Lossiemouth to Inverness

After collecting diesel from the local garage, we set off for the Caledonian Canal on the inside of the Moray Firth. We had a slightly late start due to me waking with a migraine. The locks on the canal are only operational during office hours, to we had to make good progress towards Inverness. The swell had gone and the conditions improved as the channel narrowed towards some very interesting pilotage before Inverness. At one point, a large group of fast powerboats ( 15 - 20 ) passed in the opposite direction apparently on a UK circumnavigation too.
Pilotage was interesting up to the Sealock.


Entry into the Caledonian Canal was easy once passed the bridge with its tidal flow and outfalls. The cost was £138 for Serenity and seems to include some mooring costs. We stopped at the Seaport marina once we found wifi and headed into town for dinner.

Peterhead to Lossiemouth

We were stuck in Peterhead by forecasts of 5-7, sometimes gale force 8, and after the previous day's experience with the swell, we decided to stay in port.
Talking to the harbourmaster at Peterhead, he suggested leaving at HW to hit slack around Rattray head. HW was at 06:30, so this was an early start.
The weather was perfect, 12kn of wind on the port beam and we passed Rattray Head with no problems. I had been slightly cautious about this part of the journey, hearing about the outfalls and confused seas as the turn turns this corner.
Jennifer and I discussed stopping at Whitehills, but we seemed to be making such good progress under sail that we pushed forward to Lossie. I'd heard such good things about Whitehills too.
The last part of the journey was into the wind and heavy swell, so the engine was back on and it was a real grind. Lossiemouth was a very friendly port, we met Jackie again who was awaiting crew. It is next to a very active RAF lossiemouth, so is a must for plane spotters.

Arbroath to Peterhead

Jennifer and I left Hinxton at around 17:00 on Monday and headed up the A1 to Arbroath by van ( ridiculously cheaper than a train for 2 ) arriving around 03:00 Tuesday morning. A very good drive listening to an unabridged Terry Pratchett talking book.
Away from Arbroath at 08:00 past a large group of dolphins playing off of the harbour. Th plan was to set sail for Peterhead, but with a plan B of stopping at Stonehaven. Heading up the coast we needed 1 reef in the sails, but the wind was beautifully on the beam most of the way, and the sea state was slight with some slow swell from the stern. The sailing conditions on passing Stonehaven ware good, so we proceeded on towards Peterhead. We then had more swell from the NW adding to the swell from the S creating a very confused sea and it became rather unpleasant as we pitched and rolled our way to a very welcome haven of Peterhead Port. 65nm later.

Arbroath to Cambridge ?

Disaster !
Thursday 18:00 - Jack phones up to say that the ceiling in the lounge has collapsed and there is water everywhere. Oops.
I'm worried about the electrics, the reason for this and the fact that Jack will be on his own with this for the next week as Jennifer is joining me for the Caledonian Canal, so I book a sleeper train home and am currently setting at Liverpool St station awaiting transport to Cambridge to assess the situation.
I hope to be back with Serenity on Sunday to continue progress.
Here is a photo of how I found it. The carpets and sofa are now on the front lawn..

Arbroath

We are moored up inside the locked dock that opens around HW and office hours. We have Electricity, water and wifi at a nearby cafe/restaurant.

As you wander the streets of Arbroath, you come across lots of fish shops, arbroath smokies and a wonderful smell of smoked fish. My next port of call will be either Stonehaven or Peterhead, but I"m not going out singlehanded in the current F5-7 even if the wind is in a perfect direction. I'll wait until the wind dies down

Tayport to Arbroath

We left Tayport hoping that the savage swell in the mouth of the Tay had died down, and it had. To get to Arbroath around high tide, we had to leave against the tide, 2kn at times, but we made proress into it. Heading north from the mouth of the Tay to Arbroath, we saw a dolphin again, but not as many, or as close as yesterday.

We tied up in Arbroath inner harbour, and once we had seen the harbourmaster, searched out the showers and a decent meal.

Eyemouth towards Arbroath, arriving at Tayport.

We now have a light southerly wind at last, and the swell from the north is much easier. The circumnavigators are off, leaving Jackie on her own awaiting a new crew.
The first surprise was the inshore waters forecast on VHF, the coastguard announced it as usual and then said that it would not be broadcast due to 'industrial action'. This was repeated at intervals all day.
Towards the Isle of May, a warship ( 089 I think ) passed us and I noted that it was not squawking AIS. This seems a little unreasonable as they are not actually in combat here.
Sailing up past the Isle of May and then past St Andrews was perfect, but we seemed to have a little swell from both the north and the SW. My timing for Arbroath harbour was out, we had missed the lock for the inner gate, and I could not get hold of the harbourmaster to see if we could get shelter in the outer harbour.
The weather was deteriorating, so I decided that it would be safer to enter the Tay rather than Arbroath with the unpleasant swell from the SE. Turning brought us beam on to the swell, and the floor inside Serenity started to fill with plates, paper and anything that was not nailed down. We were really being thrown around.
We kept our course and were joined by a large group of dolphins who followed us down the channel and they left once the swell abated. They were fantastic, within a metre or so of Serenity, but we were so busy holding course that we could not photo them
The pilot books and Reeds Almanac show access to Tayport at HW +- 4 hours and we were dead on LW. As we only draw around 1m, I thought we might just get to a wall. We just needed to stop somewhere. We tried from one direction and hit the mud, then from another direction and hit more mud. I then noticed someone on a radio on the quay, so went to ch16 ( from the Tay harbour Ch ) and they were guiding us in. They pointed out the leading line ( the triangle about the minibus, and the tide guage ) and we ran down it.

The depth sounder said 0.8m at one point, but we scraped in and onto a pontoon birth.
It was great to be tied up. Everyone was very friendly, we were given a key and found a Chinese takeaway and a pub. I slept well.

Eyemouth to.. Eyemouth

Between all the circumnavigators in Eyemouth, we now have a en excellent selection of weather forecasts.
We have the shipping forecast, but that is really for offshore stuff. More usefully there is an inshore waters forecast, that gives the marine forecast to 12 miles offshore. This is available via VHF from the coastguard broadcast, navtex which does not seem that reliable, and a web page.
There is windguru - http://www.windguru.cz/ if you can find a spot local to you. And there is http://magicseaweed.com/ for week forecasts. You have to take some of these with a pinch of salt, but when you have been stuck in port for a few days, these weather, wind and swell forecasts become fascinating.
So, windguru was projecting little wind but with 2.2m swell from the north. Tim and I decided to wander out of Eyemouth and see what it was really like. The harbour exit was exciting with large swell coming into the entrance, but I know it would get better. Out at sea, I now know what 2.2m of swell was like - fine as long as it was on the nose and consistent. Once we rounded St Abbs again, we seemed to be getting waves from two different directions and started to corkscrew. We decided 10 hours of this would not be fun, so turned back to Eyemouth. The entrance was really fun, following the leading line straight into the harbour mouth with white water on either side. I called Jackie in ch72 to say that we were returning, and they were all there to grab our ropes and help us back.
These are the tracks from our chartplotter, two attempts to pass St Abbs Head. Third time lucky.

After a strong cup of tea and a sleep, we walked towards St Abbs Head on the coastal path to see the sea from the cliffs.

Eyemouth

Well, we have been in Eyemouth since arriving on Tuesday, held here by Northerly winds and swell.

Eyemouth seems a really nice place to be stuck though, having good public transport, swimming pool, supermarket, a cafe with wifi and another with excellent vegetarian food.
I've had a couple of nice trips to Edinburgh, one with Paul to visit the Museum of Scotland, and another to meet my new crew - Tim.
Paul left on Thursday, and I had a day or so on my own - with excellent company from the other sailing boats sheltering in Eyemouth. Jackie's site is at http://www.saltdeanweb.co.uk/dowding/uk.html.
The seals have been wonderfully entertaining.

I've managed to get by diving air cylinder refilled, but the same weather that is stopping me sail seems to be halting any easy dive trips.

Berwick to Eyemouth

Tuesday 10th of June

Waking up in the lorry park that is Berwick's harbour, we found Serenity covered in grit, cigarette end and litter. After a short debate, we decided it was more important to move on ASAP and miss the great fortifications of Berwick.

Looking at the weather closing in, Anstruther was the ideal destination for the next few days.

The harbour exit was easy, mostly following our track in, but the sea was a little choppy and the wind was directly from ahead.

A couple of yachts passed us including Jackie and Steve, one more sheltered by the cliffs and one further out to sea.

We passed our plan B - Eyemouth under some shelter from the cliffs until we passed St Abbs Head and hit the wind and swell from the Firth of Forth. After a very short while, I decided to turn back for Eyemouth, and what a good thing we did. Eyemouth is a wonderful destination, with excellent facilities and I felt like looking for work and a house to live in.



We were welcomed by a group of tame seals who seem to think that we were going to offer them fish.

Blyth to Berwick

Blyth was a very nice port to visit. We met two more couples circumnavigating the UK, its getting like the M25.



Sails up with one reef in, up to 6.5kn under sail, excellent progress but the wind in variable and the reef goes in and out and then in to stay.

The water up towards the Farne Islands gets very clear, 35m deep but you can see the sand and vegetation colours. It must be great diving area. Lots of birds are diving for fish and Paul poits out all the puffins. They just look so unwieldy trying to fly.

George ( from the Mayors office ) phones :-)

We are passed by a friends from Blyth ( Jackie and Steve ) within the Farne Islands. The pilotage seems a little daunting, but ultimately straightforward.

The wind is increasing as we head for Berwick, and the pilotage into this port is non-trivial, and the harbourmaster is not answering either the phone nor the radio.

Arriving in Berwick, the facilities are bare, the harbour is now a lorry park, and we tie up near a ladder so we can get out of the boat, preparing our mooring lines for the 4m tidal variation. Find another excellent Italian restaurant. Once we are back at the boat, she is covered with grid and rubbish from the lorry park. We plan to leave ASAP.

Hartlepool to Blyth

I had a day off today, as Paul took the role as skipper. I was happy to crew for a day. We left Hartlepool at 09:45, the northerly tidal currents seem to happen about 1.5hours after HW, so our starting times are a lot more sociable. On passage, we came across what looked like a half sunken boat, and changed course to investigate - it turned out to be a very large log in the water. There was a lot of rubbish floating on our course, and the engine note chaged as we went close to some. We throttled the engine back and then forward to clear and stuff, and noticed the exhaust seemed to the dripping spots of oil - worrying. Further investigation showed this to be drips of petrol from the outboard fuel in the gas locker ( gas now all removed from the boat ). We spent a while cleaning this up, and ventilating the boat very well before proceeding.

We saw a big seal very close to Serenity.



Arriving at Blyth was nice, good facilities, but we were too late for food, and the town was a long walk. So I had a pleasant shower and made dinner of slightly burnt omlettes.

Scarborough to Hartlepool

Late start as we had to wait for the chandlers to open, buying a replacement winch handle ( dropped over the side yesterday ) and a new Imray - made in St Ives, Cambs - chart beyond Whitby. I use a Navman 8084 electronic plotter with C-MAP Max UK cartridge for real time navigation, but was paper charts to plot position, just in case GPS dies. Breakfast of egg/bacon/quorn rolls made on the electric cooker now it is wired to the mains, and we have shore power.

Paul sailed us out at around the headland containing the Castle, and we headed North with little wind. Again the inshore waters forecast was incorrect. "Variable 3-4" seems to mean "we have no idea".

10:20 Paul called me on deck to see a porpoise pass within a few yards of the boat.

The weather closed in, poor visability and rain/cold. yeuch.

Busy around the Tees entrance, lots of freight and tankers anchored up. Again AIS is very helpful.

Arrive Harlepool, a big marina via lock. WiFi a stuggle. We will spend a day here to reprovision and prepare for the next leg on Sunday.

Grimsby to Bridlington, or Scarborough

It was spring tide on the day we left Grimsby, and the lock is normally on freeflow from HW- 2 to HW+2, but on springs they shut the lock gates HW-1 to HW+1 to stop any flooding. We therefore left at 06:10 and motored against a foul tide for an hour or so. The Humber was very busy with many large ships, but having AIS on the plotter gave us confidence that we understood all the activity around us and that we could pilot a safe course to the mouth of the Humber.

We passed the tetney monobouy again and saw a tanker discharging crude oil into this pipe head.



We saw lots of seals, some coming very close to Serenity once the engine was off and the sail up outside the mouth of the Humber. A beautil sunny day.

As we progressed northwards towards Bridlington, we realised that we would arrive very early, so after some calculations, we decided to push on to Scarborough attracted by the facilities and the promise of WiFi.

We made good progress until the tide turned as we passed Flanborough Head. Hitting a 4kn current, we had the engine running and finally the scooper raised .

Arrived Scarborough at 19:30. initially entered incorrect dock looking for moorings - the pilot book and the almanac have not caught up with the new developments. Scarborough seemed to have a lot of tattoo shops and goth stuff, and I wish we had time to visit the castle

A day in Grimsby

Bernie and I woke to a much nicer day in Grimsby. We collected provisions from the local supermarket and did some boat stuff such as filling with diesel and water. Grimsby marina has free WiFi, a great attraction..

Much of Grimsby looks run down, but there is some incredible old architecture.

Paul arrived and Bernie left, and we explored Grimsby for dinner, finding Pizza Hut in the new centre. It was very quiet.

Wells to Grimsby

Starting out from Wells, we had hoped to follow a local fishing boat out, but they had all gone by the time we set off. Instead we followed the buoyed path and ploughed a few furrows through the mud as I got the hang of the route.
This was a definitely a rough passage across The Wash and into the Humber. It was a head wind that peaked around 25kn, so we sent a lot time slamming into waves. Taking advice from the harbour master in Wells, we headed north to pick up one buoy, then another and so on past the firing range, south of Spurn Point and onto Grimsby, an easy route. The rain that had been clear on the way over started as we entered the Humber and we lost sight of anything more than 1nm away, so navigation was buoy to buoy, GPS and AIS.
The club house in Grimsby was very friendly, mains, water, wifi and a nice shower. We met another couple circumnavigating the uk - http://www.freewebs.com/zoe-marie/

Bernie adds:
No seals to be seen on this leg of the journey - though perhaps that excludes the 6 hours I spent laying horizontal with my eyes shut, wishing the world would end. Beware the air vents at the pointed end of the boat during rough weather, BTW, unless you like a face full of salt water from time to time. Grimsby was fine. Nice people at the club and lots to see around the docks/marina. Plus a train service only 5 minutes away.

Wells on Sea

We travelled from Lowestoft to Wells on Sea starting at 05:00 to get to Wells for high tide. It was an eventful journey, passing scroby sands and all the wind turbines off of Great Yarmouth, then a mayday from a 121MHz PLB on our route. Wells bar was exciting and choppy but we followed a local boat in and arrived safely. Wells is beautiful, with a friendly harbourmaster and good facilities. After talking to the harbourmaster, he recomended avoiding Kings Lynn due to the tidal complexities, and going straight for Grimsby on Tuesday. So we have a whole day in Wells, Jennifer will go home and Bernie will join me.

Jennifer adds:

I missed all the excitement of the distress call. It was my turn to sleep, and I was dead to the world.

But I did see a seal!

No wind still, so we did the entire journey by engine again :-(