This was my first full rest day. I didn't cycle an inch all day. Instead, I had a nice lie in, and then, after breakfast, Uncle Gordon and Grandma whisked me away to Inverary for lunch. We went up the awful Arrochar road up the side of Loch Long, and then stopped for a brief break at Rest and be thankful - and I was thankful that I wasn't riding this way, it's a horrible hill where it always seems to rain.

Upon arrival in Inverary we took Grandma for a quick spin up the main road in her wheelchair, and then went for lunch in a hotel bar on the shore of Loch Fyne. After lunch we went to have a look a the castle, home of the Duke of Argyll, but as it was closed we ended up sitting in the car in the car park for about half an hour, for some unfathomable reason. Well, the average age in the car was about 66, so maybe that explained a thing or two…

Inverary castle

We somehow got back to Kilcreggan alive and in one piece (why was I only told afterwards that uncle Gordon is blind in one eye? It certainly explains a thing or two…), and I got to do some vital maintenance on Mercury, such a relubing the chain.  After dinner we went to the boat club for the regatta. I was kitted out in waterproofs, except that there were no boots in my size, so I'd just have to be careful, as I only had my cycling shoes. And thus I took part in my first regatta race. We sailed all the way out to Gourock and back, but came last. We used a ruse the ruse of sailing in completely the opposite direction to all the other boats, which was a miserable failure. Still, it was all good fun.

Back at the boat club, the tide was now out, so the dingy couldn't come all the way in to the jetty. Having no boots, I had to make a jump for dry land, but ended up on slippery wet stones instead. I didn't get too wet, though, and I soon dried out in the clubhouse. The weather forecast for the weekend was lousy. Very wet, and very windy. As the regatta was on, and there would be plenty of drink in the boat club, I concluded that it wasn't worth pushing on just yet. Better enjoy myself over the weekend, and then set off again on Monday. So I stayed in the club house for the rest of the night getting rather drunk until 4am.