Visitors to Clew Bay

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Aleria is still in Kilrush with no end date in sight. So we plod along in Westport with our houses, vineyard, donkeys and cats. And then we got a call from Reg Barker, OCC Vice Commodore. He and Nikki were making their way up the West Coast en route to the CCA Rally in Scotland; could they stop by? Well, of course. 

We met them out by Inishoe in Moytura and piloted Blue Velvet in. It was hot and humid, flat calm. What followed was three delightful days with the couple, now the best of friends. We showed them the vineyard and introduced the donkeys. We had dinner in town, at Sage of course, followed by an amazing trad session at Matt Molloys. The next day was brilliant blue sky, and again flat calm, so they climbed Croagh Patrick while I prepared a leg of lamb feast. 

Meanwhile, WIORA was underway at the Sailing Club and MSC was celebrating its 50th anniversary, but we had to miss everything because we had committed to attending Tomas Horkan's 60th birthday celebration. 

On Friday, Alex and I had to go to Galway to have the electronics in our right-wing mirror adjusted. It took them five hours so we went to the Clarinbridge Garden Centre (highly recommended), had lunch at Moran's on the Weir for the first time in about a decade, then went antiquing. Finally, we gave up and returned to BYD to learn they had just figured it out and now just needed us to wave our card over the sensor to see if it worked. It did. Hurray. 

We returned home to a feast of curry and naan prepared by Nikki and Reg in our kitchen. They departed after breakfast, and we went off to Turlough House for our vine pruning workshop. It was a delightful visit, and they are a remarkable team. Both were Chinook chopper pilots in Afghanistan. They retired early and moved to Guernsey after an Atlantic circuit. Really fun nice guys. I am honoured to know them. 
















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