Thurs 23rd April
After the sailing I had considered taking a day or two to just chill, update my diary and create a rough plan for my next move. Ashley and Will weren’t strict on timings, as they had thought we may be longer at sea, so they were flexible in when they were heading home and very kindly invited me to stay on the boat for as long as I wanted while I sorted myself out.
Adrian, Alastair and Mick had all booked the same bus I had journeyed on when I travelled to Glasgow, and after a very quick cooked breakfast they were on their way. Ashley, Will and I pottered about, them making adjustments to the boat, and me washing my clothes. We had the marina facilities, which consisted of lovely warm shower block, and a laundry room. The weather was brilliant sunshine again and was due to be nice for a few days. I couldn’t believe how lucky we were, one with sailing into Tarbert so quickly and getting some good weather patterns, but also having the still, sunny weather once we arrived. If we’d had this when we were sailing, we’d be motoring the boat along.
As it was nice we decided to go for a walk in the afternoon, but by the time we got round to it, it was 3pm. There is a little castle on the hill in Tarbert, South of the harbour, and we planned to walk up and check it out. We found our way up to it, quite a steep ascent, but some steps helped. Once at the top and having had a nosey at the ruins, which are quite small in castle terms, but a nice bit of history to have in the town, we spotted a board with a couple of extended walking routes. The one route was a castle trail of ¾ mile, and the other was the Corranbuie trail, which was a more respectable 2 ½ miles, so we went with that one. The route took us along a well-presented track through gorse and woodland. We had a few steep inclines, but we were rewarded with views across the Firth of Clyde to the mainland. It was spectacular, so still, and with the sun out and not a cloud in the sky you could see for miles, you felt on top of the world. It was very serene and again I counted myself lucky to be there. We continued and at times did wonder whether the trail was longer than advertised, but eventually we turned back to complete the circular route. After a freshen up and a dinner using up some of the food we’d brought along for the sail, we went out to try one of the drinking establishments. We’d been to The Corner House on the day we arrived, which was a pleasant pub, so tonight we popped to the Islay Frigate Hotel. It wasn’t exactly in keeping with a traditional Scottish harbour hotel, they had tried with some of the décor, but the lighting was harsh and there were about 3 TVs on showing the sport, and not subtly.