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!

5 a.m. again

I normally sleep well in Robinetta, but last night I kept waking up, and when I did I would go over in my mind exactly how we would get off the berth. We had been blown on to it, so I feared being lee shored. When the alarm went (another 05:00 wake up call) Julian and I discussed it while the kettle boiled. Springing off the bow and motoring backwards seemed the only way possible, and as soon as we stuck our heads into the cockpit and felt no wind at all everything seemed easier, and the plan worked like a charm. Julian did have to push the boat astern with his hand to stop their outboard from touching Robinetta, but that was our only contact with the three tightly packed boats. The owner of the inner most yacht, who had helped us moor, appeared on the pontoon and waved as we motored away.

We were out of the harbour by 05:50, heading into a gently rolling sea.

We needed to make 4 knots to reach Arbroath before the lock gates closed, and at first it did not look promising. Robinetta was making less than 3.5 knots as we headed towards St. Abbs head. Checking our tide charts later we realised that the tide was against us here as it ebbed out of the Forth. The light wind in the stay sail was just created by our forward motion, but as we cleared the headland the wind seemed to have some west in it, and the staysail started drawing.

Once we left St. Abbs head and its contrary tide behind our speed picked up a little, but the thought of trying to helm in a straight line for nearly 40nm with no aiming points for the first 20 had Julian deciding to put "George" to work, and as soon as he lashed the tiller pilot in place the trip became less daunting. It began to drizzle, but the wind also increased and we got the main sail up and see if it would help our speed. With the main, and no 1 jib we were motor sailing at 4.5 knots, and making Arbroath began to feel possible (we would have diverted to Anstruther which was a 10 mile shorter trip if we had to). The forecast was for variable winds, and we could not rely on our lovely breeze to stay for the whole trip, so the engine stayed on, as it helped bring the wind round enough to fill the sails.

We seemed to be making amazingly good time, until Julian had a look at his phone and discovered that it was an hour later than we thought. At some point in the morning our chart plotter has switched from BST to GMT. He tried to work out why, and discovered that we had our plotter set to "automatic" local time rather than BST. He thinks that a satellite update might have caused a reset. We were not too worried though. 15:30 for arrival at Arbroath was still plenty of time.

The drizzle was not constant, but the wind stayed with us until after lunch, sometimes bringing our speed up to 6 knots, at which point Julian throttled back on the engine. We were still making 5 knots when I went on watch (much easier when not helming as well), but after about 15 minutes George put himself on standby. I noticed immediately and reset him, and he worked throughout lunch before glitching to standby again. Another reset worked, but soon after he lost power totally.

Luckily we could see the Bell Rock by this point, so there was a point of reference to help with the steering. Then the lovely wind faded away, and we were down to the unassisted engine to get us the last 12 miles to Arbroath. A good aiming point appeared on the land, the engine was taking us along at 4 knots and we were well ahead of schedule....

The harbour master at Hartlepool had told us to take on fuel before entering the inner harbour of Arbroath, but there was no mention of fuel being available in the CA Almanac. I radioed Arbroath as we approached the harbour, and the HM confirmed its existence and told us where it was. He was waiting on the fuel dock as we got there, so we filled our tanks and our spare cans. He then walked round to the pontoons in the inner harbour, and showed us where to moor Robinetta. We were securely tied up by 16:30, with 2 hours in hand for the lock gates closing.

Three days of early starts and long days had brought us 120 miles further north. We had been made welcome in all our stop overs, and seen some lovely scenery, but had it been a cruise? The rough overnight passages of our first two weekends northward bound seemed long ago. We had managed some sailing every day, and not been out after dark, so yes, we had been cruising for the first time in too long.

A coast line with castles

The alarm went at 5 a.m. for the second day in a row, but this time we had our cup of tea before getting up. We had not stowed much away on arrival in Amble, there did not seem any point putting the sail covers on when there was no sun to damage the sails, so it did not take long to prepare Robinetta for sea. It had been drizzling ever since we arrived in Amble and was actually raining as we backed out from the pontoon, but by 06:02 when we cleared the harbour mouth it had stopped. 

This was looking like an all engine, very gray day. The light following wind was just strong enough to waft the exhaust fumes back into the cockpit, which made things worse. However Walkworth Castle through the early morning haze created an atmospheric scene and as we passed Dunstanburgh castle the sun began to be visible through the cloud, and by the time we were passing Bamburgh Castle we were in bright sunshine. But there was still no wind.

For some reason both Julian and I were hungry. Porridge for breakfast, then a cup of soup rather than tea still left a gap to be filled by an apple, then biscuits with another cup of tea...

As the views of Lindisfarne Castle faded into the distance the wind began to strengthen, and a course change let us try sailing. We rigged the gybe preventer and had a couple of hours under sail while we ate lunch, as we still had room after all those snacks. Unfortunately our time to destination was getting rather late. so the engine went back on at 13:30. We were pointing straight at Berwick on Tweed (no obvious castle!) when we decided to stop sailing and Julian pointed out that this was the problem with having a set destination. With no time constraints we would  sailed to Berwick rather than motored to Eyemouth, but doing that would have left us no chance of reached Arbroath on Monday.

We reached Eyemouth at 16:30 and called to announce we were entering the harbour as instructed by the CA Almanac. The Harbour master replied, and directed us to a berth on what we had been told was the visitor pontoon. This seemed to have changed, as there were a lot of fishing boats on it, and the sign was crossed through, but there was a nice clear area where we had been told to moor up.

The HM met us there, but decided we would be better on the "town" side of the quay if we could fit in a tight space between a trip rib, and 2 small rafted up yachts. We looked over at it, and Julian agreed. He went to pay for the mooring first, as it would have been a long walk round to the office from the new berth. I bottled out of getting Robinetta into the tiny gap, so Julian took over and wriggled her in perfectly. The owner of one of the small yachts came and helped to take the lines, and offered advice, which was not relevant to our long keeler!

Eyemouth means ice cream with 2 award winning makers in the town. Julian and I bought a tub each and ate while we walked to the Co-op for provisions, wandering along the narrow roads to the shore front. We were too tired from our early start to do much sight seeing, but we did put the sail covers on, and filled our diesel tanks from our cans, before setting our alarm for another 5 a.m. start.