55 52.30'N:002 05.22'W
Eyemouth is a great protected harbour. Although narrow and shallow, once on the pontoon it is well sheltered. The river is diverted so the expected tidal flood does not exist which is great as manouevring will be delicate in here; we definitely need a rising tide and a couple of hours in of said tide.

The town is very compact, lots of little alleyways, a mix of housing and interesting locals. The old harbour master Johnie was preparing a Trust owned wooden sailing boat for winter this morning with the assistance of two friends with much banter. Built in 1904 the boat was the Stroma ferry and carried livestock for 40 years. They keep it very well. The harbour seals are rather large being fed by the local fishermen. They certainly know when they are onto a good thing, apparently there are about 18 in the harbour.

Bella B a local fishing boat moors behind us, only just fitting on the pontoon with us here. We chatted with its owner Brian yesterday afternoon about how much the fishing has changed over the years. His is the only other boat we have met that has the same JCB engine as Destiny. They are now catching brown crabs and lobsters which go to China. There is no white fish landed here now. He generously gave us 5 lobsters which we had for dinner last night - delicious. The box of fresh baked cookies and Fondant au Chocolat we left on the boat for his crew today were a small thank you in comparison, especially as they gave us 4 brown crabs and some cod they caught today. We shared these with two other cruisers moored alongside - community spirit lives on. First time I've cooked lobster so Sophie Grigson's 'Fish' book, which we had on our first boat Samen in 1998, came in very useful.

Talking of Samen (a Vancouver 32), the boat moored alongside us is a Vancouver 34! Gosh that brings back memories. Samen was very good for us, she taught us a lot of steep lessons, never having sailed before, but also looked after us on our first trip to Greenland in 2001 when we endured a Force 9 gale mid Atlantic on the return trip. After the gale under a starry sky with the milky way and dolphins playing alongside in the waves, Andy and I decided on a life change but needed a bigger boat. Hence started the journey to build, live aboard and work with Destiny. Happy Days.

PICTURE : Local delicacies