What a long day it has been!
We set sail, heading to Edinburgh at midnight as planned, and headed out to sea. In the evening, during the passage planning, I felt so weary, and struggled to believe I was going to sail through the night following a busy day – which included an exam! How was I going to cope? I will have to admit that I was not looking forward to a nights sail and really wanted to snuggle up in bed and sleep the night away. I put a brave smile on my face and carried on and joined the boys who were possibly feeling the same too?
We motored out of Arbroath and set the sails, I set the waypoints and inputted them into the gameboy, sorry, the chart plotter, (having first checked we hadn’t been set to Bogata again!) and we started our passage to Edinburgh. We had a lovely westerly as we headed due south so sailed on a delightful beam reach. However, I was tired and it was with no regret that I said goodnight at 1am and took to my cabin – my watch starts at 3am, with Mike for 2 hours.
I snuggled down to sleep, managed to doze off for a short time then woke automatically before the start of my watch, bleary eyed, and wrapped up in virtually every layer of clothing I could muster, I emerged to start my watch.
The wind and tide had been with us, and John and Tank had made amazing progress south, the wind had now picked up, and having glanced at the chart just before heading up, I realised we would soon be at Fife and will need to tack within the hour and head into the Firth of Forth. John sensibly headed straight to his cabin, he was wet and cold as it had been raining, and looked tired. Tank went too.
Mike took the helm and I studied the chart. The wind grew stronger, we already had 2 reefs in, but it soon became apparent the boat was still overpowered, we were now in a Force 6. This was very new territory for Mike and I and it felt a little overwhelming for a short time – we knew we would have to reef as well as reduce the head sail, it was dark, the boat was well heeled, we were steaming along at 7.5knots and were heading towards a busy shipping area and knew we would have to time our tack right before we hit the Isle of May at the entrance into the Firth of Forth.
We naively thought Tank had gone to bed, but he had only taken a comfort break, and I’m sure he could hear our conversation as we discussed when we needed to tack and how we needed to depower the sails. He emerged, bright eyed and bushy tailed at 3.30, smiled and said, “lets put the third reef in then, and get some of that head sail away” – you say the nicest things Tank! Mike helmed as Tank and I did this, and the boat instantly felt so much easier to sail!
We put our tack in and started to beat along the Firth of Forth, we had passed Fife and we could see the lights of Edinburgh in the distance.
Mike now took over navigation and I took the helm, sitting side saddle as you saw in my other blog, nice and comfy and wrapped up warm.
It was 4am, the rain had stopped and I was under a starry sky sailing a beautiful boat along a famous waterway heading to Edinburgh, warm and comfy and enjoying my new found sailing skills.
We anticipated lots of other boat traffic, but we virtually had the Firth of Forth to ourselves, apart from at one point, a Christmas Tree appeared in the distance, quickly gained on us and sped ahead making my timing of the next tack very easy. It was a cruise ship.
At 5am, Tank said our watch had ended and we should wake John up. I said “noooooo” in my naughty school girl manner, “pleeeeeease, can I just stay a little bit longer, I’m having such a good time” Its 5am, I probably slept only an hour, but I was having such a good time I didnt want to sleep. Mike and I continued our watch. So much for not wanting to do a night sail – I was having a brilliant time, the sailing conditions were beautiful, starry sky with the sun starting to rise in the distance – beautiful!
The last night sail we did was with Fred when we sailed from Scilly Isles to Milford Haven was amazing too and these 2 passages are amongst the favourites of the trip. No more will I dread a night passage!
John emerged from his slumber and took over the helm and at 6am I reluctantly went to bed. Sleep was a little trickier at this point as we were beating. You see, the wind was coming from the west and we were heading west, and you can’t sail straight into the it,. So, you have to create a bit of an angle between you and the wind, so you go one way – (admittedly not the direction you want to go eventually), then turn back into the wind and head the other way when you don’t want to go any further – and tack. As we had good winds, the boat was heeling. Imagine how that is when you are sleeping in your cabin. I place a pillow behind me as the boat is on an angle, and create my own little sleeping shelf, which is extremely comfortable I must say, and is great, until they put another tack in and the boat swings to the other side and you roll across your bed and make another shelf there!
Forgive me if you are a seasoned sailor, but back in July I couldn’t tie a fender on, and now I’m learning so much about sailing, I’m enjoying talking about it! I know not all of my blogs readers sail – but you are gradually learning arent you – this is better than going to night school to learn!
Eventually John was forced to put the donkey on and motor along the Firth of Forth, we always feel disappointed when we have to do this – but it was good news for me in my cabin, the sweet hum of the engine next to me, and lack of heeling meant I caught an hours sleep before resuming my watch again at 8am.
Tank was now able to get some sleep, and John took no hesitation in taking to his bunk too, with a promise from me that I would wake him before we sailed under the Forth bridge!
You may wonder why we are sailing under the Forth Bridge when we are going to Edinburgh, which is before it. Well, we need fuel, and therefore have to go to Port Edgar to get it. Tank tried desperately hard in Arbroath, but was limited to trips to the petrol station with jerry cans as the harbour master there wouldn’t let us use the supply there – not convinced we were a commercial vessel too. How could you refuse Tank??
Fortunately, his job was made a little easier by the kindness of the mechanic from Arbroath who took him in his car so he wouldn’t have to carry 25 liters of diesel along a road! His name was “Al” and he had a lovely sense of humour and a wicked smile – Ive found everyone involved with the RNLI are lovely! Thanks Al. Anyway, I digress. We still needed fuel! When we planned the passage last night, I wasnt happy that we had to sail 8 miles beyond our destination just for fuel, but resigned myself that we had to.
I’m so glad we did – we had a beautiful nights sail, and now we were going to head under a world famous landmark – the Forth Bridge!
Time for some photos!
We sailed along the Firth of Forth and could see Edinburgh in the distance
Edinburgh in the distance
It was a lovely journey
Im not quite sure what this was on the North Shore, but Im sure it must have been something special in its time!
And eventually we reached the Forth Bridge
Mike and I had a great time navigating along the channel, with very little traffic, and the weather being extremely kind to us. We got close to the bridge and I went to wake the boys – my do they take some waking. Firstly John, I knocked on his door, called his name, but I had to tickle his feet to get any response from him. Tank was even harder – louder calling elicited no response, tickling of feet none either, I had to rub his legs to get anything (do you think he was foxing??)
We all enjoyed passing under the Forth Bridge.
John loves sailing with Tank
Well, John just loves sailing! (can you see the bridges in the distance?)
The rail bridge is so impressive – a marvelous piece of engineering. It was opened on 4 March 1890 and is 2.5 kilometres in length, and the double track is elevated 46 metres above high tide and was the first major structure in Britain to be constructed of steel
The forth road bridge peeks behind
And you can’t fail to be impressed.
We reached Port Edgar and refuelled, and had a little chat with the harbour guys there.
Tank looks down from the fuelling platform
They informed us that they were building another road bridge as the old one is falling down – and it is to be the “fourth Forth Bridge”
Our fuel tank nicely filled, we headed back along the Firth of Forth towards Edinburgh.
We put our headsail up, killed the donkey and sailed under it.
The boys let me take the helm, and Tank took my camera to record the moment
All this sailing has made me strong!
A lovely sail into Edinburgh, and along the way we saw a couple of cheeky seals basking in the sun on a port hand buoy
Basking in the Scottish September sun!
We have a berth booked at Leith. Mike and I looked for it in the almanac, couldn’t find it anywhere apart from the words “there are no facilities for yachts at Leith which is a commercial harbour” However, Neil at SWMT has organised a berth for us there!
What a treat. To enter it, you have to pass into a Lock, its absolutely huge!
the lock gate shutting
The harbour staff gave us a lovely greeting, took our lines and chatted away!
Then the harbour master emerged – he had a parcel for me (thanks Neil) and asked me where Polly was! Polly, if you have been following the blog, is the racing pigeon who hitched a ride and shelter from us a few days ago. The harbour master has been following the blog too! His name is Martin
Martin - the Harbour Master at Leith
And he didnt let the “harbour master side” down with a cheery manner and chatty welcome! With only the odd exception, harbour masters have been great and extremely helpful, and we are very grateful to them! Martin is English, comes from Surrey (have I got that right Martin??) and married a woman from Glasgow, and live in Dundee. He too has a good sense of humour, a twinkle in his eye and a lovely welcoming manner!
Being in Leith is a real treat – it is the home now for the Royal Yacht Britannia and she is our neighbour!
The crew of RBE and our skipper Tank and the Royal Yacht Britannia in the background
Our other neighbour is the cruise liner we overtook us on our way in the early hours
And our 45ft yacht is dwarfed!
Securely attached to the wall, with no worries about rise and fall of tides as we are in a lock, I headed to the adjacent shopping centre to seek some food and accompanying internet to post yesterdays blog!
That completed, its back to the boat to do a spot of revision. Our exam is at 5 and it is meteorology.
An exam, at 5pm, having been awake most of the previous night was not an exciting prospect, so I resigned myself to a fail! John, Mike and I all felt likewise, but gave it our best shot. I’m pleased to tell you, that once again, we all passed! Probably more credit to our instructors than our tired brains, but we did it! Great!
We settled down to a relaxing evening, but no one fancied cooking. Mike and John headed to the shopping centre, Tank headed to the cinema and I had a bit of me time to write the blog!
The boys back, we settled down to a DVD but suddenly heard a loud noise – what could it be? It turned out, our neighbour, the cruise liner was departing. We could see the twinkling of lights in the restaurants, the diners dressed in their finery, and a tug attaching itself to it. We were so close to the whole scene, it fascinated us! Ive tried to take some photographs to give you an idea
All this right next to us!
And we could see the tug in the distance which will be a head of the tow – having done our exam yesterday, we know what the lights mean!
It took some time to get the lines set, and the tug just gave the ship a little nudge at the stern, and she gradually edged herself out.
We were all tired, and took to our beds eagerly to have a lovely nights sleep. We have the last of our exams tomorrow – its chart work and the one we are most anxious about…….goodnight!
