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Clyde Fleet Tender 26 June – 03 July 2009

Wednesday

Today started after a good nights sleep in Tarbert village hall. We were back on board the now very familiar CFT OMAGH by 0830 and set sail for Inverary. With several eventful card games under our belts we heard Mr S. call “Dolphins” this seemed to excite several members of our group as they made their way onto the aft deck to look for them. The rest of the passage was uneventful but the scenery was quite spectacular.

When we docked at Inverary, we were tasked to visit the bell tower before lunch; the catch was it was at the top of a “big hill, a very big hill.” At the top, we admired the view surrounding the loch and OMAGH. Having completed the challenge we made our way back down the hill, a little less tiring but a bit more painful than the upward journey due to inappropriate footwear on my part (maybe I will listen next time).

When we reached the tender I promptly found a rod and started casting into the water while lunch was prepared, however experience did not prevail as I didn’t catch anything. After lunch we began our journey back to Tarbert for our second night at the village hall. I spent the journey admiring Scotland’s glacial landscape. Meanwhile, port watch began to practice their knots for the showdown against us – the measly starboard watch. As we docked alongside the competition began. After a challenge of 8 knots the mighty Port Watch were declared the winners, the next challenge was to have the heaviest person on the team above our heads for 1 minute – Port Watch picked Josh and seemed to struggle a little to keep Josh up whilst on their backs – and they thought they were being smart! Meanwhile Alex (who listened carefully to the brief) casually climbed onto the gangplank above the rest of Starboard Watch who by this time were happily smirking at the efforts of the “B” team! Forfeits ensued for the losing team, the first forfeit being for Chris to pull himself from the dock to the boat using only the white rope. Starboard Watch, not wishing to be outdone, had to follow this and using brains rather than brawn saw Ollie jump the small gap from the jetty to the deck. This forced Port Watch to repeat the task without cheating as the Starboard Watch had done. Josh went first setting the example by completing the crossing upside down. I followed this and also completed it upside down. The rest of the watch followed our example; Rupert despite his best efforts lost his footing and just couldn’t hang on and went for a swim – but at least he gave it a try. Starboard had to match the feat, 4 completed and 2 failed, making Port Watch the victors. Evening meal done and dusted a spot of fishing and it was soon 2130 – time for us to make our way back to the village hall for another mozzie free night.

Charlie Lindsay

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