Pottering about in sunny Scotland (except it wasn't always sunny) ...

Whilst in Kip Marina for the Captain's temporary tooth filling job (after the lovely digging out of the nerve exercise) we met Owen, the man who owns another Nordhavn 47, called Annie M.  He was doing some maintenance bits on board, having sucked a nice jellyfish into the air conditioning unit (see our post on the jellyfish in the genset escapade).  It has been a good summer for jellys, this one was alongside us - about 2 feet in diameter:

Just not so good for the poor folks who have to fish them out of the filters.  Before the smart types amongst you say "but why does Owen need Air conditioning in these temperatures?" we hasten to add that he uses the reverse cycle function for heating.  If you were smart enough to ask the question, then you should be smart enough to understand the "why" too.

Owen gets his new Nordhavn 60 soon.  Will be quite a craft.  If the drivel that we produce has wetted your appetite for a 47, then Owen's boat Annie M is up for sale and is a very nice example:

Again, before you comment, no we are not on a commission....  You are just so cynical.

During the windier / wetter days,  we took advantage of the good local train service to visit Ayr and Largs.  By unfortunate accident, we hit Largs during their Viking Weekend event.  Enough said. Too many people with pointy horned hats and strange clothes were wandering around and talking with entirely the wrong accents for Vikings.  

We did discover a lot about catching the haggis though in a local butchers' shop:

Here is a newly hatched one:

and a slightly older one, almost ready for eating:

We also had proof that Scotland has an issue with people taking sufficient exercise between bottles of Irn Bru and fish suppers:

The walk this post was promoting was only a mile long though. Still, for some folks it might be a good start.

Finally, for all the dog lovers out there who have asked about our new "goddog" Izzy, here is a photo that she sent to us:

She captioned it with "come and see the goddog or the bunny gets it".

Anne (the crew for our trip to Guernsey earlier this year and consumer of vast amounts of coffee and gin) is rather proud of the new addition to her family, especially as this time it didn't involve her in several hours of painful labour. We suspect that Anne, not Izzy, wrote the email. Izzy looks too cute to do such a thing.