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 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 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.