Whitby

We departed Scarborough at 0700 as the rain set in. Great. Not! Fortunately the rain stopped almost as soon as it had started and we had a fantastic sail along the coast to Whitby with a F6 wind from the south absolutley blasting us along what showed itself to be a really spectaular coastline of cliffs, coloured rocks and luscious green vegetation. Amazing, and a great feeling to see it all this way! The other wonderful thing about this cruise has been the opportunity to see wildlife that you tend not to see from land - yesterday several seals popped their heads up to watch us on our way, swimming with us for a while. We have had the company of dolphins on occaisions too, and yesterday there were lots of (very colourful) puffins flying around us off Flamborough Head.

As we got into Whitby harbour today we were just too late for the last opening of the bridge in the morning; you have to pass the bridge to get to the marina in Whitby. We had to stop on the 'waiting pontoon' until the next high water when the bridge swings open again.

A Whitby fish and chip supper beckons this evening! (Obviously I need to go along for the sake of the rest of the crew, but I won't eat any of it that is unhealthy, of course).

Looking ahead as we leave Scarborough

Looking behind us at Scarborough castle, beach huts, and rainbow!

Blue Star on the waiting pontoon at Whitby in the centre of the picture

On to Scarborough....

We left Grimsby at 0900 today and motored against the wind parallel to the shipping lanes in the river Humber. Once out to sea we crossed the traffic seperation scheme lanes and found two wind farms blocking our planned path - the wind farms were not marked on our charts. After circumnavigating the wind farms we got back onto our intended track towards Flamborough Head - another yacht appeared ahead of us, also following the same direction. We had sun and wind for a while and were able to get several hours sailing done before we had to turn to motor power to get our speed up. The weather turned to rain showers and dark clouds, before the sun returned as we approached Scarborough. We were reminded of Simon & Garfunkel's 'Scarborough Fair' and so we listended to some S&G on our ipod player..... then some Beatles, Queen and Dire Straits. We rafted up alongside another boat in Scarborough as Pat Garnett from SCCC shouted a welcome to us that we were all very grateful for; I went ashore to shake Pat's hand but couldn't find him!

Flamborough Head as the showers passed over us

John, Roger and David keep watch in the rain.....someone has to!

Thank you to all of Kevin's friends and family....!!

I noticed that lots of friends  and family of Kevin have made a donation in support of Kevin sailing with us on the Blue Star GB Challenge! Thank you to all of you! It is very much appreciated! We will try our best to give Kevin a memorable week of sailing with us, and to send him back safely! Here's a clue as to where the first stop might be.......!
Click for a clue as to our first port of call....!

Don's photo

My neighbour, Don, popped over to see me today and handed me the photo shown below. Don is, shall we say, 'getting on a bit'; an octogenarian in fact. Don made some comment about the crew on this yacht. Clearly there is still some considerable life left in the old dog yet, as the saying goes!

Don's photo

I imagine, like me, that you are most upset if not offended by this photo. It just shoudn't be, should it? All those curves. Fancy being seen sailing like that! That mainsail and boom are just not rigged properly! (Apart from that everything else seems really good!)

Being prepared......

If you sign on as crew for a week of sailing, you don't always know exactly what you've let yourself in for until it arrives of course! So you have to expect the unexpected. Take the crew of Blue Star for example. I'm sure you will believe me when I say that we have to endure all manner of dangers, hardships, challenges to continue our intrepid adventure! We might find ourselves under attack from pirates for example, or torpedoed perhaps! At this point I feel I should reassure crew who are planning to sail with us but who have not yet set foot on Blue Star - do not worry. In the unlikely event of either of the above situations arising, your skipper of the day will have a plan and will tell you exactly what to do when the time comes :-)

To continue the theme.....we have recently discussed what we need to include in our 'grab bag' and on our 'grab list'. These are items prepackaged or pre-identified as being necessary for taking into the life raft with us, should it come to that. Our thoughts are:

Grab Bag: water, energy bars, heat conserving blankets, knife, repair kit for life raft, first aid box, torch

Grab List: EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon), handheld vhf radio, mobile phone, flares, additional food, additional clothing, personal medication, valuables, ships papers

we've not been attacked by pirates yet, fortunately!

....or torpedoed, fortunately!

A yacht 'grab bag'

 

Woolcool opening....

Diane and I attended the formal opening of the new premises of Blue Star's main sponsor today. Woolcool have opened their new manufacturing plant in Stone, Staffordshire. They are a brilliant success story for the area, having gone from only a handful of employees a few years ago to a projected 100 employees and yet another plant opening expected in a few years time! Well done Woolcool. We are so proud and pleased to have you as our main sponsor!

CEO Angela and MD Keith flank Sales Director Josie and council officials who cut the ribbon to open the plant.

The crew of Blue Star are looking forward to the first delivery of food arranged by Woolcool, to sample the ability of the novel packaging techniques, pioneered by Woolcool, to keep food cool and fresh!

Yellow...

Today is national 'Wear something yellow for CF' day, so Diane and I thought we'd get into the spirit of things - see photos below.

Diane has also painted a series of pictures of flowers (some yellow) which she is inviting anyone to 'buy' by making a donation to the CF Trust. You can see some examples of these below, but there are lots more too; if you are interested do please get in touch (frankly there are only so many oil paintings of flowers that one house can stand).

Also, if you click on this link, here is a video of Coldplay singing 'Yellow'!