Sailing in Scotland

As I might have mentioned I am a sailor, not the navy type, yacht type or the hello sailor type but the one to two maned small craft team and fleet racing type also the teaching type but thats a different story. I was aware that the University had a team but I was having many difficulties trying to get in touch with the students that ran it. On their website there was no email addresses for any of the students or organizers and the discription of where the socails were molded in my mind with other socails of other soceities so I ended up going to the wrong socials more then once expecting them to be the sailing clubs. But after inviting my next door nabour from back home in the States that is here for a semester of study abroad, she informed me of where the socials were being held and how to sign up. I then went to the socail fittingly at an Irish bar populated mostly by the student types, only to find out that I had missed the teams tryouts but I could sign up for intermedate lessons. So slightly flustered I signed up for a Sunday intermedate class right before one of my term papers was to be due the next day. I get to the storage incove beneath the student gym where the sailing gear is cept, grabbed a wetsuit, life jacket and spray top and headed off to the train station with the small group of sailor that signed up for this lesson.
When we got to our destination 3 stops away in Linlithgow we all entered the sailing organizations building and got changed into our wetsuits. I have never sailed in a wetsuit before and to tell you the truth dont really wont to again, there was alot of constriction if you get my drift. When we went outside I was suprised to find only a pond sized body of water to sail on, oh and there was a massive castle over looking the pond aswell making a massive wind shadow over about 80% of the water. The Universities over here sail a boat called a Firefly, I know what your thing like that TV show that should have never have been cancelled but was. But the boat its self is nothing like a spaceship sadly, Its smaller then the North American Standards 420 racing boats, infact so much smaller that the crew sits facing you with their heads pressing against the vang. There very light and have over sized sails and undersized everything else. Also a cresent rounded keel, which along with the thin centerboard makes the boat natural rocky. But it was interesting to sail and they handle very well. But for some reason which it seems no matter where I go alwasy ends up being a fact is that me along with the other biggest guy there were placed in a baot together. I have no idea why but we were and we were slow compared to the small small small students in the other boats.
After sailing for about three hours and showing off some skills and capsizing with only minutes left of the day due to things out of my controll we ended the day with the sun setting off to the side of the ruins of a large castle.

I am infact wearing a mad retro awesome lifejacket in these pics, except the one with nothing but the castle and the tree where there is no one in frame.