3rd September
It was a very hurried and unplanned departure from Blyth. We'd originally planned to leave the next day (Sunday), but on casually checking the weather Saturday morning we saw that by leaving when planned there was a distinct possibility we'd run into strong winds forecast for Monday. The forecast was also looking bad for the whole week so we threw the option of going to Whitby out of the window too, as it's a bit pricy and we would end up stuck there for many days.

We rushed around and were ready for off by 11:30am, with 125 nautical miles to go and an average speed of 5kts this would get us in for around the same time the next day.... just when the Grimsby lock gates would be due to close. Colin wasn't keen on anchoring outside for the day and going through the locks when they opened at 8ish in the evening so we would need to keep our speed above average.

We departed to the sounds of French harmonica music blaring from the RNYC house boat as it was their French themed regatta today. Out into the open water, we got all sails up and engine off. We had a southerly F4 which meant we were close hauled on starboard tack, not great. With an added swell we were only able to do 3kts so frustratingly it was time to motor sail again. I can't remember when we last had a good sail - somewhere on the west coast I think.

Light rain showers passed, the forecast warned of fog so a refresher session with the radar was called for. There were lots of big logs and sticks in the water! In the evening a racing pigeon landed on our guard rails and sat there for a while having a breather. It made a few attempts to fly off over the next few hours but looked exhausted and flapped frantically to get back aboard. It then had a little walk round the deck, right around the boat; up on the boom, onto the canopy and didn't seem afraid of us, coming right up to me at one point. It looked like it was here for the night so I made a pigeon bed from a box, which it turned its nose up at but it did slurp up the water I gave it. It then had a preen and plumping up its feathers, settled on the back hatch, sheltered by the life raft from the wind. The main sheet traveler ran right behind it and it did look quite grumpy every time we trimmed the main!

Watches started at 10pm and it was now fully dark. It was quite a mild night with a damp, earthly smell being blown towards us from land. My regular watch checks now included making sure Pidgy was still OK hunkered down on the back hatch. The tide turned and our speed dropped below 5kts but we'd made good progress when the tide had been in our favour. We'd planned a 3 hour watch each followed by a 2 hour one so that I could get another rest before arriving at Grimsby. So, at 6am we were just swapping over when I heard the engine noise change - we were just moving to check it when it started to falter, so we quickly turned it off. Colin suspected we'd ran out of diesel - despite our usage calculations giving us enough to motor all the way to Grimsby if necessary. We quickly got the genny and staysail out to try to keep some momentum and so keep our timing for the Grimsby locks. I kept the sails trimmed making over 5kts and having quite a pleasant sail, whilst Colin was below decanting diesel from Rupert's (the Reflex heater) separate fuel tank where we had about 30 litres. With all the kerfuffle Pidgy flew away and didn't come back - bye bye Pidg! Colin got enough fuel for us to motor the rest of the way, keeping the revs low to give us just enough speed to get in on time. As it was we had nearly an hour to spare and we found that we'd actually had about 20 litres remaining in our main fuel tanks before adding in the amount from Rupert - the problem was that we were rolling about a bit causing the diesel to slosh about in the tanks and resulting in the fuel uptake pipe being occasionally out of fuel and sucking in air.

We're now safely tucked up in Grimsby harbour to wait out the trail of lows due across the UK in the next few days. It's certainly a good time for wind power!
Nx

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2011: Around the UK

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Photo: Plaque marking the centre of Britain in Haltwhistle

31st August
The swell into the harbour had decreased enough for us to get out of Eyemouth safely. Ivan the harbour master came out to the end of the pier to wave us off and to tell us to come back and visit again. We got the sails up and engine off and tried sailing but unfortunately after only an hour the wind had decreased to a level that we couldn't sail against the swell.

I don't know where the easterly swell was coming from as we'd had north westerly winds most recently, all we could guess was that there'd been some strong winds over in Norway and Denmark. Due to the swell we didn't think anchoring at the Farnes would have been very pleasant so headed on to Blyth. Despite there being no wind we encountered some rough water off the eastern tip of the Farnes even 2nm off them.

The sun came and went, our speed over ground went up to 7kt with the tide which hasn't happened for a while - looks like the bottom scrub made some difference! We made our first landing back in England at Blyth 11 hours after leaving Eyemouth and tied up on the empty visitor's pontoon at the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club.

I'd read that the area was very industrial and not very pretty, but it wasn't that bad. Golden beaches lined most of the coast all the way down to the Tyne with hills lining the horizon. Blyth port was a major exporter of coal; that has dramatically declined with the closing of most of the pits in the area (although it does still export a small amount) and it is now establishing itself as an area for renewable energy research.

2nd September
We were up early for a 2 1/2 hour bus journey (which was very good value) to the centre of Britain. This is a place called Haltwhistle in Northumberland. Its measurements were slightly suspect in that it had used north Orkney as its northerly point, but not included Shetland, but it feels wrong to criticise a place for trying to attract visitors. The day started dry but as we left Newcastle behind a drizzle began to fall. At Haltwhistle we quickly looked at the 'centre of Britain' signpost and ducked into the nearest café to wait to see if the rain would pass and to fortify ourselves for a day's walking.

The rain passed for long enough for us to walk the 2 miles alongside Haltwhistle Burn to Hadrian's Wall. The rain then returned, but up on the wall we could see west to where the clouds were rolling in from and it looked like we'd have a dry spell after this shower had passed.

Hadrian's Wall is a Roman defensive structure begun in AD 122 that stretches right across northern England and marks the northern frontier of the Roman Empire. There were some good remains of stone wall in the 6 mile section we'd chosen to walk, along with the remains of milecastles and turrets. The terrain was surprisingly rugged with lots of steep ups and downs and in places so craggy that they didn't need to have bothered with a wall at all. The scenery was stunning - looking south to the dark, brooding Pennines and north to the forests and hills of Northumberland.

Photo: Walking along a section of Hadrian's Wall

We passed the point where Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves (the one with Kevin Costner) was filmed, that I am reliably informed is called Sycamore Gap. Our walk ended at Housesteads Fort which we could have paid to go in and look around, but because we'd delayed over coffee and cake at the start, we'd have had to gallop around and our normally ship-bound legs weren't up to any galloping by that point. So we've now visited south, west, north and centre of Britian and Hadrian's Wall marks our second UNESCO World Heritage Site for this year.

We then left the wall for another 2 ½ miles walk to Bardon Mill where we found that the bus stop was a pub - how perfect was that and we had just enough time to enjoy a pint in the sun that had now appeared.

2011: Around the UK

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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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