angelique as the wind was now coming straight into the bay. J noticed that the rope securing the boat to the mooring buoy was beginning to chafe so we spent the next hour getting a chain strop on …..J in the dinghy and me on deck. sounds easy but not when everything is bouncing around and a wind of 20 k pulling an 1800kg boat in the opposite direction. ☹️ managed in the end!!! We had booked a table at the boathouse…. a lovely restaurant on the beach but we were sitting outside under tents and it was raining! All because of COVID … only a very few people allowed inside We had full oilskins ( wet weather gear) on so were fine but you had to eat quickly otherwise the food would be cold! Poor waitresses were running around in the rain with masks on, the whole scenario very bizarre! This time had put the outboard on so easier getting back but a pretty wet journey as going against the waves. Glad to be back on board and hopefully wind will die down as predicted as I am NOT going anywhere until it does!

What I have learnt today….. sort out stuff whilst it’s calm so you don’t have to do it during a gale!

Sue x