Lossiemouth to Chatham - Day 5. In Amble

We are in Amble Marina - replacement Waterpump assembly in the post special delivery from Chatham guaranteed to be here First thing Monday morning supposedly so we have a free day today where we can escape the confines of the boat and wander about. I'm heading into Walkworth to do some sketching in the sunshine and to think about options for continuing on or heading for home as we won't be in Chatham by Wednesday morning and my flight is non refundable.

Sketch of Walkworth from the path near Amble.

Walkworth Bridge

Beach, North Breakwater and Coquet Island

Boat remains in R. Coquet

Headed back into Walkworth for a few beers and our evening meal. Walked the mile and a half back to the marina and got caught in a sudden very heavy shower, all were soaked through and very soggy by the time we got back. Glass of wine or two, some intelligent conversation ! and off to bed.

Lossiemouth to Chatham - Day 4. Holy Island to ............

I'm on anchor watch 0330 to 0430, got my sketching gear out ready for the dawn, hopefully the mist will clear. Sketched the castle in silhouette as the mist began to clear. A curious young seal came to investigate and play around the boat for a while. I did 4 sketches by 0530 when I went back to bed for an hour or so. When I awoke at 0730 the mist had closed in again.

Lindisfarne silhouette.

The Breakwater.

Offshore island.

We got the dinghy out and inflated and were off the boat by 0900. Mist clearing fast getting hot and sunny. I sketched around the bay area with the sheds out of upturned old boat hulls and the famous castle.

I got 4 sketches done before needing to return to the boat. Lindisfarne (Holy Island) is one of my favourite sketching spots.

Upturned boat shed and the Castle.

The Castle from the approach road.

The Castle from the Staithe.

Tonic and Catzero at anchor.

Left Holy Island in full sun at 1400, we were back in thick mist within 10 minutes. Still no wing so motoring again, in the general direction of Hartlepool.

We couldn't see Bamburgh Castle or the Farnese Islands due to the fog, we were in our our own little cocoon with 100m visibility again. As we pressed on the visibility improved and the sun came out so it became a very nice afternoon but that was about to change.

At 1700 we heard strange squeaks coming from somewhere near the engine, soon traced to a leak at the rear of the water pump so it needed fixing quickly, we decided to head for Amble for repairs. We are getting there close to low water so getting in may be an issue...........it was we've ran aground in the harbour mouth....

Either Reeds Almanac differs a fair bit from the local conditions or we miscalculated, anyway we are stuck fast. We had to wait for two hours before getting off and trying again. We finally got tied up in the Marina at 0200. Many thanks to Coquet Yacht Club who stayed on to welcome us with food and a beer..much appreciated.

Lossiemouth to Chatham - Day 3

I'm on watch 0400  to 0800 today, tacking to avoid shipping at Peterhead and Aberdeen which is slowing us down a bit. Very poor visibility, checking the radar regularly for any approaching vessels. Foggy, cold and damp......hmmmmmm sailing. Gwendoline produced bacon sandwiches that lifted the spirits somewhat.. Very welcome. Next to no wind, motoring, don't look like getting to Holy island until early tomorrow morning making this a very long passage. Finally arrived Holy Island at 0015 Friday. (215 miles, 39 hours). Still thick fog. Anchored in the bay off the castle.

Still no sketches.

Lossiemouth to Chatham - Day 2

On passage from Lossiemouth towards Lindisfarne ( Holy Island ). Left Lossiemouth in poor visibility at 0930. We have radar and AIS on board otherwise we would be back in the harbour. The fog cleared about a mile offshore. The weather forecast was for F3 to F4 occasionally F5, sea state slight. In actuality it was F5 to F6 gusting F7. Slow going into a headwind. We called in at Whitehills to refuel, quite a tight dogleg into the inner basin with quite shallow depth for a largish boat like ours but we managed OK. We were soon on our way again as we have a long way to go. The wind died and we ended up motoring, at least we were making some progress now.

I'm feeling a little queasy! Not got my sealegs yet. Either on deck or trying to sleep below. I'm on watch from 1400 to 1800. With 9 on board the watch rota works out quite good with 4 hours on and 10 hours off. Passed Ratray Head just after midnight and turned south heading along the coast to Lindisfarne, passing Peterhead, Aberdeen, Montrose, Firth of Forth etc.

No sketches today, nothing to see from the boat.

Lossiemouth to Chatham Day 1. Lossiemouth

Hot sunny day today.....maybe too hot!.........noooooow!!!

We are staying in Lossiemouth today and tonight and plan to get away about 0930 tomorrow just on high tide to give us a favourable tide to get around the Ratray Head then a long passage with the intention of making Holy Island after about 36 hours. This will be the longest single passage I've done so we will see how it goes.

I managed together a half day sketching around Lossiemouth, here are the results.

View west towards the lighthouse.

The inner harbour.

view east along the beach.

The River Lossie and the bridge.

The boat we are on is a Bavaria 46 with a crew of 9 got this trip. Everyone seems compatable.....no weirdo,s........but we will see how the week goes ;-)

Here is a pic of the boat.

We won't have internet for a couple of days so my next post will probably be Friday.

Busy week in the studio

It's been a busy week here in my studio, trying to get a few paintings done before I go off on my sailing trip. I've managed to do 2 watercolour landscapes, 1 pastel and 2 watercolour Puffin paintings.

The pastel is the first one I've done for about 4 years as I've been concentrating on watercolour and oils. Now I'm in the studio full time I can spend a bit of time on some pastels as well as doing a bit of leaded glass work. Paintings shown below.

Furze - Fair Isle (now with some birds to finish it off)

Loch Piyoulish - Cairngorms National Park

Pastel of Puffins near Furze - Fair Isle

2 watercolours of Puffins from Fair Isle

A fairly busy 5 days.

I'm off on my sailing trip in the morning so I will post some sketches etc when I get a wi fi signal somewhere.

July Update

Since my Shetland and Fair Isle trip Ive been away in the Lake District for an enjoyable family week, plenty of Wainwrights climbed but only a few sketches done as it was primarily a "family" week chilling out together.
Ive now finished my contract work in Aberdeen so I am now concentrating full time on artwork for our gallery. Ive a lot of projects lined up for the next few months, sketching and painting the landscape and wildlife of the Cairngorms, a couple of leaded glass panels to do, some commissions to be undertaken and a lot of catch up paintings from recent trips, Jordon (Petra), the Nile and Lake Nasser (Abu Symbel) and our China tour (Yantze and three gorges, River Li, shanghai etc.) So all in all I think I will be fully occupied until the end of the year.
Ive also got a couple of sailing trips in the pipeline. Next week I am away for a week sailing from Lossiemouth to Chatham, visiting Montrose, Eyemouth, Holy Island, The Farne Islands, Whitby and Southwold before reaching Chatham on 30th July. This trip is with Elite Sailing based in Chatham, Ive sailed 4 or 5 times with Elite Sailing over the years and always had a brilliant time.
 In late August Im away for a week sailing on an old Brixham trawler 'Leader" with Trinity Sailing along the Scottish West Coast, this is a "Scottish Wildlife Cruise" and there is a wildlife expert on onboard for the trip. more on these later.
I will be just back from the second trip in time for this years "Carve Carrbridge" chainsaw carving competion on 31st August, Im not competing but my wife Alice is competing for the ninth time.

Shetland and Fair Isle Summary.

Ive been a bit lazy with my blog of late so this post is to start to bring everyone up to date with things.
I was on Shetland and Fair Isle for 15 days in total, 4 of those on Fair Isle. The weather was great apart from two days, (fogbound at Tingwall Airport for a day while trying to get to Fair Isle, and one very wet day at Eshaness where it rained heavily for about 20 hours and my camper van roof leaked).
The Shetland and Fair Isle landscape was fantastic and everyone I met were extremely friendly and welcoming. I sketched lots of Puffins but didn't get to see any otters, I think I will need to get a local guide next time. All in all a very enjoyable trip….I will return at some point next year.

 Fair Isle Airstrip.

 The Fair Isle Airplane

 Puffins - Fair Isle

 Furze - Fair Isle

Furze - Fair Isle. From the other side of the bay.