The forecast is the best yet with a slight sea state and gentle following wind. We refuel and make our way back up the Forth of Firth eventually turning north past the estuary of the Firth of Tay and onward up to Aberdeen.
Peterhead is a further 23 miles on from Aberdeen. This was the simplest and easiest of passages yet. I set the revs at 3400 under the Forth Rail Bridge, we hit 18/19 knots and I didn’t touch the throttles again until we slowed down to enter Peterhead Harbour some five and a half hours later.
Channel 14 to get permission to enter, granted, plus further instructions to cross the vast harbour to Peterhead Bay Marina where the manager was present to point us to our allocated berth.
I spent £2,500 approximately to have Webasto heating installed on the boat, what great value for money that was and a necessity from Sunderland and up. The temperature was only 9°C in the early evening and falling fast, I had to wear gloves to hose the boat down.
The marina manager went home before we could complete his paperwork and for him to give us a gate key to get back into the marina (if we went out), which we planned to do. We asked a couple on a sailing boat if there were any good restaurants nearby and they said no.They had been there for five days and the town was some two/three miles distant, In a restaurant sense it had a bit of a Grimsby feel to it without a Cleethorpes however.
Nigel was desperate to give his Xiaomi m365 electric scooter a proper try out. The sailing couple told us there was an Aldi at the end of the harbour road which skirted the bay and harbour for two miles, we could see its roof. It was decided that if we could borrow their gate key Nigel would go off on his scooter to replenish our supplies and buy a cottage pie or two for us to eat in, with a decent bottle of red of course.
What an amazing device and perfect for boats, particularly small ones. Nigel got back within 30 minutes with a full bag of shopping and 4X2 litre bottles of water. We’ve published a mini video of what appears to be a small blue blob skirting the bay on our instagram account.
Two perfect Cottage pies were heated up, consumed and washed down with an appropriately robust red, whilst watching Britain’s Got Talent on my laptop.
The following day having reviewed the weather situation it was decided to take a break and go home. Peterhead is the perfect marina to securely leave a boat for what might be an indefinite period.
A taxi to Aberdeen and an open return to Lewes, East Sussex. The ticket price heavily discounted courtesy of our Senior Rail Cards. By 9pm we were home, virtually at the other end of the country.
We still don’t know where the auto pilot compass is. Kevin, the wonderful electronics engineer in Lowestoft, said it won’t be the first time that you might have to follow the wire that’s plugged in to the auto pilot back to the compass to actually find out where it is!!
To be continued.
