Lossiemouth to Chatham Sailing Trip 22nd July to 1st August Summary

8 day trip turned into 11 day trip.

Lossiemouth to Whitehills to refuel, to Holy Island, to Amble for repairs, to Whitby, to Lowestoft for yet more fuel, to Queensborough for more repairs and finally to Chatham.

We missed seeing Bell Rock lighthouse, Bass Rock, Bamburgh Castle and the Farnese Islands due to thick fog and missed Southwold due to fuel issues and time constraints.

No rain but a lot of fog for first 3 days or so then lots and lots of sunshine but unfortunately very little wind.

Mechanical Issues.

     Water pump bearing failure at Amble.

     Impeller failure and subsequent cooling system airlock in the Thames estuary.

Other problems/mishaps.

     Ran aground in harbour entrance at Amble and stuck for a couple of hours waiting for more water.

     Stuck in Amble from late on Friday to Monday afternoon waiting for parts.

     Rearranging new transport plans for getting home, most people had extra costs involved.

Total distance travelled was 501 miles.

All in all quite an interesting adventure sailing trip.

Many thanks to the rest of the crew for your company over the trip namely: Charlie (skipper), Dave and Gwen, Marcus who had to leave in Amble due to time constraints, Jenny, Steve 1, Steve 2 and Jon.

We also need to thank Coquet Yacht Club for their hospitality and for staying open into the early hours to provide food and refreshments for us after we finally got into Amble Marina.

I also have a fish pie recipe courtesy of Gwen to try out on family members next week, if it's half as good as the one Gwen produced during one of our longer passages they will be well impressed.

Some photos from the trip and maybe some paintings based on my sketches will be posted at a later date.

Lossiemouth to Chatham - Day 7 Monday - Amble to Whitby

Our engine parts arrived 0845 as promised, engine fixed by 0930. We now have to wait for the tide to get over the marina chill and out into the River Coquet and out to sea. We have a few shrugs spare so it's a few housekeeping jobs then off for a walk.

A Dutch yacht has tried to get out before the tide has dropped and has hit the chill. We don't know what damage he has done but in any case he will be there for about 4 hours while the tide finishes going out and then comes back in sufficiently for him to re float. He is leaning at quite an alarming angle. He is about 4 feet from the depth gauge for the chill so he has misjudged his exit big time. He is taking the opportunity to clean the bottom of his boat !!

Stuck on the Cill

We have time to do a few manoeuvres on the way to the fuel pontoon. Yours truly is on the helm from our hammerhead pontoon mooring to another hammerhead a couple of rows along that has the fuel berth.

Slip the bow line, engine on and in neutral, engine in slow reverse, bow drifting out OK, slip the stern line, we are now being held with the engine and stern spring. Forward gear, slip stern spring and we are away into the channel at the end of the pontoons. Once clear we are into reverse to allow another yacht to pass clear of us. Into forward gear.............NO THE OTHER FORWARD.........panic...... A lot of power forward...nearly demolished the pontoon behind us. Approaching the fueling berth at 45 degrees aiming for the middle, steer to port when we are 1 metre from the pontoon, quick blast of reverse to stop us, lines ashore, tied up and we are there. A bit of a panic for a moment but we (I) missed everything that needed missing !!! I do question the wisdom of having a loon on the helm approaching a fuel berth but we managed. I think I need a drink.

Refuelled and away at 1545, the Dutch yacht is off the chill and away with presumably only minor paint damage to has hull. Very little wind again but nice and sunny, we are heading for Whitby and we should be there about 0430 tomorrow morning to get through the bridge at the 0500 opening.

We have a school of dolphins playing around the boat, I managed to get a Dagwood picture of a dolphin along with 6 of a dolphin splash. I can't upload that pic until I'm home.

On watch 1730 to 2030' sunny but very little wind, motor sailing again. Glorious sunset tonight.

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.