Lunar Sea

Day 44 - Fraserburgh to Lossiemouth  - 13th14th June, 2017 Final look at Kinnaird Head Fraserburgh had grown on us during our weeks stay but finally we had the right conditions, on paper at least, so we planned to leave at 07:00 for a push to Lossiemouth as we now needed to get on.  We had already put off our guests arrival time at Inverness by a day.  It was a fairly good day for once.  No dramas at all and I even saw our first whale go across our bow as if to look at what we were.  The swell had calmed down considerably given the horrendous conditions of our last attempt.  What little wind there was on the nose - what else is there?  The tide however never seemed to give us anything once we had cleared Kinnaird Head.  The tidal atlas only gave about 0.5 knots anyway in our favour and I think we were probably too close inshore for it and even may have had back eddies from all the small bays on this part of the coast. The Entrance to Lossiemouth Our trip of 42 miles

Fraserburgh to Lossiemouth? or Whitehills? or ?? - 9th June, 2017 After our trip up here Julia needed some pampering and so we booked into the 'Saltoun Inn' hotel for a night, run by 'Wetherspoons' (I didn't know they ran hotels as well as pubs)  It was fabulous to have a heated, non draughty room with a huge bed and a large shower, but neither of us slept very well.  I think it was because funnily the bed wasn't moving (no comments please!) Anyway we checked out fairly early, were back on the boat by 08:30 and ready to go by 09:00.  We left the shelter of the pier heads at 09:20 and the promise of sunshine turned into a dull, windy, overcast day.  We should just get the last of the West going tide to get out of the harbour and round the corner and the bay before setting our course West, forecasted wind of 3-4 from the South.  I had hoped we could reach Lossiemouth about 40 miles away but I soon realized that that was out of the question and an 18 mile trip

Peterhead to Fraserburgh - 6th June, 2017 It looked like we had a small weather window with nearly all the right conditions to transit the notoriously horrible Rattray Head, ideally you need both tide and wind in the direction you're going. We had the right tide but the wind of 10 knots was ESE not exactly ideal but do-able. We were told by 'Flying Pig' that a lot of boats end up in Peterhead for days waiting for the right conditions. We left at 14:00 with slack tide around 14:30 and 7 miles to the Head.  It was foggy (viz. 3/4 mile), drizzling and at Peterhead entrance swell about a metre.  Not pleasant but I could see that the sea wasn't so bad where we were going. The 'chop' left us, although the swell stayed with us. Julia decided to hide her head under the Duvet. Rattray Head about a mile off At 15:20 we were abeam of Rattray Head we still had about a mile viz. in the fog and drizzle and the swell had increased to 2m but not entirely unpleasan

Day 34 - Arbroath to Stonehaven We had a weather window for a couple of days so decided to leave Arbroath earlier than we planned. A shame really as this was a lovely little town.  The Bell Rock Lighthouse museum in the old Lookout tower was well worth a visit and the town was a couple of streets away from the harbour. We just managed to get out before they were due to close the gates so I was a little worried about depth, but we had just over a metre under us so was fairly happy after we got to deep water. The trip to Stonehaven of 31 miles started off in beautiful sunny weather. An hour later we were in thick fog with viz down to about 1/2 mile, which lasted for about 3 hours before clearing out at sea but we could see the fog all along the coast. It did clear again for an hour just before Stonehaven and then came back even thicker as we approached the unknown harbour. Eventually I could just see the pier head, with all its fishermen, at about 4 boat lengths.  Rather a chall

Port Edgar to Arbroath - 1st June, 2017 We spent a lovely relaxing 7 days in Edinburgh. Visiting the fantastic city with its heritage and beautiful buildings it had a really good feel about it. We also had a chance to see the 'Britannia' at Leith, the castle and even I walked the Royal Mile, plus an impromptu evening at the local theatre. The 3 Bridges yet again - it must be the engineer in me or the iconic memories South Queensferry where Port Edgar is situated is a quaint old town and you can imagine that it was vastly different before the road bridge was opened in 1964 causing the closure of the ferry to North Queensferry and therefore robbing the town of its passing travellers.  The Scottish Registrars building, also houses an interesting museum about the building of the bridges and history of the area during the last two wars and it is well worth a visit.  The Registrars, were you can obtain information on your Scottish ancestors back to 1850, at least if the