Photo: Waves crashing over the sea wall at Eyemouth

Tuesday 30th August
The photo shows the waves crashing against the sea wall at Eyemouth, yesterday afternoon. Although we hadn't had very strong winds in Eyemouth, a deep low pressure further north had created a rough sea, that was now filtering its way southwards.

We'd planned to head on to Blyth today, but with the swell in mind, we were up at 6am this morning and before we did anything else we took a walk to the end of the harbour. The swell looked moderate but then every so often some big rollers would come in - if we got caught in those it could have a bad ending for us as the approach to the harbour is lined with jagged rocks. So, we decided to stay safe and stay another day in Eyemouth and try again tomorrow. A high pressure is coming in over the UK which will mean light winds, but this may give us an opportunity to visit the Farne Islands.

By the time low water arrived at 10am we were sitting quite high out of the water with Emerald displaying a severe case of barnacle bottom. Colin took the opportunity to give the keel a scrub - maybe this will give us a few fractions of a knot of extra speed. There is definitely still a swell out there; we are surging about on our lines against the pontoon with the squeaking from the fenders enough to send anyone insane!

2011: Around the UK

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Photo: Berwick-Upon-Tweed's Three Bridges

Thursday 25th August
After a good lie in to catch up on lost sleep, we made the most of the warm, sunny weather for a quick trip to England and back. Berwick-Upon-Tweed is a 25 minute trip by bus just over the Scottish border. It's a town that has been fought over many times by the English and Scottish, resulting in some impressive defensive walls. We walked along the river admiring the three bridges spanning the river Tweed before wandering around the town walls and battlements and enjoying an ice cream sat in the sun.

Friday 26th August
We were up early for the bus to Edinburgh on a grey morning. The bus took nearly two hours to get there but was the best way to travel given that we had to get to Berwick to get the train and the buses and train times didn't match up! We arrived at rush hour in Edinburgh and were soon wending our way through the people on their way to work as I vaguely remembered my way around from when I lived here nearly 20 years ago.


Photo: The central atrium of the Scottish National Museum

We headed first for the National Museum of Scotland which had recently reopened and been on the Scottish news. We spent over 2 hours there but it was no way long enough - it's a beautiful museum with a big open, central atrium all the way up the middle of the floors. In side rooms are various displays with wildlife, natural world, Scottish history and many, many amazing objects from around the world. There are lots of interactive areas with touch screens and actual objects you can touch. For me it's the best museum I've even been too and even more so for being free!

Photo: Inside the Scottish National Museum

In the afternoon we visited some comedy as part of the Free Fringe Festival. The first guy, an Irishman called Ian Perth, had a packed room, with people standing round the sides. It was his last show of the festival and he was really good, he had us all laughing for most of the hour. When we left it was raining so we ducked into the venue next door as there was a show about to start. This one used photos as part of the show and was ok, a few laughs but not as good as the first. The last we choose based on it being from Yorkshire (we'd been to a comic from Colin's home country so we thought we'd try one from my home county). I wish we hadn't had bothered - it was pretty poor. One guy I felt myself cringing for, I don't think he said anything funny in his 15 minutes. It was redeemed by some excellent card tricks by another guy but when we left we did feel we'd wasted an hour! We had a wander amongst the street performers on the Royal Mile before heading back for our bus.

Photo: Fringe performers on the Royal Mile

Saturday 27th August
Colin set about investigating our broken port nav light which turned out to be a fault in the light unit itself rather than the wiring, which means we now have no port nav light unless we can get a temporary replacement from the chandlery on Monday. The broken light is a LED Lopolight which we bought for its claims of long life, so we're a little disappointed that it's broken after only 3 years of use. I did suggest using my rear light from my bike as a replacement but in seriousness we can always use the tricolour even if we're motoring.

I watched lots of divers getting their gear ready and loading it onto the dive boats berthed in front of us. Having dived extensively for 10 years through the 90's, I haven't dived now since 2001 (for lots of long and mostly boring reasons) and I had a few vague feelings of wanting to go with them. But the thought of having to sort out all my kit with its seized up inflate valves keeps putting me off. Maybe when we're somewhere warm I'll feel more motivated.

The Eyemouth lifeboat had a 'BBQ and Brass' afternoon so we felt it would be wrong not to support them - after all we may need a lifeboat's help one day (but fingers crossed we won't). We had a look around their lifeboat and sat in the 'rescue' seats where rescued passengers sit, right down in the bow of the vessel with no windows out - unsurprisingly there was a stack of sickbags placed close by!

We had a pleasant few hours eating burgers and cream teas, drinking wine and beer, listening to the band and chatting to the locals. It's a very friendly place here but the down side was we didn't win anything in the raffle!

2011: Around the UK

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Tuesday 23rd & Wednesday 24th August
On the way back from a morning trip to the supermarket for supplies, we realised the wind was blowing perfectly so we hurriedly got the boat ready, had lunch and we were off. We had to warp Emerald around the pontoons to get out of the tight berth we were in but all went well despite it being low water.

There was a swell rolling in through the harbour mouth which made progress slow with the wind on the nose until we cleared the skerries off Peterhead and could point south to Eyemouth. We had a good few hours of F4/F5 close hauled on port, the sun breaking through the clouds making it pleasantly warm. The wind continued from the south east sometimes F5, sometimes F3 but enough to keep us ploughing onwards on our course.

By 10pm the wind had died off to F2 and the forecast gave no indications of returning. The sea state was smooth but there was still a meter or so swell which with Emerald's low speed meant we were wallowing and the sails slatting which would have made it difficult to get any sleep. So, reluctantly the engine came on but at least that meant we were able to get some sleep on the off watches.

It was a dark night with partial cloud cover and no moon and very little other shipping. Colin saw a huge shooting star whizzing through the sky. We suffered our first major damage of the trip - the port side nav light had stopped working, so we had to run under tricolour instead.

A pink and orange sky announced the arrival of dawn which turned in to a bright morning and we arrived in Eyemouth about 11am. With a bit of white water breaking over the rocks lining either side of the entrance we nervously approached the harbour entrance. We'd called up the harbour master who was waiting for us on his bike and rode along the quay to direct us where to go - which turned out to be a very cosy spot rafted up to a 38ft Westerly. With a huge fishing boat chasing us in it was a nerve wracking time especially on reduced sleep. A friendly local came to help the harbour master and they performed the task of bow thruster for us by pulling us in sideways into the just big enough gap between rafted fishing boats.

The sun came out and we spent a lazy afternoon dozing in the warmth before a quick walk around the town. Eyemouth is a busy fishing harbour with an alongside pontoon for yachts. The fishing boats unload just on the harbour wall opposite to us and to start with we watched nervously as they performed 180 degree turns in the narrow channel of water next to us. After we'd seen them do it a few times we relaxed a bit and trusted that they knew what they were doing!

For those who ventured to the cold, southern place with Colin, there was a surprising connection to Eyemouth. The Biscoe Kid, a tender from the RRS John Biscoe, the predecessor to the RRS James Clark Ross, is here and used as the harbour master's launch. One of the harbour masters, Ivan, also has a connection having worked on the RRS Bransfield and travelled south on it in 1971.

2011: Around the UK

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