Pirates & Smugglers Festival - day 1

Toni, Mandy and I headed off to Weymouth today for the Pirates & Smugglers Festival. It was a nightmare of a journey with bits of the M25 being a car park and a 3.5 hour journey taking 5 instead. It was such a relief to finally get there. We checked into The Sailors Return and then went to get a bite to eat before going back to the B&B to get our glad rags on and head out for the fun and frolics.

Our destination tonight was The Black Dog. We new when we were there as the place was full of bloody pirates! There was drink, there were friends, there were bucket collections. There was fun, lots of fun....

At one point of the night a very drunk man wanted to come and join our crew. He asked what position he could hold. We suggested Captain but he said that was too much responsibility. Next suggested was Quartermaster. He asked what that was so I joked that it was the Master Of Quarters. His brain nearly exploded at that point! He was a persistent little bugger and was adamant he wanted to join our crew but he just wanted to ring a bell. Toni and I become known as Dave or Davina and he couldn't remember which of us was which, bless him. Here we are looking on as Captain Chris engaged with him:

Unfortunately he did start to make a nuisance of himself and Mandy got slightly annoyed with him. He brought it on himself your honour!

Photos up to this point are used with permission of Chris Hermon Photography. We were sharing a room with Chris at The Sailors Return.

Along with all this hilarity there were also a few bands. We had The Dorset Wrecks with their acapella sea shanties. Next up were Threadbare Ravens followed by The Boarding Crew.

It was an amazing night but the entertainment didn't stop there. Toni, Chris H and I got back to the B&B to find Chris S hanging around outside Mandy's room. They'd separated on the way back, he'd picked up a kebab and had made it back before her. We asked him to come and wait in our room. As there was no sign of her we decided to get in touch with Mel (who she was with) to see what had happened. Turns out they had gone into another pub with Steve Booth on the way and then gone back to Steve's. Somewhere in all that Mandy had managed to lose the key to the B&B! Thanks to Toni's quick thinking Chris was able to get access to the bedroom via the bathroom window (and over a flat roof) and in through the bedroom window which thankfully they had left open! Phew, a happy ending!