Sheila and Niall go boating, so do we

Whilst in Tarbert, we had a big Nordhavn visitor arrive on the nearby hammerhead berth:

She is Trisheen of Bute and you should have seen her in here before. Once when underway and then when we visited to look at her with Alex and Gisele. The current owners came (by RIB!) for a chat before they left to head home.

Who are Sheila and Niall? Well, you've met them before. The folks with the lovely house in Portavadie. They had foolishly agreed to join us for a boat trip. Their first boating excursion in the area, although they have some canoes / kayaks that they explore the waters nearby with. So, we headed over to Portavadie, dropped off the old inverters in their garage as they did rather take over the spare cabin and then headed around the Kyles to let them see their home waters from a different perspective. Thankfully it was a glorious sunny day. This time on the track you can see the lunchtime stop in Wreck Bay by the Burnt Islands:

The spot is a favourite, the views are way better than this panorama depicts:

one of the best anchorages around this area. With little wind and plenty of sun we had a most relaxed flybridge lunch before heading off to another favourite place, Port Bannatyne on Bute. Naill was the helmsman for the day and his stress levels were not too high (we think):

or if they were he hid that very well, looking most professional:

 but perhaps more relaxed when at anchor:

Sheila on the other hand had the casual look about it all:

even when at the helm:

The return run was in very different conditions - rain and wind time to rudely interrupt what had been a lovely few days. With the wind taking some nice waves into the entrance at Portavadie we had to take a nice run at it, then do the slalom around the pontoon and buoys and force the boat alongside the pontoon which the wind was determined that we would not achieve. Our plan to leave later that afternoon was thwarted by the wind and lack of turning space. The wind refused to drop so a night there followed.