Kilchoan Regatta - Day 2

The day dawned dry with a fresh southeasterly for West Ardnamurchan Annual Regatta's main events, starting with the yachts which enjoyed their third race in almost ideal conditions. The Diary would have liked to have been ballast once again in Paul White's neat little boat but they did far better without me.

The winner of the yachting events was Ian Cameron's Flying 15. Ian hies from Perth and was last in Kilchoan in 1941, when the convoys were gathering in Loch Sunart and off Tobermory. When he was here then he got himself into a spot of bother. Ian had obviously thoroughly enjoyed his day as, after the events were over, he pitched camp up Glasbheinn, where he managed to set fire to the heather. Thinking he was a German spy, the police arrived to arrest him for communicating with the enemy.

The Diary tells you this story at least in part because it's a great story, and the Regatta Committee were so pleased to have someone like Ian back in Kilchoan after all these years, but also because the Diary didn't see much of the Regatta. It did take a few pictures, like this one of the crowds that came to enjoy the events....

and this one of the men's singles kayaking race....

... but Fate prevented further enjoyment of this super day.

For the last few years the Diary has had the privilege of manning the Coastguard stall - which is simply an excuse for talking to lots of lovely people. This year, however, just as Jon Crosbie, a fellow Coastguard, had explained to an interested lady that Kilchoan Coastguard very rarely has call outs, our pagers went off. Suffice it to say that what followed in the next six hours was one of those hopeless searches with a foregone and very unhappy conclusion, the outcome of which is strictly confidential.

Needless to say, by the time we arrived back in Kilchoan, everyone knew more than we did of what had taken place.