25th July: We are looking forward to an easier day here to-day, with the promise of sun we thought it would be outside first thing but it continues to be grey. All around us looks clearer hopefully it will come our way.

Since the weekend it has gradually calmed down, it was quite a blow with only one yacht here through it all but there was a steady trickle of arrivals on Monday night. It has been good to get up to date though, although there have been plenty distractions.

Escapees

First thing in the morning we looked out the window to see the regular escapees outside the window, at least they help with the mowing but always leave their calling card. Over to Dry Harbour with some shellfish for Christine and Neal next for their tea. Yes we do home delivery!!

Move over Tesco

Back to the larder and ‘grey Monday’ was spent mostly butchering up the stag from last week. The venison is very popular and the deer are a great asset to Rona’s income and visitors experience.

The End Product

That took till 4 o’clock where we had a phone call with Kevin to check on the possibility of getting our guests over that night unfortunately it was a no go.

After tea I ventured drown the pier with some buckets and to check on the boat, only to be disappointed to find Yach Seorsa/Toward Yacht Club hogging the mooring. This happens quite often and if the visiting yachts moor too close to our only mooring then no one else can use it, which is very annoying and not helpful. First because it denies a yacht a safe pick up in the event of dragging or anchor problems and denies us a tenner. HOWEVER I did hear from a visitor yesterday that it says in the OLD Clyde CC book that it is the pontoon mooring (must tell them otherwise) so to be fair it could be a misunderstanding, BUT it does say on the mooring bouy exactly what it is.

Yacht Seorsa Too Close For Comfort

Half an hour after that a Norwegian yacht arrived, tried to anchor in the wind and was having problems. Fortunately Yacht Seorsa had re-anchored, so they picked up the mooring ‘success’ at last. They were a happy bunch, looking for the pub!! Maybe that will be the next venture (not).

Norwegian Visitors

The skies began to clear then and we were left with a stunning sunset, it was quite dark before the pinks arrived.

Late Sunset

With a sunset like that the possibility of a good day was promising.

Tuesday: Grey again, but dry so up early as we had a Supper Club, the storm bound honeymoon couple Ellie and Andrew arrived sharp with Kevin, it was still breezy but the MV Spindrift took it in its stride. They were happy to be here but had, had a good couple of days on Skye. We got them installed and headed back to prepare the nights fare. We had 8 in total, it was the most we’d had at a Supper Club. L worked at it all day and put together some stunning dishes, I did my usual, oat cakes, Cullen Skink, Venison, washed half the dishes. L had her usuals too(Gin jellies, Queens Ginger Cake) but put together her floating Islands, veggies, chard cakes, barley risotto  and organised the timing.

A steady stream of yacht visitors were coming and going and sales of venison continued with a good crack too, funny to have an American yachtsman in the bay who stays in Scotland at Mossblown (Ayrshire) anchored next to a couple from Ayr but unknown to each other. Having stayed once upon a time in Ayrshire it was good to catch up with both.

Yachtie Traffic Jam

After 3 I got an hour and dwanged out the valance on the summer house in prep’ for the ply Kevin brought over.

Dwanging (sometimes called noggins)

But at 6 we had the guests arriving so it was back to the kitchen.

Supper Club No 3

A good night was had by all, even with all the dishes to wash. Later on we had an hours ‘blether’ with the company and everyone left for their cottages.

I’m off now to fix some creels and a million other jobs.