Day 32 - Port Edgar to Arbroath - 1st June, 2017

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 computers are working.  Apparently, the IT attach on the NHS systems had affected it so I couldn't get what I was looking for.  The lady was very apologetic though and is going to research the small list I gave her for me.

I used the visit in Edinburgh to catch up with one of my cousins, Sue and her husband Colin MacKenzie.  It was great to see each again as I had not seen her for about 28 years and had so much reminiscing to do that we have arranged to meet up again when we get to Glasgow.  They live about half way between Edinburgh and Glasgow and have promised us a run out to the 'Trossocks' - I think it's a mountain range! We are both looking forward to it in any case.

The old pub (Hawes Inn) just before you get to the rail bridge served a good meal and was reputed to be where Robert Louis Stevenson wrote "Kidnapped" at least that's what the vast number of American tourists are told on their visit from a cruise ship at anchor in the river. Who am I to disbelieve? The Hawes Inn is dotted with pictures of the building of the Rail Bridge which would have been the view that Stevenson had seen at the time (about 1875-1880).

Hawes Inn with Rail Bridge in background

We had to move on yet again. I originally planned to visit Anstrutter but on deeper investigation found that the harbour dries so is no good for me - I've tried it before some of you will remember and I didn't like it!  There was a possibility of either Methil or Pittenween, both in the Forth but the best option was to head for Arbroath some 53 miles away.  The outer harbour has a charted depth of 1.4m above Chart Datum so careful planning was going to be needed with the tide on Neaps. High Water was going to be at 20:50 and usually the gates are open to the Inner Harbour 3 hours either side of High. I phoned the harbour master at Arbroath and to make matters worse he finishes work at 8 in the evening so was going to close the gates at quarter to. On calculation this meant we only had a safe window of less than a hour to get there.  I thought it prudent to leave early (just in case) and so we left our berth at 07:40.  The forecast was for mainly Southerly winds of 3-4 gusting 5, then easing later on with light rain.  They got the easing later on with rain right, unfortunately, the wind gusted to 30 knots at times in the Forth and rather lumpy seas to go with it.  I assured 'my bunny' that it was going to get better. 

Last look at the 3 bridges

Isle of May

Luckily it did get better and with the tide in our favour we made such good time in the first 30 miles or so past the Island of May and out of the River Forth to Fife Ness, that with further calculation we had to try to slow down so that we didn't arrive too early.  So the next 20 miles was sailing under a very reefed main and genoa still doing over 4 knots SOG.  In the end we arrived about a hour early off Arbroath and a quick phone call to the Harbour Master confirmed my calcs. We eventually started into the approach channel about 18:30 and as it turned out could have gone in a lot earlier as their was never less than 1.5m under my keel, still best to wait I suppose, but not what was in the Almanac.  We rafted to a nice solid boat and were greeted and helped by Andrew Morgan on Juno from Ramsgate, who had arrived a little earlier than us.

Arbroath Harbour Entrance - Inner Harbour to the left

Lunar Sea at Arbroath

Arbroath has a warm feel about it.  The harbour is quaint with loads of history and the Bell Rock Lighthouse museum is a definite must.  There is quite a bustling town a small walk from the harbour and the Harbour Masters could not have been more helpful, even offering to give Julia a lift to the local swimming pool. 

Unfortunately, we cannot spend more than a couple of days here as there is forecasted bad weather and it would be good to get up to Peterhead before this arrives as we may need to sit it out for a few days, so a harbour wall like Stonehaven or Montrose are not desirable.