Week 4
| Date | Blog Entry | Related Pictures |
| 18/07/08 |
Another good day although most of it was
completed under engine as the wind dropped off to nothing as the
day progressed even though the Met Office had forecast gales
within the next 6-12 hours. The coastline was beautiful and it
would of been great to call in at some of the smaller harbours
like Portknockie. The only problems were the squally showers
which you could see rolling in across the sea so at least I had
time to take cover, with the wind dropping I arrived at
Lossiemouth in a completely flat sea. As I was approaching the
entrance I saw another boat sailing along parallel with me and
it didn't click until they came in about 10mins after that it
was another Corribee called 'Bootneck'. It was great to meet her
owners who were as passionate as any about their Corribee. Due to the Northerly gales we were stuck in Lossiemouth for another 3 days, 2 of these were due to the strong winds and the other one was due to the residual swell which was still lingering about making an exit from the harbour hazardous. I had heard that it was the Inverness Highland Games so rather than wait around on the boat we decided to go to Inverness on the Sunday. It was brilliant spectacle and included all of the Scottish games like tossing the caber and hammer throw. All of the events were completed by athletes wearing kilts and despite the poor weather there was an excellent turn out with people from all over the world. The weather on the third day was scorching so it does show that it doesn't always rain in Scotland. I met lots of people in Lossiemouth but a special thank you to Ian the Harbourmaster for the free mooring and also the Moray Diving boat skipper who gave us a few fillets of mackerel for tea. It will be Inverness next and into the sea lock for the Caledonian canal, pictures are of the coastline on the way up, the view from under the umbrella in the heavy showers and 'tossing the weight at the highland games'. |
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| 17/07/08 |
Have finally arrived in Whitehills after
being stuck in Peterhead for 4 days due to bad weather, the
weather today was perfect to get round Rattray Head and start
heading into the Moray Firth. As I left the unusually windless
Peterhead I saw numerous dolphins swimming down tide. I kept
snapping away with the camera but they seem to know when I had
the camera as whenever I was doing something like changing sails
they were coming close to the boat. So I ended up with lots of
pictures of the sea without any dolphins, I was later told that
what I saw was the resident pod of dolphins who move up and down
the Moray Firth, hopefully I will see some more and manage to
get some decent photos. Whitehills is a lovely harbour which was made into a marina a few years ago, from the sea it is quite hard to spot but once insight its small entrance of only about 9 metres wide was easy enough to navigate. Both assistant harbour masters were very helpful especially in recounting all of the local takeaway numbers off the top of their heads! Whilst the weather looks good I'm going to keep pushing onto and the next stop will be Lossiemouth. Thank you to Whitehills for the free mooring and all of the help. |
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| 13/07/08 |
Had a wonderful sail today to Peterhead
(or 'the blue toon' as its also called) leaving Stonehaven at
about 10am with a steady breeze coming from the South East. The
scenery on the way up was great, changing from high cliff tops
to the busy commercial port of Aberdeen. Aberdeen is now one of
the biggest ports on the East Coast for Oil rig supply vessels
so although it is an excellent harbour on the access and shelter
front it doesn't really welcome yachts as its too commercial.
Whilst on the way up a helicopter kept circling and I think it
must of been training as it later flew off and I heard it call
up an anchored ship to ask if it could land on their deck. He
could of tried landing on the deck of the Corribee although he
would have to have amazing landing skills! As I approached Peterhead quite a few fishing boats where leaving. Its interesting to see how the type of boats has changed over the years and now the large vessels go out on ten day trips in search of mainly white fish. It looks very different to the likes of Bridlington where everything is carried out on a much smaller scale. Along with Fraserburgh, Peterhead have the largest fleets I have seen so far. The Peterhead Bay Marina was very comfortable and probably the best place to wait out some weather before going round Rattray Head when in the wrong conditions can be a very rough piece of water. This is due to its positions where the whole of the tide which runs across the coast meets causing some rough seas especially in wind over tide conditions. We are going to probably stay for a few days before turning West and heading towards Whitehills Marina in the Moray Forth. Thank you to all at Peterhead for the great stay. |
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