Loch Lomond 2012

Loch Lomond September 2012

This year we had taken on the roll of Rally Organisers. Having just started working overseas again I was fortunate enough to be able to arrange some leave to coincide with the Rally, however most of the organization was delegated to Kathleen.

Saturday

The planned meeting place was Millarochy Bay on the Saturday morning. With 5 boats confirming their attendance this would be a small rally but that suited us fine as new organisers. We had tried to arrange a group meal for the Saturday night, but a lack of uptake meant that we had to cancel this. Perhaps next year!

Setting sail for Luss

Setting off from Millarochy Bay in damp conditions, we headed to the right of Inchlonaig and continued north towards Ross Point, before turning back towards Luss, arriving just in time for the sun to come out.

Lunch was a taken on the beach talking to other crews. After lunch we had a very quick walk around Luss. As per the previous rally we had attended on Loch Lomond, it was amazing to see the interest that other visitors to Luss took in the boats as the wooden masts and tan sails attracted a lot of attention.

After lunch we headed east towards the island of Inchconnachan where we would temporarily leave the Rally as they were going to moor overnight in a sheltered bay while we were going to go home as I wanted to catch up on family whom I had not seen since earlier in the summer due to me having been abroad.

Sunday

Launching again on the Sunday morning we chose Balloch as our starting point as it would allow us to sail back with the boast which had launched there on the Friday evening. We planned to meet the rally boats as they crossed from Inchconnachan to Inchmurrin. As we passed the south tip of Inchmurrin we could see the other four Drascombes heading towards us. As we closed we all swung east towards the eastern end of Inchmurrin where we stopped in a bay for lunch.

Sunday Lunch

After lunch we headed back towards Balloch engaging in an unofficial race – well we were trying to sail better than other boats and I am sure they were doing the same.

More Sunday Lunch

This was our first Rally as organisers. It had been complicated by me as organiser being overseas but the effect of that had been negated by Kathleen doing what needed to be done. Numbers were lower than hoped but that may have been due to a) the weather and b) the cancellation of the previous year’s rally. Hopefully next year would bring more boats and we would get a group meal arranged for the Saturday night.