Pwllheli, 23rd - 25th April, 2010 (216m)

Friday 23rd April
We'd been working like Trojans this week, continuing with the 'improvements' to The Rosabella. The alternator gave up the ghost on Wednesday evening and, with no time for visiting scrappies,we had no alternative but to get Harold from the corner garage to fix it. £178, plus another £40 for an oil and filter change while he was at it. Ouch! And 'ouch!' as well because T had hurt his back lugging the leisure battery around.

T was still sawing and screwing when Jac arrived and we eventually set off at about 6pm. It's a lovely route up to Porthmadoc from T's, via Welshpool (chips!), Dolgellau and Trawsfynydd and it was a beautiful, bright spring evening. We arrived at Neil's house, on the promenade at Pwllheli, at around 9pm to find the wine flowing and the curry bubbling. We were introduced to Tim, a friend of Neil's and Sue's, who 'had a surprise for us tomorrow'. We went to bed overlooking the beach, tired, full and intrigued.

Saturday 24th April

We were both cold in the night and neither of us slept well. T had the kettle on at 7ish (one of the benefits of The Rosabella's new layout is that we can make the tea from bed!).

We'd been told that we were going out to breakfast and at 10 o'clock we duly headed for the marina. Tim was waiting for us on his 45' motor catamaran, Stray Cat. It was beautiful, luxurious, the sun was beating down and we all felt very privileged that Tim would share his boat with us for a little while. We headed off for St Tudwall's island, the plan being to drop anchor and have breakfast, a bit of a sing and then be back by mid-afternoon.

Sue spotted a dolphin a couple of hundred yards off our port side and Tim steered towards the spot. Suddenly we were surrounded by the whole pod, probably 10 animals, Bottlenose dolphins of various ages. They swam between the hulls of the cat, jumped and rolled all around us and generally entertained us for about fifteen minutes. Everyone was so excited at such a close encounter with these wonderful creatures - a never-to-be-forgotten experience.

Tim then announced that one of Stray Cat's engines was failing and that we were heading back to port. The sun was glorious and, when out of the breeze, very warm. We waited at the entrance to the marina for the maritime version of the AA man to turn up, which he did and fixed the errant motor quickly. We then spent an hour working through our repertoire, singing hard to hear ourselves in the open space. Eventually hoarse, we stopped for brunch of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs - lovely, and very welcome.


Neil had asked if we would sing a few songs in the yacht club on Saturday evening, in return for our drinks. We were struggling a little after our vocal exertions on the boat but we started with a couple of old favourites and, before we knew it, we were in to a full-blown gig to a packed room. We sang ourselves to a standstill and were fed and watered - chips, mayo, wine and beer (so much wine that we had to take some back to Neil's). More curry before crashing, exhausted again, to bed in The Rosabella.

Sunday 25th April

No problems sleeping last night - warm, cosy and completely worn out. Even T slept till 8 o'clock! We mooched, with Jac, around town and up to the chandlery for a couple of bits and pieces before returning to a huge Sunday roast lunch, cooked by Neil and Sue. A big effort was needed to move and head for home (via the Gelert factory shop!) after a great, fun, knackering weekend with Rapsquillion - what a lovely group of people to spend time with!