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