Back to England

Our passage from Port Edgar to Eyemouth turned out to be a mixed bag of rain, sunshine, no wind, good sailing breeze, the only thing we didn't have to do is reef, which made a change. The highlight of the passage was passing the Bass Rock, at the Southern side of the mouth of the Firth of Forth. We thought we had seen masses of seabirds on Troup Head but nothing compared to the masses of gannets on and around Bass Rock. As well as the sight of all those birds the sound of them, and, in the lee of the island, the smell was memorable!

 

Bass Rock

Gannets

Eyemouth entrance is protected by the Hurkar rocks but it is daunting, entering from seaward for the first time, passing between waves crashing onto the rocks either side of the boat. The entrance itself is 17m wide between concrete piers, which block your vision until you turn into it. Fortunately there was nothing coming out as we went in. By 2130 we were tied up alongside another yacht in the inner harbour followed in by the fishing fleet with their load of prawns.

Fishing boat in the entrance channel

Unloading prawns.

Rafting up in the inner harbour.

 

We planned to spend the next day in Eyemouth, sitting out a strong Northerly wind, and had a pleasant walk over the golf course, situated on the edge of the sea, East of the harbour. Not many golf courses have the sort of hazards between the tee and the greens that Eyemouth has. I'm not a golfer so I don't know what the rules say about losing your ball into a raging sea crashing onto rocks!

Between tee and green, not a place for a golfer to lose his balls!

 

We planned to leave the next morning, as soon after low water as we could, to get to Amble while there was enough water over the sill into the marina there. It was not to be. Our first attempt was halted when we grounded in the swell in the entrance channel. The pilot book reference to the channel being dredged to 2m is not correct! Fortunately Lacerta responded well going astern in the entrance channel and we retreated to a temporary berth in the outer harbour to wait for the tide to rise. After a couple of hours there was enough water and we readied ourselves for another attempt but the harbourmaster warned us that a big swell had built up outside the harbour and in the entrance and suggested that we wait another day for the swell to die down. Advice that was borne out when a large trawler almost surfed her way in through the entrance so we retreated to our berth alongside Liberty in the inner harbour.

Why we didn't go out today!

Seal in the harbour entrance.

 

We had a little community of yachts in the inner harbour, all waiting to get out and head South. Jill and Paul on Alpagro, who had been living aboard their Moody 29, on and off for 8 years, Kate and Jon with their children on Liberty and John Calver on Mardi Gras, who edits the Cruising Association almanac. Mardi Gras, Liberty and ourselves left in convoy at 0630 the next morning, Mardi Gras and us bound for Amble and Liberty aiming for a longer passage to the Tyne.

Farne Islands lunch stop.

 

With the wind in the SW we were able to hoist full sail outside the harbour and reach down the coast to Holy Island, needing a reef in the mainsail for a little while. As we were bigger than the others we soon overhauled them, crossing the border back into England off Berwick, and reaching the Farne Islands in time for a lunch stop while the others continued on. We anchored in The Kettle next to a splendid Dutch ketch and got the binoculars out to view the seabirds, mainly terns, that surrounded us. Apart from the noise of the birds the solitude was spoilt by the number of tripper boats depositing holiday makers from Seahouses on Inner Farne, so, after an hours break we upped anchor to follow the rest of our convoy southwards. We came out of the anchorage just as the tide was starting to flood strongly southwards and soon caught up with Mardi Gras, who had been set out to sea on the last of the ebb. The wind from the Farne Islands to Amble veered around to the South and played games with us, shifting through 30 degrees and varying from 25 to 10 knots, leaving a lumpy sea when the wind dropped. We were into Amble marina at 1600, followed soon after by Mardi Gras, while Liberty continued on her journey to the Tyne.

Mardi Gras left on the morning tide this morning, needing to make her way back to her home base at Aldeburgh. We are leaving on this afternoon's tide, heading for the River Tyne and the Royal Quays marina in North Shields. Not many places to anchor on this bit of coast!

 

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