Monday 7 October 2013

Last Sail of the Season.


It's the end of the sailing season in Dunbar and the Heron came out of the water on Thursday. Stuart has decided to keep the Seline at Anstruther for the winter, where the better shelter and a mud ground, make it a safe proposition. So on Saturday morning me, Stuart and Davie loaded the yacht with supplies and headed back out into the Firth of Forth.



The crowds of well wishers on the pier waved us off!


Here is a rare picture of the Shearwater working as it tries to deepen Dunbar Harbour. Hopefully the all-weather lifeboat will be able to return to Dunbar but there will still be a problem with winter swell.


A couple of miles out and the Seline was racing along at over six knots and we were having a great time.



The wind was generally steady on the port quarter. I tried to get a few pictures but there was quite a bit of water coming over the bows. The cockpit stayed dry although I got a bit wet hiked out on the windward rail. Good sailing and a really quick crossing of two and a half hours. 


The Seline was tied up and we had a beer before going for a wander in the unseasonably warm October weather.



The little yacht (above) is the Katie L owned by Dylan Winter who has made many wonderful films of his odyssey around the British Isles. Take some winter evenings to look at his site at Keep Turning Left. Dylan is a professional film maker and this shows in the way his work is beautifully filmed and edited; yet he still captures his essentially amateurish, and very British, record of a circumnavigation of our little island by the simple plan...keep turning left. 


Sunday morning dawned reasonably bright, the tide was out, and the mud was exposed. You wouldn't want to fall in there, although it was just as noxious in the cabin as the fumes of pizza, kebab, and last night's beer threatened to overwhelm us.


Coffee and bacon rolls at the cafe and then the long journey home by road. A great trip in good company.

 I don't think it will be too long before Stuart is back across to "check the boat is safe".


1 comment:

  1. Great day out, and a nice sail to end the season, looks like the boats came out just in time, the chart for the weekend is nasty.

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