Day 40 - Fraserburgh to who knows where?? - 9th.June, 2017

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 to Whitehills was more likely.

Looking West from Fraserburgh - the first Bays

The swell on the corner was not nice and I told Julia it would die down once we cleared it and got past the first bay.  The wind had veered more to the WSW and thus only a couple of points off the nose.  I took a fix of position at 10:00 and we had made 3.2 miles but the tide was about to change  direction soon and the next hour we only managed less than 3 miles.   Progress was painfully slow, the sea was becoming very unpleasant and the waves were just stopping us in our tracks.  At one stage I had to de-clutch the engine because of a submerged fishing pot buoy right under our bow. this in 50m of water.  Luckily we drifted back off instantly in the conditions.  I tried changing course for the chance of relative shelter in the bay but with the wind now gusting over 25 knots at times. at 11:45 we turned back for Fraserburgh.  We had only made 6 1/2 miles and with all the conditions behind us now, the trip back to Fraserburgh took us less than an hour as we were tied up on 'our' visitors berth by 12:45.

The old saying that "Gentlemen only sail down wind" ringing in my ears as the sail back was actually lovely, going past Kinnaird Head Castle and Lighthouse, at the North of Fraserburgh, which we never lost sight of all morning.  This Lighthouse was apparently the first purpose built Lighthouse in Scotland - built 1790 - well worth a visit.

Kinnaird Head, Castle and Old Lighthouse and New Automated One to the Left

We had to re-think our plans and definitely needed the tide and wind more in our favour the next time we attempted this part of our journey.  There was a chance the following day as the wind was coming from the SE but, because of the tide,  that meant leaving at 06:00 so I wasn't going to enforce that on my 'bunny'.  Besides, it looked like the wind would pick up to 25-30 knots about the time of our arrival in Whitehills as it would be following us up the Moray Firth.

Here, the Met Office Inshore Waters Forecast covers the area from Cape Wrath in the extreme North West, to Rattray Head, just a few miles to the South East of us and including the Orkneys and Shetlands.  It is a vast area with potentially vastly different pockets of weather in the Moray Firth compared to Cape Wrath and Orkneys.

I have been using 'Windguru' website which gives me the general wind force and direction forecast every 3 hours.  It doesn't give me the gusts but does give me the projected forecast over the next week, although lately this seems to change on at least a twice daily basis.  I have also been using 'XCWeather' website for the towns we are either at, going to or passed and this gives me, at least on land, what gusts we can expect, possible rain or sunshine.  Sunshine! that's a joke. . .

Mainly these websites have been okay but because of the really unsettled weather conditions we have been experiencing due to all the 'lows' coming in one after the other, these can change very quickly.

Please bring us some nice High Pressure Systems.  That said it looks like we are going to be here for a few days.

At least Julia has found a marvellous swimming pool just up the road . . . . . .

Route to South Harbour - Harbour Masters Lookout Building - Main Entrance Lighthouse to Right

Lunar Sea - Safe amongst all the fishing boats