We have a Cunning Plan (or two)

The Crew arrived in Peterhead all geared up for the trip north.  We sat and waited for an improvement in the weather forecast and witnessed the people in the boats around us starting to disappear as they hired cars to go touring by road for a couple of weeks or went home.  We entertained ourselves for a couple of days mainly by chasing down a bank robber one afternoon (but that is another story and, we figure, subject to legal issues, but needless to say, we got thanked in the local rag for assisting the police).

As everyone we met told us how good the prison  museum was, we visited it. Fascinating to see inside a building and hear the insider version of what went on during the roof top riots and dirty protest that we grew up hearing about on the news. Jackie Stewart, the prison guard who was captured and tortured by the prisoners before being rescued by the SAS is in the building nearly every day, handing out the recorders to visitors and talking candidly about his experience. What a lovely, caring man, who, even to this day, talks about his job in the prison as being one of looking after and supporting the prisoners through their sentences. I did try to leave the boys behind, but the prison wouldn’t have them!

We did hire a car for a day and went up to Fraserburgh to see were Danny was basing his next wind farm project from.  Some big fishing boats here.  These things have a gym and a cinema in some of them.

 

Eventually, it was clear that the north sea was just not going to cooperate.  We did think about going to the Shetands but were concerned if no weather window came in we would be very stuck. So plan C – head south and cross at Lowestoft.

First Stop was North Shields and Tynmouth

We had a couple of days in Tynmouth and North Shields.  We also had a bit of maintenance to do.  While sitting having a sweet sherry on our first evening we noticed that we had water coming in from the bottom of the mast.  Now, water coming into a boat, even from above, is never good. Especially if it is over all of the electrical connections.  Next day Robin was sent up to investigate. Turns out the gromit was missing from the hole for the cables from the radar and the rain had been running down the mast and in to the boat.

As we had a couple of days (largely due to bad weather) we explored.  I have to say we were all pleasantly surprised about how pretty it was.  Brilliant fish mongers and really nice little restaurant’s and Cafe’s.

The thing you learn about the north sea is how incredibly shallow it is.  This has a number of effects. Firstly you need to enter everywhere at nearly high tide and you need to leave everywhere at nearly high tide.  So time for arrival and departure is fixed (and often in the middle of the night!).  As the distance between places is also fixed. You end up balancing boat speed to ensure you arrive at the right time.  In general the North see at the Southern end is only about10 to 30 Meters deep, (for West Coast sailors, this is quite disturbing but has the added advantage that you can drop your anchor just about anywhere and have plenty of chain left over.)

So another night sail to Grimsby departing at 11 PM.

Then it was time to go for it.  Over 200 miles to cover, but the weather looked settled and the swell that had followed us from Peterhead had finally given in the chase.

 

 

 

We don’t have a picture , but twenty mins later the police arrived to do exactly the same thing.  Once they realised we had already been boarded they left with a “Welcome to Holland!” shout as they drove away……  Must have been a slow week on the foreign yacht front.