To Whitehills

Some harbours have been brilliant in their support for our fund-raising efforts, and some not so. We had a big discount on our berthing fees at Eyemouth, and at Arbroath, and when we entered Whitehills harbour late this afternoon the harbour master said immediately that he could see we were sailing for charity and so the charge would be zero! It is so gratifying to get such support! Sadly, when we left Peterhead this morning the marina there ‘couldn’t do anything for us’. Hmmph!

We left Peterhead in a rather choppy sea as we rounded Rattray Head about 3 miles offshore to stay away from the worst of the over-falls, It was still a very uncomfortable sea though, lots of small but near vertical waves coming at all sorts of angles and the boat just wallowed along slowly inching its way around the Head. Once past Fraserborough things began to improve though and we started to enjoy more of the Moray Firth coastline which is very similar to that of North Wales – green vegetation on hilltops leading to rocky cliffs and small villages at the water’s edge. We put in to Whitehills, and very pretty harbour, at about 1800 and dined out at the local pub for a change. Tomorrow Inverness beckons.

Today's joke:

 Late one foggy night two boaters collide head on while trying to navigate a narrow inlet channel. Both their boats were damaged, disabled and slowly sinking.

As they each watched their boats slowly slip away beneath them, the first boater said " You know, this is a sign that we should never take life for granted and that we should live it to the fullest".

"You are right," said the other boater as he opened a cooler and pulled out a bottle of bourbon whisky. Let's drink to living well for the rest of our lives.

The first boater took the bottle and, after a big swig, handed it back to the other boater who in turn quickly threw it into the river.

More than a little surprised the first boater exclaimed " You didn't take a drink!?"

"Naw", said the other boater "I think I'll just wait for the Coast Guard to show up."

Rob looks on, with Moray Firth coastline in the background

Blue Star in Whitehills harbour

Another day in Peterhead

We were still waiting for some decent weather that might permit us to get around Rattray Head and on towards Inverness. It didn't happen today, but we are hopeful for tomorrow and have a planned departure time of 0900. Today we did our laundry (2 hours for the washer at the local caravan site laundry to complete its cycle, and another hour for the tumble-dryer!). We did a little more shopping, cleaned the boat, and searched the weather forecasts for hopeful signs! Rob cooked lunch (pancakes) and dinner (toad in the hole); well done Rob, it was delicious.

Today's joke:
Knock Knock
Who's there?
Clothes?
Clothes who?
Clothes the window and open this door!

Today's lunch

Today's dinner

A day in Peterhead

The weather was rubbish today, again. Jan went home and decided he’d finished with sailing. The rest of us walked into Peterhead and had a coffee before replenishing grocery supplies. We enquired about diesel – not available until Monday morning (the harbour master seemed a bit vague about whether the bank holiday on Monday would make a difference, although he said it wouldn’t. Still, we thought maybe we had enough to sail for Whitehills anyway. Then I decided to do some laundry and discovered that the laundry is closed until Monday too – again it might be Tuesday because of the bank holiday. Oh well, I’ve still got some clean clothes left. But I did want to wash my towel – the one that Jan rescued from the sea before he left, after I’d pegged it out to dry. We check the weather forecasts on various websites on a regular basis throughout the day, searching for a sign of hope! It seems to be coming, but not until Monday. Ah well, maybe I can find a laundry that is open tomorrow?

Today’s joke:

Spouse #1: Honey, this coffee tastes like dirt.

Spouse #2: That's not surprising, dear, it was just ground this morning.

The evolving weather forecast followed by the crew

Arbroath to Peterhead

We thought we might have been suff'rin' from 'arbour fever! 'arbour fever rots men and boats and we had been in Arbroath for so long, or so it seemed. And we were all a bit fed up with sharing the one (disabled) shower/toilet where the shower head won't stay up, so you have to hold it yourself or put up with it spraying just your tummy! (I must make clear at this point that we weren't sharing it at the same time!). You can bend down if you want your head showered too! So you can see it was time to move on. But was the weather suitable?

We departed Arbroath at 0730 after having to track down the harbour master to get back our deposit on our marina key fob! It was an irritating delay when we really needed to get on. We exited the marina to a reasonably flat sea and fair winds, but during the course of the day we saw large waves appear and then fade away, and winds varying from 5 knots to about 25 knots. Mostly the rain stayed away, and we made good progress motor-sailing with double reefed mainsail……until the last few hours into Peterhead, just after we passed Bram Stoker's 'castle' on the cliff. Was that symbolic? The wind whipped up, the seas built, and then wind was dead on the nose so we dropped the main and continued under engine alone. The rain blew horizontally and was painful as it hit our eyes and faces. The mist rolled in and visibility decreased to only a few hundred yards, and the large waves and wind did their best to halt our progress. Speed was down to only 3 knots despite increased engine revs, as we worked our way finally into Peterhead harbour where we were mightily relieved to enter calmer water.

During the day the catch on Rob’s door somehow got broken (HHmmm) and also the chef left the cover partly over the cooker and burnt the cover whilst cooking! (The fire alarm had gone off earlier in the day and we couldn’t work out why).

More bad weather is forecast for tomorrow!

Joke of the day:

There were three men out sailing, when it began to storm. Their boat was wrecked by the storm, and washed up on a deserted Island. They started to walk along the beach and found a bottle. They picked it up and began rubbing the sand off, when all of a sudden, a genie popped out. The Genie said "Since you have released me from the bottle, I will grant each of you one wish.” The first man said, "I really miss my wife and grandchildren. I wish I were back home." Poof! He was gone. The second man said, "This is great! I wish I were in Hawaii on the beach, with a good hot meal to eat." Poof! He was gone, too! The third man looked around and said, "You know, it's lonely around here, I really miss those guys."

Roger doing battle with the elements

Trying to find Peterhead harbour in the murk!

The door catch that 'came away' off Rob's cabin door. Hmmm. Robbb???

Who was the chef who did this? Lets see now - it wasn't me, it wasn't Roger, it wasn't Jan....that leaves....err, hhmmm, errr....

Still waiting in Arbroath

We waited again for the worst of the weather to pass, but tomorrow there appears to be a bit of a weather window, when the wind isn't quite so strong, and the sea not quite so wild. So the decision has been taken. Tomorrow at 0700 it is 'all systems go' and we shall depart Arbroath bound for Peterhead. The wind is supposed to become a westerly, so if the sea stays flatish it just might be a good sail! We are just a bit aprehensive about the sea state getting worse as we approach Peterhead just off the headland, Rattray Head. We shall see. It should take about 12-14 hours to complete the 65 miles.

Today was Merchant Navy Day and we attended the Red Ensign flag raising ceremony being held at the Bell Tower museum. Anyone who is anyone was there of course. Yes, that includes us. Then we took a short train ride to Dundee where we visited the Discovery museum. We saw several short films about Captain Scott's expeditions to Antarctica and toured his ship. We all agreed that we wouldn't have wanted to sail to Antarctica on Discovery; she seemed very basic compared to today's standards. She has an open bridge, and we definitley didn't fancy keeping watch there on a cold night! Next we took a taxi to the obervatory where we had to walk the last 10 minutes up a steep hill to find that it was closed! We walked back to the train station and returned to Blue Star.

Todays Quiz Question: The capatin of the Discovery was RF Scott, but what to do the intials R and F stand for?

Today's Joke: After announcing he's getting married, a boy from Arbroath tells his pal he'll be wearing the kilt. "And what's the tartan?" asks his mate. "Oh, she'll be wearing a white dress," he replies. 

Merchant Navy day at the Bell Tower museum

Raising the flag

Scott's ship 'Discovery'

Another day in Arbroath

The forecast was for rough seas, so we decided to stay another day in Arbroath. Tomorrow looks the same, so Jan went home (a 45 minute bus ride) and we will ring him when we decide we can sail. The rest of us went once more for a coffee in town, and had an Arbroath Smokie lunch. In the afternoon Rob and I visited the Bell Tower museum. The building was originally constructed to house lighthouse crews for the Bell Rock lighthouse, and to signal to the lighthouse. If all was well the lighthouse would raise a ball on its tower, and the land station would do similar to its ball. In the event of the lighthouse not raising its ball a boat would be sent immediately to provide help. For on-duty lighthouse men whose wives gave birth, trousers or a dress would be flown from the land station to indicate the sex of the newborn! Rob and I could just about see the Bell Rock lightnouse - a small speck on the horizon; goodness knows how they managed to identify a pair of trousers! They must have had very good telescopes!

(P.S. How do lighthouse keepers communicate? Answer: Shine language! :-?)

The Bell Tower museum

The Bell Tower museum setting - note also the leading lights for the harbour, one on a tall mast to the right, and a lower one to the left.

A day in Arbroath

We thought we might have left on the early morning high water around 0600. Bruce, the marina manager, who controls the gates that keep the water in the marina when the tide outside falls said he didn’t work that early so wouldn’t be opening the gates. That left us with the option of leaving on the afternoon high water. We thought we might comfortably make it to Stonehaven, so I telephoned ahead to Stonehaven's harbour master to make arrangements. ‘Ooohh! The water’s flat here at the moment, but a Force 6 is expected and it’ll soon pick the sea up; you won’t want to sail in that! Even if you did make it’ he continued ‘ if you were in the harbour you’d probably ground at low water with these spring tides’. ‘Great’ we thought. So with encouragement like that we decided not to sail and had a day in Arbroath. We walked into town for a coffee, we bought Arbroath Smokies for lunch, went grocery shopping, and Rob made some flapjacks. We gazed out from the marina at the flat sea and windless atmosphere and wondered why we hadn’t sailed. Roger arrived on the early evening train and we dined on Rob’s pasta bake.

Tomorrow is another day.

Jan and I eat our Arbroath Smokies