Back home for a while

The Kinlochbervie Harbour Master sold us a one month Highland Harbours pass for just over £115. This was much cheaper than the £330 he would have had to charge for a two week stay in his harbour! (These numbers of course reflect the fact that Robinetta is only 7m long).

Julian worked on board on Monday while I did the laundry and filled up with diesel, and we then moved Robinetta from the pontoon closest to the harbour entrance over to the one that is actually marked for visitors on our 2016 chart plotter. This only had one small yacht on it, that had obviously not moved in a while, and no water or power. Access to the floating pontoon was down a vertical ladder rather than a ramp, but the pontoon was well maintained and seemed a much better place to leave her than the other pontoon, where she would have been rather in the way for larger yachts coming in for a single night's stay.

On Tuesday we caught the 08:50 mini bus for a very scenic ride to Inverness. We hope to be back at the weekend by car, finally re-uniting Robinetta with her tender Worm, and bringing more fuel for her cooker. We have used 11litres of denatured bio-ethanol since April (some in her heater at the start of the year) and it is not available in many places.

Cape Wrath

Yesterday we ended up as planned in Loch Eriboll. Half-way through the day we thought we might go on but we were too tired.

The reason for going on was this word ‘rough’ in the weather forecast for Ardnamurchan Point to Cape Wrath. So the first thing to do was to check the weather.

The word was still there, but it said ‘in the west’ and now I had time to check what that meant. It looks like it means outside the Outer Hebrides. The Minch forecast area is entirely within the larger Ardnamurchan Point to Cape Wrath area and was much calmer.

The forecast for the first part of the journey hadn’t changed - East or South-East 3-5. We were unlikely to get a better forecast than that for rounding Cape Wrath. So we would go.

Next we looked at the tides. The atlas said the west going tide would start around 9 am. That gave us a nice easy start. It should then carry us round Cape Wrath and southward.

The weather was fine - a beautiful morning.

Alison wanted the No 2 jib and a reef in the main. I was happy with that - we would need it for a 5 and could change if we got a 3. So we stowed the No 1 and set the No 2. I left it 1/2 up as I needed the bobstay loose to raise the anchor.

We put the last 5 litres of diesel we had in a can into the tank and started the engine. I went forward to raise the anchor.

The wind was blowing into the anchorage and Robinetta was lying to it. Too much for me to haul against. So Alison motored forward gently to take the strain off the chain. I did it in stages, hauling until it got difficult and then making it off and stowing the chain. After some time some kelp came up and then it got really difficult. I got Alison to motor forward more quickly and that broke the anchor out of its kelp and I could finish raising it. It was hard work. I need to get fitter and stronger.

With the anchor on deck I could tension the bobstay and finish setting the jib.  The bobstay tricing line had broken. It must have got chafed by the chain overnight. A good reminder to always trice the bobstay when anchoring, even in such calm conditions as we had last night.

Out of the anchorage we had room to raise the main. I had an idea to be able to set a preventer while reefed. We could tie in a sail tie and it would wind round the boom with the sail but still let us tie the boom to the shroud. We shook out yesterday’s reef and then put a small reef back in again. It looked promising,

Soon we were sailing gently out of Loch Eriboll.

Alison set a course which would take us outside all the rocks to the west of the entrance but I thought we’d try cutting through. Directly on the shortest course was a dead run so we split the difference taking a broad reach between rocks. The experiment told us the best course was now a run - the wind was more from the south-east this morning. So we headed north to be able to take a better line and stay off the run.

Sea birds flocking on the north coast

On the helm Alison was finding the swell really difficult but we persevered for about a mile and then gybed onto port tack. Suddenly everything felt right. Robinetta was riding the swell, not being thrown about by it. The balance was good and we were heading in roughly the right direction.

Looking back down the Loch, we saw Madam, a huge modern varnished wooden sloop, coming out behind us. They tacked round onto an inshore course towards Cape Wrath - the long way round compared to a gybe - and starting pulling away from us,

The wind was very variable. Occasionally it dropped enough for us to put the engine on but mostly we could sail at over 5 knots.

Then it freshened and we turned head-to-wind and reefed down more and kept the jib furled.

Then Alison suggested the balance might be better with jib and no staysail so we dropped the halyard but didn’t try tying it down. This was better for a while.

In the gusts we hit 7.3 knots and were averaging over 6.

I took over helming and after a while it got too much for me. So we went head to wind and dropped the main and then carried on with jib and staysail. That worked really well and we were still doing between 5 1/2 and 6 1/2 knots!

That got us all the way to Cape Wrath. Along the way two yachts passed heading east, both reefed down and close hauled. At least the swell on the west coast hadn’t kept them in port.

Alison was helming by the time we got to Cape Wrath. She found Robinetta’s head would not come round to port to make the turn. We turned the engine on and got her around.

The pilot mentions a back eddy in the bay south of the Cape. We didn’t need it. The tide turned the corner with us, but we eased over to port to look for it. Sure enough the speed dropped in the bay. We headed back out into the main tidal stream and motor sailed south.

Cape Wrath

But the wind which had propelled us to the Cape was now heading us and we were in the lee of the land. It got very light. It’s possible we could have headed further west and picked up more wind but it was easier to motor gently south in calm sunny weather.

The swell was coming in from the west. This should have been wind-over-tide but the wind was so slight and the swell pitch was so long that it was hardly noticeable.

The coast from Cape Wrath down to Kinlochbervie is spectacular with sea cliffs and stacks and fascinating geological features. The main island in Am Balg is particularly striking with a deep sea cave on the western side where the water is pushed high up to the ceiling by the swell.

Am Balg

The entrance to Loch Inchard is only apparent from the north once very close.

Coming into the outer loch the swell was quite steep, around a metre and causing large breakers on the rocky shore. But inside it was completely calm with a clear line. We wondered what it would feel like to cross this line. There was nothing on the charts to indicate concern so we headed in and the swell subsided gently. The hard line wasn’t really there, we had just come though a patch of overfalls.



The entrance to the narrows is perfectly hidden, only opening up once one is within a cable or two. The entrance into the harbour is straight-forward. As expected there wasn’t any room on the pontoon for us so we rafted on a large Dutch yacht.

We met Graham there too who we had chatted with in Stromness. While we were talking another two large yachts came in and there was only one way to get them in. We moved Robinetta onto Graham’s 34 ft boat leaving room for the two new boats to make a raft of three with the Dutch boat.

It had been a great trip and we’d reached the West Coast. Now we had to talk with the harbour master and get home.

A day of changing decisions

After careful consultation of of weather forecasts and tidal stream diagrams we left Stromness at quarter to eight to catch the first of the favorable tide west through the Sound of Hoy. Fog patches made for a dull morning, but the wind direction promised to be good, and we raised the mainsail as we motored out of the harbour. Our intended destination was Loch Eribol, 55nm away.

Virtually as soon as we turned onto our course west we were on a broad reach, sailing at over 5 knots on the no 2 jib with a small reef in the main sail to balance it. Of course some of that speed was tide, and 40 minutes later the engine went back on as the wind died. We motored past Hoy in a flat calm with only a hint of swell, but got a good view of the Old Man of Hoy.

As we left Hoy behind I went below of made bacon sandwiches for breakfast while Julian helmed. We could see nothing ahead to aim at except a single yacht sail, and as he was on a different course (probably heading straight for Cape Wrath) we could not just follow him. Once breakfast was eaten I took the helm and steered a compass course of about 240°M. The swell was getting up, so it varied between 210°M and 250°M as Robinetta’s bow swung about. We hoped that the tiller pilot would be able to do better, so Julian set about getting “George” set up.

Julian got George working again electronically, but he also needs a new mount, and there is no telling when it will arrive. Every time we need George on duty Julian devises a new way to mount it. It took nearly an hour to secure him this time and the constant rubbing against the bulwarks revealed a patch of rot. One of our chopping boards spread the load, so the crumbling bulwark did not degrade further, but that is another repair to put on the list.

Almost as soon as George went on the helm the wind came in from the south east. We motor sailed for a while, then decided to shake out the reef and change up the jib to the no 1, as the wind was light, but usable. With the reef gone we could rig the preventer and use it as a kicking strap to stop the boom lifting in the swell.

We managed a couple of hours of pure sailing with no engine when the wind got up again, but cross swells developed to throw us about. We ended up putting the reef back in.

There was fog all the way along the north of the Scottish mainland, but we began to catch glimpses of the mountains above it. Then we went into a fog patch and Julian went forward to raise our radar reflector. We are not sure how much more visible it makes us to radar, but it is better than nothing.

By 14:30 we had centred the mainsail and put the engine back on. Radio reception was not good, and we could not hear the coastguard broadcast of the most recent weather forecast so Julian went on his phone and managed to pick it up. Once we heard it we decided that heading straight for Kinlochbervie would be safer than splitting the trip, so for the next 3 hours we motored straight for Cape Wrath. By the end of that time we were both aware that it was not a good idea. Helming was very hard work in the cross swell, too much for George to cope with, and the thought of not getting in until the small hours of the morning was daunting. We decided to return to our original plan of going to Loch Eribol, and if we had to stay there to sit out a possible force 7 then we would.

I stayed on the helm, and the direction change and knowing there were only 2½ hours of rough seas rather than 10 made everything seem easier. We reached the entrance to Loch Eribol at about 8pm and knew we had made the right choice. The place is stunningly beautiful, and the swell went down really quickly so we could relax.

On reaching the anchorage we found 4 boats already there, meaning we anchored further out than we hoped, in 9m of water. With 30m of our new chain out we knew we were safe. There was no trace of swell or wind and we lay calm. Bliss.

Julian cooked perfect scrambled eggs with smoked salmon for a late dinner. Perfection. After passage planning for the next day’s proposed rounding of Cape Wrath we went to bed, knowing we did not need to get up early to make a tidal gate.

Island with an old lime kiln sheltering the anchorage

Bit of an accident

 On the way to dinner last night I caught my shoe in one of the gaps on the marina pontoon, and fell flat on my face. Not fun. I have a cut over my left eye, which Julian cleaned very carefully then put a plaster on. After that we carried on to our dinner reservation at the Ferry Inn. where I anesthetised myself with a glass of wine and a whisky. (not a course of action I would recommend but I was pretty sure I did not have a concussion). The waitress very kindly got me some ice wrapped in a cloth which I kept on my cheek which was beginning to swell. The ice did its job, and the swelling went down.

Today Julian and I took COVID tests (negative) before getting the bus into Kirkwall to go to A&E. I had not seen the cut, but Julian thought it might need stitches. Turns out that I should have gone straight there, as they will not stitch after 12 hours have passed, but the doctor who saw me did not think it needed stitches anyway. They examined me very carefully for concussion, and gave me a tetanus booster, and an antibiotic just in case of infection, then put a new dressing on and sent me home. All very friendly, and no queue in A&E.

We had had all sorts of plans of what to do with the day, but in the event we just walked from the hospital into Kirkwall. The weather was beautiful, blue sky and warm sun, and we had lunch then a lazy wander and a doze on the grass by St Magnus Cathedral before getting the bus back to Stromness.

Once there we moved Robinetta from her arrival berth to one marked for visitors, and began to plan how to get home tomorrow. Unfortunately when Victoria arrived she told us we could not stay. We would have to go round to Kirkwall Marina, which is much larger, if we wanted to leave Robinetta in Orkney. Careful checking of the weather and tides resolved the problem. We will head for Loch Eribol tomorrow, then round Cape Wrath to Kinlochbervie, where the harbour master has said he is happy for us to leave Robinetta for a while. This was our original plan for the end of the week. So much for slowing down and taking it easy!

St Margaret's Hope to Stromness

 Robinetta rocked gently in the swell when we woke next morning. We could also hear wind in the rigging. I got out the no2 jib to rig after breakfast, but once on deck the wind felt too cold and fresh, so I ducked back down and told Julian I wanted to stay a little longer. The ferry had gone out without us noticing it, and it returned with just as little fuss, raising no wake to disturb the anchored boats.

It was 11am before Julian started hauling up the anchor chain. It took him ten minutes, and he grumbled a bit about using 25m of chain in a 5m anchorage! We had been held very securely though, and as I was not the one doing the hauling....

We headed out of the bay and got the staysail up. The wind was not as strong as it had seemed, and was coming from a useful direction, so we got the jib out to check. We did not get the main up straight away as Julian wanted a rest after hauling up the anchor, but when I reminded him that this was a chance to sail without the engine on he soon decided that raising the main would be a good idea. We reefed down to the first hoop and had a lovely sail until the wind died just after lunch.

Approaching Stromness

Every now and then the wind would come back, and we unfurled the jib and sailed. Then the wind came back with a vengeance and we sailed on reefed main an staysail... All in all it was an interesting and enjoyable trip the length of Scapa Flow with very small waves. The only time water came into the cockpit was when we took the wake of a tug coming out of Stomness head on. 

We headed round to the marina and took the first vacant berth we could see. The marina is only attended for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, so there was no one to tell us where to moor. We were safely tied up in the marina by 16:15.

While waiting for Victoria, the marina master, to appear we had a long chat with another sailor. He had just recovered from COVID, which he had gone down with in Stromness, causing his wife and expected crew not to appear for their crew change. He was full of praise for how helpful all the locals had been while he was ill.

When Victoria appeared we agreed to move to another berth when it was vacated tomorrow. She was not sure we would be able to stay our requested 2-3 weeks, but promised to let us know tomorrow.

Reaching Orkney

Cruise ship entering the Pentland Firth from the North

I had planed the crossing times for the Pentland Firth carefully, checking and rechecking I had got the times of Wick high water right. When we reached there ten minutes early we could feel the tide against us, and fifteen minutes later it was gently pushing us towards Muckle Flugger. Nothing the engine could not cope with though, and within half an hour we had a northerly tide helping us towards South Ronaldsay. We had chosen to cross as close to a neap tide as we could manage, and there was hardly any wind, so we crossed in a flat calm. There was a fair amount of shipping about, and we kept a careful note of their positions. Julian turned AIS on on his phone, and told me the names of all the ships I could see, and warn me about ones I couldn’t yet! A large tanker, coming out of the Flotta Oil Terminal, obviously saw us and took care to go behind us as he headed east and out past Muckle Skerry, and by the time a huge cruise ship came round the east end of South Ronaldsay to head through the Firth we were safely out of the Firth ourselves.

The wind came back for a spell, and we could just sail our course toward the sound of Hoxa on a fine reach, so we turned the engine off for an hour of gentle sailing. Sheer bliss. We had reached Orkney, and had already decided that we were not going to try getting any further west. We would leave Robinetta in Stromness at the end of the week, and meanwhile have a few days relaxing.

Of course the wind died again after an hour, and the engine went back on to take us to our intended anchorage in St Margaret’s Hope. It was so calm that we got the mainsail down and stowed neatly as we headed through Hoxa sound, past the WW2 look out points and gun emplacements on Hoxa Head. From a distance they look in very good condition, and there were two people walking round looking at them.

We headed past a fish farm that was not on our charts, then rounded the headland and could see St Margaret’s Hope. The ferry terminal had a large catamaran type ferry on it, but there were only 2 yachts anchored in the bay so there was plenty of room, despite a scatter of small buoys. We put out 25 m of chain, in a 4m deep anchorage, so had plenty of scope out against a possible SW f7 sometime in the next 20 hours. By 22:30 we were safely settled and relaxed in flat water. It was lovely to see our new anchor chain descending into the water, and it certainly left the deck cleaner than our old one, with not a speck of rust.

Wick to Duncansby Head

The Pentland Firth is best crossed leaving Duncansby Head at slack. Slack at Duncansby Head is high water at Wick. Today that was about 2:30 am or 6:25 pm. We weren’t up for an early start, and we had the reefing gear to fix.

I spent most of the morning fixing the boom. It turned out that of the three screws, one was fine, one was completely missing and the third had broken off inside the hole. All the holes were badly worn so I drilled three new ones. The first two went well. The thin bit I was using to drill the pilot holes broke off in the third hole. So, I had to start again. I got there in the end.

Then we raised the sail to check the fix worked and found a few other things needed sorting. The top mast hoop had come untied. The peak outhaul needed tensioning. The gaff span was not hooked onto the wooden lugs on the gaff so was pulling on the robands and not setting well. We also got the bowsprit out on the pontoon and set the No 1 jib.

Fixing all these made us much more confident we had a sailing boat.

We left Wick about 2pm after a nice lunch of Spaghetti Carbonara cooked by Alison and eaten in the cockpit.

There wasn’t much wind – variable 3 or less in the forecast and probably south westerly 2 on the water. But we got the main up and the sails were drawing. Motoring against the flood tide up to Noss Head was very scary eight years ago but now we had confidence that the back eddy in Sinclair’s Bay would propel us north.

Around Noss Head the tide was running strongly and turning into the bay took some time. Once on the recommended track between the 20m and 30m contours we picked up speed. The wind had veered a bit towards the north. We could probably have sailed this leg, but we wanted to be sure we wouldn’t be late, so we motor sailed. We had a course to Duncansby Head in the plotter so we could see our ETA and we throttled up and down as the wind rose and fell to keep to time.

Once out of Sinclair’s Bay the wind was a bit too northerly to keep the jib filled. We tacked into the shore to get a better line, but then decided to furl the jib.

The sea stacks and bird life at Duncansby Head are spectacular. One of the privileges of sailing these waters.

Alison had said “we know we mustn’t be late at Duncansby Head, but I don’t know what it would be like if we were early”.

We were going to find out.

 

Portsoy to Wick

Yesterday, Malcolm Bremner, skipper of Isabella Fortuna, had said they were planning to leave for Wick in the afternoon, to wait for the swell to go down. Martin knows these waters better than anyone, so we planned to do the same. So, at 4am we watched White Wind preparing to leave for Peterhead on their way back to Anstruther. I wandered round to look at the swell and it didn’t look too bad, but it was still there, so we went back to bed.
 
Around 5:15 Alison looked out again and said “Isabella Fortuna is going!”
 
So, we threw clothes on and went up and got the engine on and I started undoing lines. I’d tied a long line between ladders. We’d used it to clip the jib halyard to so we would lean against the wall. So, I had that to undo as well as the long fore-and-aft lines.
 
The tide was falling fast now so we backed off the wall rather than going round in a circle up the beach! It all worked perfectly, and we motored out of the harbour following Isabella Fortuna.
 
Now we had to do all the work we wanted to do in harbour. We went very slowly. I helmed and Alison got the bow sprit out and then we swapped, and I bent on the No 2 jib. It took us a good hour to turn her into a sailing boat, including reefing her down part way to the first hoop. We could have had a little more mainsail out, but we were being careful.
 
Once Isabella Fortuna was over the horizon, we had no aiming point. Steering a course on plotter and compass is really hard for me. I can concentrate for hours on a technical problem but my attention span for hand-eye coordination is about one minute!
 
I managed. Badly.
 
At 8:50 the wind was working well for us, and we turned the engine off. By 9:20 the wind had freshened, and we wanted to reef a bit more. We turned on the engine and went head to wind, but we couldn’t get the next reef in.
 
We looked around and Alison spotted that the main sheet was wrapped around the boom. We tried to free it, but it turned out to be symptomatic of a bigger problem.
 
Robinetta’s roller reefing system is unique as far as I can tell. At the front of the boom is a drum around which a wire is wound. A block and tackle run back to the cockpit to wind the sail around the boom. At the back of the boom there is a companion fixed inner ring with a rotating outer ring around it. The topping lifts and main sheet are fixed to the rotating ring so when the boom rotates the sheet and topping lifts don’t. This rotating ring was stuck.
 
In April I’d made major repairs to the goose neck at the front of the boom, but I obviously hadn’t examined the back. The inner ring is held in place with three screws. If these screws come loose, they jam the outer ring. This must have happened.
 
In the swell, there was no safe way to fix this. In port it would be easy. We dropped the main and spent the rest of the day motoring with help from the jib and staysail. This was really frustrating as the wind was in the aft quarter – the best possible direction for sailing.
 
We’ve always had problems with ‘George’, the tiller pilot. For years the tiller fitting gave trouble. It was a stainless steel pin welded to a flat bar and the stresses are enormous and the weld gave and I tried various methods to keep in in place, all of which worked for a time… We spotted a friend had a threaded pin and buying one of those fixed that problem permanently. Then the main mount – designed for a different pilot – started breaking down from the stress and strain. After many repairs it is now in the bin, and I’ve ordered an expensive purpose made steel piece, but they are on very long lead times. I got the wiring wrong too. The wire gauge I’d used to the multi-way Bulgin socket was too thin, so the pilot kept falling out of steering mode and resetting. Finally, the Bulgin plug and socket were not mating well so actually getting a connection had become impossible. I’ve bypassed the multi-way socket and the thin wiring now. The new wiring directly connects the tiller pilot to the battery switch, using the same cable as the solar panel. Lashing the pilot against the bulwark worked well last time.
 
So, George went on helm duty. He did sterling work, giving Alison and me a relaxing trip.
 

Oil Production Platform

The (newish) windfarm

As we neared the Caithness shore the swell died down and apart from dodging the wind farm and a trawler, we had an uneventful passage into Wick where we were welcomed by the new harbour master and shown to a sheltered marina berth. 

Showers! 

Then we went looking for dinner. There wasn’t much open on a Monday evening. The bistro at the hotel was recommended but fully book so we went to the Weatherspoons for a steak.

Portsoy Festival

The Traditional Boat Festival at Portsoy had not run during COVID, and there was a mostly new team in place. We got there early as did the boats we had left Peterhead in company with. They had all reported to Peterhead that they were going to Whitehills, but changed their minds and came straight to Portsoy as we had, as did Isabella Fortuna  coming from Wick. Blackgold, a small scaffie also arrived on the Thursday.

White Wing arrived on the Friday high tide having come from Anstruther, and reported a horrible journey, and no other boat arrived, leaving the festival a little short of traditional boats.

Julian took the opportunity to give Robinetta's hull a good scrub down, so she is no longer festooned with weed, on the stern, bow, and starboard at least!

It might have been short of boats, but there was a warm welcome for the crews on Friday Night at the harbour side cafe, the Port House of Portsoy, and a young piper played a couple of tunes in the amazing accoustic of their outside courtyard.

Saturday was cold, and rather windy, but it did not matter because there was also bright sunshine. The craft stalls had some interesting things on display, the music was great, and the place was heaving with people. There was a chance to try your skills in a coracle, and a raft race that brought everyone to the old harbour. The evening ceilidh got everyone dancing, and we had a great time although Julian slipped while dancing.

Sunday however was horrid. Cold, wet, and with force 6 gusting 7 winds that sent waves crashing against the rocks. The Old Harbour proved its worth in those conditions, with no swell at all, but crossing between the two harbours was not a pleasant proposition, and there were no on the water activities. The thronging crowds of Saturday were replaced by a few cold souls wandering around, and there were plenty of places to sit in front of the harbour stage. The performers tried hard, and sounded good, and being on Robinetta we could always take shelter.

The festival closed with some "Sanky Hymns" in the Ceilidh tent, mostly attended by the festival helpers, although everyone was welcome.

All in all we had a good time. Our only concern was that the waves from Sunday's near gale would have gone down enough to let us leave first thing in the morning.

Round Rattray Head

In order to make the most of the tide round Rattrey Head we needed to leave Peterhead at 04:00. It turned out that Robinetta was not the only boat heading north, and although we were the first to leave we were passed by 5 other yachts before we got to Rattray Head. The forecast was for very light winds, so we did not even bother to raise the main sail, and we headed close in to the headland to take advantage of the fact that the tide was in our favour there 2 hours earlier than further out. The sea was oily calm, except just off the headland itself where it seemed very confused, but with a wave height of less than 30cm this did not worry us!

By 07:10 we were only 3nm from Frazerburgh, a huge contrast to the last time we came past Rattray Head in 2014. We had been exhausted by battling the sea state, and took shelter in Frazerburgh harbour. Today we were merely sleepy from an early start, and felt no need to stop while we had the tide with us.

Julian and I took turns to doze as we motored in bright sunshine past some spectacular sea cliffs, full of breeding birds. Mostly gannets from what we could see, but there were guillemots too, and possibly some razorbills and puffins. As well as the birds resting on the water between fishing trips I saw a less welcome sight. A colourful bouquet of deflated balloons had no place in the sea, so I circled back to them so Julian could fish them out with the boat hook.

That tide carried us all the way to Portsoy, which we entered at 14:00 just on high water. We were actually there twenty minutes earlier, but were asked to wait while they got a classic fishing boat in ahead of us. This was not a problem. Julian turned the engine off, and we sailed very slowly on the staysail while I got the bowsprit in and tidied the foredeck. There was even time to put a new line on our biggest fender before we were called in.

Drying out on the wall

The old harbour had been cleared of its normal boats, and Robinetta’s berth was on the harbour wall. There was plenty of water as we came in, but by 16:30 we had grounded, and we were high and dry an hour later. Robinetta was not designed to lie on sand, but she settled against the harbour wall almost upright. That big fender is working hard, so hopefully it will survive the weekend!

Stonehaven to Peterhead

I woke at 06:00 hearing the beat of a diesel engine and movement. I was afraid that it might be a returning fishing boat wanting our berth, but when Julian put his head out of the cabin to have a look and he could not see anything moving. It turned out to be a fishing boat leaving, so we went back to sleep.

There was no sign of the harbour master at 08:00, so we put Robinetta’s card and £25 though his letter box to pay for our berthing. As far we we could tell Stonehaven has a flat rate berthing fee, and a passing local told us how much it was. I checked the oil level in the engine, and it seemed lower than yesterday. Julian had been complaining off and on about smelling burning oil, so this was a bit concerning. I called Mike French, and he told me to measure the oil level very carefully, and keep him updated if the level continued to go down.

We were ready to leave at 08:30, which was dead low water. We only had 0.3m below the keel on the berth, but yesterday’s exploration had shown us that this was the shallowest bit of the harbour, and we got out of the harbour without problems.

We got the main sail up as soon as we had enough room to go head to wind. The wind was still very light, and still southerly/south westerly (dead astern) and we only managed half an hour of sailing without the engine on. Julian could still smell burning oil, although I could not. We had bright sunshine all morning, with very little swell, but by lunch time Robinetta was being rolled all over the place. We were not having fun, and when the sun went it all became a bit grim, with the tide against us, and barely making 3 knots at full revs. The wind got up, but we could not use it easily, the swell got up and pushed Robinetta all over the place. We put in a reef at 14:30, just before I took the helm.

Peterhead Harbour entrance

It was a huge relief when the tide turned in our favour again just after 16:00. By the time we reached Peterhead it was giving us an extra 2 knots, and we had to ferry glide towards the harbour entrance. Once in the shelter we could motor straight for the marina entrance where we were tied up by 18:35. This had not been an enjoyable day on the water, but the marina officer was there to show us to our berth and give us a gate key, so we felt welcome.

When I opened my marina fee record to record the £14 we were charged I realised we had arrived exactly 8 years to the date from our last arrival in Peterhead (£12 that time!). Peterhead is the cheapest full service marina I am aware of.

We walked into Peterhead after a much appreciated shower, and treated ourselves to an Indian meal.

Arbroath to Stonehaven

We arrived in Arbroath on Monday evening, ready to head out as soon as the harbour gate opened in the morning. This would not be until 10.55, so we had time to shop and for Julian to get the running lights working again.

The gates opened a few minutes early, but we were not in a desperate rush so I did the engine checks and was surprised to find less oil than I expected. There was still plenty, so I turned the engine on. We were being blown into the berth, and it took Julian a lot of patient maneuvering to turn Robinetta round to head out of the inner harbour.

The wind had been forecast from astern, and light. There was more wind than we had feared, so we got the sail up once we were clear of the harbour and its surrounding field of crab pots but the direction was as bad as expected. Sailing was very hard work on a dead run, and we could not get any wind into the jib, but we did manage 3 hours of sailing without the engine on before the wind went too light to use. We were only making 1½ knots against the tide, and the arrival time at Stonehaven was showing as midnight, so we put the engine on.

There was a lot of bird life about, guillemots razor bills, puffins and gannets were all abundant. The cliffs were full of nesting birds, and the sea has rafts of resting guillemots and gannets. 

Unfortunately the sea also had some unwelcome jetsom. I spotted it from Robinetta (one of the advantages of being so close to the water) and circled back so Julian could fish it out with a boat hook.

Stonehaven castle

 Our arrival time at Stonehaven had been forecast as anytime between 8p.m. and midnight when we were sailing. Luckily this improved hugely under motor as the tide turned in our favour around 4. By the time we reached Stonehaven we were doing 5½ knots, and we entered the harbour just before 7. This was only an hour before low water so I circled the outer harbour carefully looking for the best approach to a vacant berth by a ladder. The depth below the keel in the harbour was never less than 0.9m, but our along side berth only gave us 0.5m. That was plenty, given there was no swell in the harbour, so we moored on long lines for and aft, with a loop of rope tied through the ladder to make a centre line that we clipped on to to keep Robinetta near the ladder.

I cooked on board, then we set off to look for pudding. A member of the life boat crew stopped for a chat, and told us that the only place that would be open was an ice-cream parlour called Auntie Bettie’s that was all the way round on the other side of the bay. We had a lovely walk there, along a board walk with information boards and quirky sculpture, and areas of benches to sit and chat. Stonehaven has obviously been trying hard to improve its waterfront.

The ice-creams were lovely, and afterwards we dropped into the Marine Hotel for a drink before heading back to Robinetta to sleep.

New anchor chain

 Robinetta spent 6 weeks in Arbroath. We visited her twice in that time. The first just to look around the towns and meet up with friends, but the second time we brought along 60 metres of 8mm galvanised chain to replace our old anchor chain which was very rusty in places. The old chain was made up of 3 pieces, shackled together. Julian had to use a hacksaw to cut through the shackle holding the old chain to the anchor as it was rusted solid. We bought a wheelbarrow to move the chain from the car to the boat as we could not find any marina trolleys.

I now need to think about replacing the kedge anchor. We have only used it a couple of times, and it could well be rusted solid. I must check!