Loch Craignish life

Pretty good spot here. We have a great view from our berth (see last blog post for pictures) and lots of interesting places to explore by RIB now it has a happy Yamaha again and doesn't need to be rowed. We've had some walks (trying to avoid the horse flies), dinghy trips and even did some boat maintenance (=polishing) too. Very much in love with this spot, will try to show you why:

Princess Anne keeps her yacht here, it is about 100 metres away from us. Of course, on the grounds of national security, we cannot post a picture or tell you the name of it. The US monitoring stations who I believe back up our blog regularly (very helpful people) would have us rendered for that.

Our walk across to Craobh Haven was canned though - when the sun came out so did the horse flies who liked us rather too much. We gave up, returned downhill via some great views:

As a treat, we propped up the local economy by having tea and (you've guessed it) carrot cake in the one tea shop cum restaurant in the village. On our comparative scale, the cake was not up to St Ives standards - that is still the all time best. Probably joint with Dunoon though. Also, forgot to mention that the Co-op's "Truly Irresistible" offering was rather good for a chain store purchase. If only there was a Co-op nearby!

Anchored in the bay was this lovely old timer (for the German friends, Old Timer isn't necessarily an old car in English. Can be cars, people, boats, United airlines planes etc etc. For the confused English speakers, look at leo.org again and work it out).

She runs charter trips around this area in traditional style. Built in 1932 and for the tekkies of course she has a pair of Gardner engines that tick over so slowly you can watch the flywheel go round if you are that sad.

The best news about the area is that the natives are very friendly:

Pam (you've not met her yet,a lady that lives in Kingston upon Thames, most posh) mailed to say that she thinks Patrick might need a friend:

My only contribution to the debates are that perhaps Patrick needs a friend and from the last photo certainly needs a wash, which will need to be done before he gets a friend..

Yes, he does seem a little grubby. He started out less than white and the manhandling by many visitors (they usually say "Is this the world famous Patrick, we must meet him?") hasn't helped. However, he does have buddies on board. Sheila is a particular favourite of his:

You can blame Peter and Amanda for the rather scary looking bird. She came all the way from Australia with Peter a few years ago and roosted on board.

Of course, Patrick doesn't have a "friend" yet. He is far too young for that sort of thing. For the people with bad imaginations, please don't post comments that include pictures of penguin / emu cross children. That, is just too horrid a thought and we do separate them at night time.