Stonehaven to the River Deben. The End or The Beginning?

Erin, Simon and Kathy enjoying the August weather

We were very happy to arrive at Stonehaven and spend the weekend with Simon and Erin, who came up from Edinburgh by train. We had a lovely sail to Eyemouth, where we spent one night, followed by a gentle motor to Lindisfarne for lunch on the Sunday. We motored back to Berwick upon Tweed for the night. Simon and Erin had to scramble up our rope ladder as there were no steps on the harbour wall. They caught a train back to Edinburgh. We were in England again.

Early morning in Berwick upon Tweed

The southerly winds returned and we bashed into the wind and swell,  taking the inshore route past the Farne Islands and the spectacular Bamburgh Castle. We had hoped to stop at Amble but the swell was too big to risk entry so we turned away and beat out to sea again. Blyth Harbour was only 8 miles away and we were made very welcome by the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club.

Lindisfarne Castle

The next day was a pleasant 15 mile passage to Sunderland Marina. We met up with Jeremy’s brother, Gavin and his wife, Eileen. They joined us for dinner at the marina and we spent the following day with them in Cleadon. Thank you, Gavin and Eileen, for the use of your washing machine, tumble dryer, lunch and dinner.

Bamburgh Castle

Next stop was Scarborough. We’d taken off our thermals and the sun came out, reminding us it was August after all. We met up with James, Juliette, Alice, Anna and Daniel again. It was lovely to see Anna looking so much better. We all had fish and chips on board Sal Darago and sang songs together. Scarborough Marina was one the most expensive marinas so far at 30 pounds a night.

Approaching Scarborough

The passage round Flamborough Head and past two wind farms on the way to the River Humber was quite gusty. We anchored for the night at Spurn Point and bounced uncomfortably on the ebb. We had to leave at 4.40am in the dark to take the south flowing tide for 10 hours. It was difficult to identify the buoys we wanted as we crossed the shipping channel. Later, the sun came out and we had a pleasant motor sail with a following wind. We took a detour to avoid the wind farm north east of Sheringham Shoal. When the tide turned, we took an inshore route in the hope of avoiding the strongest foul tide as we continued south along the Norfolk coast. We had been taking on water and expected this to stop when Jeremy replaced our raw water pump in Oban. It didn’t. The culprit turned out to be the exhaust box. Jeremy monitored it and we pumped out the bilges regularly until it could be given a temporary repair in port. Soon after passing Eccleston on Sea, night fell. Delight at the beautiful sunset was enhanced by a perfect crescent moon. Just before midnight on 31^st August we tied up to another yacht on the visitors’ berth at Lowestoft Marina.

Passing Southwold. Ben's granny lived in the white house on the left

At 7.30am the next day, we were on our way again motoring into moderate to strong southerly winds. We experienced a confused sea with wind over tide at Orfordness. I steered into the River Deben, unaware that a new port hand marker had been added to the buoyage, believing it to be a fishing pot marker as it was so small, I missed the new dog’s leg and watched the depth sounder plunge alarmingly. Soon we were in deep water again and no further navigation problems were encountered all the way up the River Deben to Ramsholt.

Reunited with Ellie

We needed to find Nick Deacon’s yellow mooring buoy. Jeremy spoke to George, the Harbourmaster, and he gave us its location. To our surprise, there were 4 vacant yellow mooring buoys. We chose the lemon one, which turned out to be the right one, and tied Sal Darago to it. Our daughter, Emily, and granddaughter, Ellie, came aboard in the afternoon. It was lovely to be with them again. On Tuesday 2^nd September, Emily returned to collect us and we became landlubbers once more, staying at Emily and Ben’s house until we can move into our own home in October.

Future crew for Sal Darago

Oban to Stonehaven

Anna was in hospital for two weeks. She had two operations to remove abscesses and after lots of antibiotics she began to improve. Everyone was relieved when she was allowed to go home. 

Mirror images at Ballachulish Village

We hired a car and drove to Edinburgh to meet our daughter-in-law’s parents, Jim and Christie. They were staying with Simon and Erin for a few days. The weather was awful as the tail end of Hurricane Bertha gave Scotland a whipping. We all wore full waterproofs to walk to The Witchery under the Castle for lunch. We ate heartily and enjoyed each other’s company. Thanks for lunch, Simon and Erin. The drive back to Oban was slightly drier and that night we welcomed Jamie and Bugsy on board to sleepover. They caught the early morning ferry to Mull the next day.

Ballachulish Bridge, Loch Leven

We continued north in cold and rainy weather and tried to anchor three times off Eriska in Loch Crearan . Each time we dragged, so as soon as the tide eased we motored back into the Lynne of Lorne and anchored at the first attempt in Airds Bay just south of Port Appin. The tide runs strongly through all the narrows between the islands and at the mouths of lochs, so we had to leave Airds Bay at 6.30am to arrive at Loch Leven at slack high water. The clearance under the Ballachulish Bridge is 17m at the highest spring tide. Our mast plus the boat is 16m high. Would we make it under or would we lose our VHF/AIS aerial, our wind direction indicator and our tricolour? It was a close call and I shouted, “Turn around!” as I did not think we would fit under. Well, Jeremy likes a challenge and he continued. We slid under with barely any clearance. Later, we read in another pilot book that the bridge is only 16m high.

Entering one of the staircase locks

We had a peaceful night in Loch Leven on a mooring which was kindly offered for our use. There was little space amongst the many moorings to anchor. The next day we pushed the end of the tide up Loch Linnhe to reach Corran Narrows at slack water, then on to Corpach where we entered the Caledonian Canal via the sea lock. Once the fees were paid (180 pounds for a transit) we joined two other yachts and went up Neptune’s Staircase, assisted by Errol, who kindly offered to be a rope handler for us. We spent the night at Gairlochy, enjoying the new shower and laundry facilities.

Tied up on the Caledonian Canal

The weather continued to be awful with further gales and severe gales raging out at sea. We crossed the first loch in strong winds and pouring rain, tying up for the night at Fort Augustus. It took two hours to go down the staircase of locks the next morning.  We entered Loch Ness with the wind behind us and regular showers of rain reduced our visibility considerably. We didn’t see the monster, but a dark and ominous shadow appeared on our depth sounder as we crossed the deepest part. Perhaps it was Nessie! That night we tied up to a pontoon in Dochgarroch and filled up with water in the rain.

Inverness Castle

We were able to take on diesel at Seaport Marina the next day, go down the 5 locks at Muirtown and exit the canal at the sea lock. We spent two nights in Inverness Marina waiting for the rough sea to settle after the gales. We sailed all day and overnight on the 20^th and 21^st August, as all the north facing harbours on the Moray Firth were too dangerous to enter. 

Unique war memorial at Stonehaven

We were goose-winged with full sails in brief sunshine when 24 knots of wind came from nowhere and the mainsail, which was on a preventer, backed. The genoa was quickly furled and the main gybed, so disaster was averted after a few worrying moments. After that, we had two reefs in the main and a small genoa as the force 6 wind blew. After a week of northerly winds, the first southerlies were forecast as we rounded Rattray Head and headed south. We had to motor into the headwind making just over 3 knots in cold and uncomfortable conditions. Why did we leave the Caribbean?

Stonehaven Marina