10th june onwards

10th Jun 2007

Holy Island, United Kingdom - Holy smoke! Where did the time go!

Went to walk Scamp this morning at 10am and we've only just got back 10pm!
We rowed to the Lindisfarne shore this morning and met with Bjorn and later on, Co from Holland. After doing the priory bit, the castle bit and the dog walking bit, we ended up in one of Holy Island's two pubs for a quick drink! Yeh right with Bjorn?
After three drinks we tore ourselves away from the pub only to end up on Alan and Rhoda's boat drinking again! (they were the couple in the 80's we mentioned before). They'd arrived in the bay from the Farne Islands this morning.
Just got back to our boat having eaten only Rocky bars, dried apples from Conny's Mum and Wolf'P' and hot chocolate from Bjorn's flask all day.
7am start so we're going to hit the sack shortly.
Bye for now.... X
P.S. We'll try and get some photos on soon...


11th Jun 2007

Somewhere in the North Sea again, United Kingdom - Och eye....guess where we are?

9.15 and we're in Scottish waters!


12th Jun 2007

Eyemouth, United Kingdom - Bonnie Scotland - 486 eng. hrs

We've managed to steal an hour to update the blog at last. Since leaving Blyth we've been in convoy with Chilli (Bjorn) and Birdie (Co). These guys have been great company and we've had a really good time together. It's also been nice to have some silent companions out at sea, especially when we've been a few miles offshore in fog. Sounds like some sort of joke when you describe us....an Englishman, a Swiss girl, a Danishman and a Dutchman. Although we haven't travelled with them, we've also been with Alan and Rhoda (New Chance) quite a bit.
We're now in Eyemouth and it looks like we might be here for a day or two as some cold fronts pass over the UK. Most of the yachts we've met are heading for the Western Isles but have to travel north to Inverness before heading southwest through the Caledonian Canal (Lock Ness). We are unique in this company as we are heading into the Firth of Forth to pick up the Firth and Clyde Canal (which has height restrictions for yachts).
This morning Birdie and New Chance headed off and it looks like Chilli (Bjorn) will be leaving first light tomorrow. It's really sad to say goodbye but hope to meet them again 'on the other side' so to speak.
Well the fog and mist have gone. Yesterday the sun came out and now..... it's raining...doh.
We met a guy called Ridley yesterday who is in charge of the compiling and restoring of a number of boats for a new maritime museum being built here. He has invited us to some old farm buildings on the edge of town to look at the collection which we're going to do in bit.
Looking out of the window now there are seals patrolling up and down the harbour waiting for any tit bits they can get from the fishing boats.
Conny is busy shrinking photos so we should have loads of new photos to look at.
Catch you soon.......x


13th Jun 2007

Eyemouth, United Kingdom - Just for the record...

One thing we forgot to mention was our arrival at Eyemouth. We'd been surrounded by fog for most of our journey, added to which we were some miles offshore. As we slowly made our way to the coast the sky started to open up to blue and the sun streamed through. We rounded the headland towards Eyemouth threading our way through rocks on both sides with waves braking over them. The scene was quite dramatic. Then as we entered harbour and all the madness of the approach subsided, five seals came to greet us. It was amazing and Conny was REALLY excited.
After mooring up we celebrated our arrival in Scotland by cracking open a bottle of champagne with the others.....



14th Jun 2007

Eyemouth, United Kingdom - Guess we'll be staying here then!

Met Office Forecast - Rattray Head to Berwick on Tweed - Thursday 14th June - 1200 UTC....
Northeast force 4 or 5 increasing to force 6 later....
Sea state - moderate or rough.....(when this index was created it was with ships in mind. 'Moderate' means waves up to 2.5 meters and 'rough' up to 4 meters!

OK we're not going anywhere then! And nor did Bjorn. If we'd carried on, as did 'Birdie' and 'New Chance', we'd now be in the calmer waters of the Firth of Forth....but we didn't...so now it looks like a few more days in Eyemouth.
But that's OK...it gives us time to catch up with things including the shaving off of my 'Whitby Santa' beard at last.
Conny's back on the photos again, so more to come....


17th Jun 2007

Eyemouth, United Kingdom - On your marks....

Strong winds in the week kicked up a right swell. It's strange but when you're looking out to sea with no reference points it can look quite smooth. It's only when a ship passes and you see it's 6 meter bow ploughing through the waves you think...OK maybe not then! Yesterday the winds died away leaving behind them such a swell. The forecast is predicting calmer weather until Wednesday so we're going to give it another day and go for it tomorrow.....only 25 miles and we'll be in the sheltered waters of the Firth of Forth so fingers crossed.....unfortunately there are two headlands to get around first, both of which can have nasty overfalls.
A chap named Johny Johnston (imagine Sean Connery speaking the name) introduced himself to us the other day. Another really interesting guy, spent 30 odd years as a fisherman on his own 57 foot boat, 14 years as lifeboat man including 6 years as Coxswain of a big Trent class lifeboat and 13 years as Harbourmaster. Johny spent alot of time telling us about the history of the area and then offered to take Conny, Bjorn and myself to a nearby headland at St. Abbs in his car to look at the outstanding scenery. The car ride was scary as hell....it's the first time in weeks we'd gone faster than 7 miles an hour and it felt bloody quick! :-)
Having enjoyed the place so much we decided to walk there the next day on Conny's birthday. When we set off all was well but as we put more and more distance between ourselves and shelter it started to rain! And it rained and it rained. It wasn't until we were soaked to the skin it stopped. As we were 5 miles away we thought it best to get a taxi or bus back. Easier said then done! We saw one taxi which we tried to flag down but he just gave us the thumbs up, smiled and carried on. We waited at a bus stop for a bus that didn't arrive. And then, just as we were preparing ourselves to walk back, a young guy pulled up and asked if we knew where a petrol station was. Yep we said, in Eyemouth, we'll show you....thank you to Jack for the lift!
Going to take it easy today I think, tomorrow could be a 50 miler.......


18th Jun 2007

Port Edgar near Edinburgh, United Kingdom - Day no. ??? eng. hrs 496

Alarms set for 5am with a 7am start...After more than 2 weeks with Bjorn we said our farewells this morning. Bjorn setting off north, ourselves setting off northwest-ish.
Having covered 50 miles today in 10 hours, we're now in Port Edgar which is just past, what has to be the 'Arnie' of all bridges, the Forth Rail bridge. I love this bridge! It came into being because another bridge, the Tay Rail Bridge at Dundee, collapsed whilst a train was on it leading to the tragic deaths of many on board. So shocked was everyone at the time that when the Forth Rail Bridge was conceived a design was chosen that couldn't possibly fail. (thanks for anonymous message putting the story straight) Over-engineering at its best and fantastic looking!
Getting here represents a big milestone for us. We celebrated passing under the bridge with more Champaign and a long blast of the fog horn. It's was great, some workers on the bridge (probably painting it!) heard the noise and started waving and cheering. They probably thought we'd circumnavigated the globe or something but it was great anyway!
359 nautical miles since leaving Redhill and having faced weeks of onshore winds and uncertain weather forecasts that changed all the time, it means we're now on much more friendly waters. Albeit that we now leave the challenges of the north sea and head for the notorious canals of Glasgow with the threat of dumped shopping trolleys and flying bricks!
Anyway, not long now until we'll be in the Western Isles!