It's back home after a week in beautiful Abersoch in North Wales. The scenery was truly breathtaking and we were blessed with lovely weather, warm enough to spend sometime on the beach and to swim in the sea. The reason for the trip to Wales was so that Steve and his crew Tim could take part in the Laser 2000 national sailing championships. At the same time of the 2000 nationals the Laser 4000 nationals were taking place. Sadly one of the boats in this group was involved in a tragic accident and one of the crew drowned! This obviously had a depressing effect on the rest of the competitors, but the event did continue. I'm sure that it was the right thing to do and that the sailor would have wanted the races to go ahead. The dead man was 48, the same age as Steve and I'm sure just as keen on his sport as Steve. My thoughts are with his family at this time.
Steve and Tim went on to win second prize in the Silver fleet, well done to them both.
We stayed in a very small cottage with Jane and Tim, it was well equipped and situated in the middle of town, backing onto a small picturesque harbour. The only drawback was that there was a pub right opposite and so it was a mite noisy, though I invested in my first pair of ear plugs and slept very soundly after the first night.
I tried to walk most mornings along the beautiful coastline, the beach was empty apart from the occasional dog walker, the miles of sand were such a contrast to the rough broken cobbles of Lee On Solent.
Jane and I ventured out during the week, we visited little towns such as Pwelli and Cricieith where we climbed up to the top of the castle to see the spectacular views of the LIyn peninsular.
Wednesday was day off from sailing and the four of us went out for the day. We visited Port Merrion, the village built by Clough Williams Ellis close to Port Madoc. We ended the day back in Abersoch for a meal at the 'Sandpipers' restaurant to have an early celebration for Jane's birthday on the Friday.
Today we left early and made a stop in Wigan to see Matt, just for an hour, but the icing on the cake of a great weeks holiday.