Loch Leven and the Regatta

The following morning I awoke at 4.30am to watch the sun rise on the loch. (That sounds a little more inspirational than the real reason of wakening so early, which was it’s not very comfortable sleeping in my little car) A slight breeze rippled the water and kept the midges at bay.



It was a funny morning.The weather didn’t quite know what to do. The sky clouded over and waves began to form in the rising wind. I lowered a fishing line in the hope of catching my dinner



As the morning wore on, the wind dropped and the surface went mirror smooth. Although I was delighted with this change in weather, I’m not so sure the sailors on the yachts were as happy. It was the day of the Loch Leven annual yacht regatta. Boats from all over the west coast of Scotland congregate at Glencoe sailing club to compete in the race.

I had a grandstand view of the comings and goings as boats drifted round the course. The skippers looked like they were in the doldrums as they tried to squeeze round the buoys together. Although it looks a very relaxing sport in the following photographs, for some reason the guys steering were getting very excited. They were going red in the face shouting “starboard” at one another. Not being a sailor myself, I didn’t know what it meant .. but I thought, right, lets keep out their way, Im a lot smaller than they are.

















After the race, one of the larger yachts passed quite close to. The crew waved and shouted “It’s a great day to be messing about in a boat”. I smiled back and shouted “right” so they left and went back to port. I wound in my fishing line and found that I had hooked a couple of mackerel so I left too.



As soon as I set foot on the shore, I cleaned one of the fish and cooked it. You can’t get fresher fish than that and a mackerel makes a great lunch.