Jean says: Yesterday afternoon, we checked out The Anchor Hotel in Tarbert with a view to having a night in a proper bed and a having a luxurious hot bubbly bath. We were offered a bedroom with a seaview on the top floor, but somehow weren't surprised that the seaview involved standing on a chair and looking over a flat roof covered in seagull mess. It also only had a shower. We politely declined on the basis that the key reason for staying anywhere other than on Bella Rosa was to get a bath. The desperate craving for a bath has temporarily passed because it's had to, but I'm not one to give up that easily.
So I didn't get the bath this time and had to go for the marina shower option instead. This was ten minutes of a scalding hot dribble of water down a cold tiled wall in a room that was very like a public toilet, but with some of the chill taken off. Eventually, it worked properly, but I felt that it was much too risky to wash my hair, so I booked myself in at a local hairdresser for a wash and blow dry. It turned out to be half the price of having the same thing done at home. It may get colder the further North you go, but it also gets cheaper, and that includes marina fees.
Tarbert itself is a charming little harbour tucked into the hillside of The Mull of Kintyre. It's one of the most sheltered harbours in this area of the Lower Western Isles, and is accessible anytime. We're beginning to see more yachts out and about in the firths, which makes a welcome change. Last night, we had a yacht's worth of male Liverpudlians as neighbours, and a small boat of students from the University of Strathclyde. The range of types of people who sail is quite wide and constantly surprising. Perhaps a touch of madness, and the joy of being able to create our own little island wildernesses are some of the common denominators.
The highlight of the day (the week even!) was the Virleys coming to meet us here in Tarbert on their way to The Trossachs, after having had a few days on Islay bird watching, and breathing fresh Scottish air. We had a cracking seafood lunch at the Starfish restaurant, and were able to catch up on all the news from home. They'd been suffering the same cold weather as we had, but were staying in a hotel with a bath. I'm really not green with envy! They said we were still reasonably as they remembered us and hadn't gone too strange! It was lovely to see them, a pity they couldn't stay longer and we felt rather sad when they left.

Here's a picture of Jean, Peter, Bob and Louise outside the marina office in Tarbert, with Bella Rosa somewhere in the background.