Peterhead

After a pleasant afternoon in Wick we decided the weather was good enough to head for Whitehills the following day.

We slipped at around 09.00 and hoisted sail outside the harbour. The wind was as usual on the nose, having now gone South East having spent two months blowing from the North. We motor sailed for a couple of hours as there was not a lot of wind. The wind picked up to around 13 knots so we were then able to sail on a tight fetch for 35 miles. It was a bit lumpy as we approached Whitehills when I had to fix fenders and take sails down. The entrance is pretty narrow as you will see from the pictures (one taken by the harbour master as we came in). There are rocks on the West side of the channel so we had to keep tight to the wall. Once in shelter was good, and we met a lady, Elaine, on a boat of similar size to us who was sailing on her own. So we felt a bit whimpish worrying about berthing.

The rain and drizzle came, and with the forcast threatening we stayed just the one night before heading out in thick mist and rain towards Peterhead. Again, the wind was totally on the nose, and although the wind was 15+ knots, we decided to motor again as a 40 mile beat into the rotten weather didn't appeal.

Seven hours later we called harbour control in Peterhead for permission to enter. There are a lot of large oil industry supply vessels here, coming and going 24/7, so the harbourmaster always has to be told if you are entering or leaving.

We contacted my cousins son, Simon, who works in Aberdeen, and he drove up to see us and kindly took us out for a nice meal. The following day we took a bus to Aberdeen (expensive without the OAP pass) where we again met Simon for coffee before visiting the excellent maritime museum, free entry. We were very impressed by all the oil industry ships and information. The day was foggy all day, so the trip around the harbour was missed. We couldn't see the tops of the ships.

We travelled back on the top of the bus, but could see no further than 100 metres.

Waiting for the wind to go to the West, hopefully Sunday, before heading towards Stonehaven and Arbroath. Stonehaven is untennable in South Easterlies, as we shall have to tie up against the harbour wall in the outer harbour. Most of these East coast harbours are shallow for us. People on the East coast tend to sail bilge keelers that can take the ground. Should prove interesting.