Gareth and Maddy left at 3:00 AM from Leek and Gareth was hoping to get up in time to catch the 13:30 Pentalina sailing from Gills Bay. I thought that this was rather optimistic but then when I am driving up I have several stops because I am old and knackered.
We kept getting progress reports with position updates about every hour after about
9 o-clock and it was touch and go all the way up. His sat nav was saying that he would arrive ten or so minutes before the ferry was due to sail but they want you to book in 30 minutes before the ferry sails. In the end, when he was about 15 minutes away from the ferry we rang up and booked him in over the phone to save time and they just made it.
While Gareth and Maddy were on their way over on the ferry we went to The Hope. Today was the boys ploughing match there. The South Ronaldsay boys ploughing match has been going for 196 years. The young boys have home made miniture ploughs which are judged for the best plough then they go to The sands of Wright and plough on the beach to see who can plough the straightest good furrow.
The real stars of the show are the girls. They are called the Horses and are dressed in fantastic costumes based on the harness of old plough horses. These costumes are handed down from generation to generation and more embellishment is added each generation. Originally it was the boys with the ploughs that wore the costumes but now that part is down to the girls.
It is a real event, layed on for the people of South Ronaldsay and not for the tourists (although they are welcome as always)and it is so much the better because of it.
The families, probably mainly the mothers, must put in a tremendous amount of work into the costumes and the pride that they have in their work shows through.
Later on everything moves from the village down to the Sands of Wright for the actual ploughing match. We went to the cafe for a cuppa before the match and on leaving the cafe we saw the "Pentalina" coming in a bit earlier than we expected so we shot straight round to the dock. We will catch the ploughing match next year.
Maddy was in Gareths arms on the boat waving frantically and a few minutes later they were both on dry land with our little car which they had fetched up for us.
We came straight back home so that Gareth could have a slump after the race to the north.
After Maddy had gone to bed Gareth and I went down to "The Sands" for a couple of pints. It was heaving in there. Normally it is quiet, about 6 or 8 people but it was full. There had been a seven-a-side football tournament and I think that half the players from some of the teams must have retired to the pub as soon as the matches ended. It was apparent that several of them had been either celebrating or drowning their sorrows for quite some time but the rowdiness was all very good hearted.
I don't think that the Burray team did to well, I was told that they lost one match 4 to 1 and that the one goal that Burray got was an own goal by the opposition but they did not seem to be letting that stop the celebrations.
Then back home and so to bed, probably very welcome for Gareth.
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