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Moonshine's Circumnavigation of Britain
Our first stop had been Lowestoft which hadn't proved to be as easy a first passage as I'd planned as the wind was mostly 3 to 4 and on the nose. It took us 11 hours of motor-sailing, about 3 hours longer than anticipated! My crew was Ian Miles, my brother-in-law, and Sam Block. Nevertheless we got a good meal at the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk that evening, and knew we were on our way. The passage to Whitby was going to be our longest of the whole trip, but the forecast looked OK and we cast off just before 08.00, to catch the N. going tide. By noon the skies had cleared and it was hot, but there wasn't much wind, and it wasn't till early evening that we were able to hoist the main and start sailing. The night was spent dodging gas-platforms and varying between motoring and sailing, but by 05.30 we had Flamborough Head abeam, and by 10.30 we were off Whitby. It was a glorious morning. After a little bit of standing off, the bridge opened at 11.41 (Reed's doesn't lie) and we entered the marina.
Tony Pollard, Sam's replacement, and a keen non-sailor, arrived at 6, so all of us plus Tony's wife Sandra had a pleasant drink on board followed by a good meal ashore. We're woken at 5.30 the next morning by the new boy,who thinks it's 7 o'clock. Oh dear!. We bundle Sam off to the station for his journey home, and exit the marina at 12.31, to find a sea fret and about 1/2 mile of visibility, but a bit of breeze from ESE. An hour or two later we can see Staithes and Runswick Bay. We're sailing under main alone, and it's turning out fine. Arriving at Hartlepool at 6 o'clock, we scrape over the cill and enter the lock with 2 other yachts. We get a very friendly welcome, and apologies from the HM for not being on the pontoon to take our lines. A fine dinner on board: crab salad followed by Cod Basquaise, courtesy of the aspiring newcomer. Re-fuelling is very easy here, and we take advantage then, after locking out we enjoy some beautiful sailing before the wind dies away and it's on with the engine. We pass Sunderland and Tynemouth and then enter the river at Blyth and find a visitor's berth at the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club. Our visit has coincided with the Club's annual overnight race to the Farne Islands and back, so there's a frenzy in the Clubhouse and we miss out on the promised pie and peas, settling for second-best burger and chips. We watch the departing boats and wish them luck. There's no wind to speak of, though by the time we leave at 6.0 the next morning it's blowing a nice F3 from the ESE, and filling. By the time we get to Coquet we are stonking along, and by noon we're able to round up and drop anchor in "the Kettle", a favoured spot in the Farne Islands. This is absolutely delightful. One or two tripper boats, but otherwise a glorious spot for an alfresco lunch. From there, the wind starts to build a little but we have a fine reach past Holy Island and, later, Berwick and our entrance into Eyemouth Harbour is quite exciting involving a handbrake turn in quite a small space and, now, with the sea fret closing in again.
We have to raft up here, one out, but it's comfortable enough, and we're able to
slip our lines at 7 o'clock and head North, straight across the Firth of Forth.
It's hazy, so we don't see Fife Ness, but there's no wind. By the time we
arrive off Arbroath it's a fantastic, hot, and sunny day. The old inner
harbour has been fitted out with floating pontoons and it's a very pleasant
place to stop. Entry is via a lock , which is not manned at night, so some
thought has to go into arrival and departure times. As we seem to have some time in hand, and the weather seems fairly settled, we're able to enjoy a very diverting day in the company of old friend Duncan Gray who farms about 6 miles up the coast. He collects us about 11 o'clock and gives us a very interesting tour of his estate, ending up at the big house for a wonderful lunch prepared by Claire. Then back to the harbour where we put our new plan into action. The last lock opening time is 6pm so, as everything appears to be in order,and the weather's fine, we decide to leave then and night-sail the 64 miles to Peterhead. The wind is in the SSW, perfect, and we set the jib alone,which gives us 5 knots+. The evening is fine and we have an uneventful night, arriving at 8 o'clock to a beautiful sunny morning. The marina is on the South side of the harbour, and is an excellent stop-over, with the shower block and facilities rated at 10 out of 10. After a short kip and a fry-up, Ian and I caught a South going bus to Cruden Bay where we had a good walk along the cliffs to the ruined Stains Castle, set right on the cliffside, with an uninterrupted view towards Norway. Annoyingly, I didn't find out till later that we were within yards of Butcher's Hole, an intriguing rock hole which Johnson and Boswell had visited 200 years previously. Nevertheless, the inlets and fissures we saw in the rocks were certainly dramatic. This is decision time. The Canal or round the top? All available info points to settled weather, so I decide to go for it. At 4am it's a grey, mizzly day, and there's a light wind on the nose, but we set the main in the harbour and head North. By mid-day it's getting hot - the clouds have disappeared, but we're motoring. All change at 2 o'clock: the wind veers SE and freshens and we have a lovely sail for 3 hours, arriving at Wick, and tying up in the inner harbour before 6. A little bit of berth-juggling with a couple of Norwegian yachts, and we're settled against the harbour wall, just in time for our scout to reserve a table at a nice little French restaurant "Au Bord de l'Eau" about 10 minutes walk from the quay. This definitely isn't the Scotland I'd remembered! It was the 14th June, and we'd taken 9 days to cover the 500 miles from Harwich.
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We
set off from Harwich on June 5th, which allowed us 12 days to get to Wick,
the jumping-off point for the Firth, neap tides starting on 17th. If the
weather turned foul before we got there, we'd go through the Canal, making our
decision at Peterhead. In the event, when we got to Peterhead, conditions
looked pretty stable and we had a good passage across the Moray Firth, arriving
at Wick in late afternoon on the 14th. In fact, winds were so light that
we had to motor most of the way.
After catching
up on some sleep we had a little time to explore. I climbed the 199 steps
to the church and abbey and admired the view.
We
said good-bye to Tony the following morning and anxiously waited for news of
Johnathan, who'd gone incommunicado - only taking relayed text messages via his
girl-friend in Wales. I'd originally asked J. to be in Wick by 18th,
yet it looked as though 16th and 17th would remain calm but winds due to freshen
on the 18th. Ian and I took the bus to John O'Groats to reconnoitre.
This proved to be very interesting and somewhat reassuring. We could quite
easily see across the Firth and identify where we were due to go by boat, these
Southern Orkney Isles being only about 5 miles away at most.