Lossiemouth to Chatham - Day 6 Saturday - Still in Amble

Another leisurely day today waiting in Amble marina for engine parts to arrive. I spent the morning housekeeping and sorting things out and the afternoon sketching in Walkworth.

We have decided on our plan for the rest of the trip assuming we get the engine fixed tomorrow morning.

1. Depart Amble about 1700 Monday

2. Arrive Whitby after dawn on Tuesday, there is a tidal constraint with the Whitby harbour bridge.

3. Depart Whitby on the following high tide at about 1800 Tuesday.

4. Arrive Southwold on Wednesday evening after waiting for the incoming tide to help us up the river.

5. Depart Southwold about 0500 on Thursday

6. Arrive Chathan sometime on Thursday evening

7. Sort the boat out and depart for home at some point on Friday

8. On the Megabus Gold from Victoria Coach station to Aviemore at 2300 Friday to arrive in Aviemore

    at 1000 on Saturday morning.

Below are today's sketches.

Walkworth Castle 1

Walkworth Castle 2

Walkworth Bridge and Gatehouse 

Walkworth Market Cross

That's all for today, I may be able to post from Whitby at some point on Tuesday.

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.

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.

Shetland and Fair Isle Painting Trip Day 3 - Mon 12th May

Woke at 0530 today with a glorious sunrise streaming in the van window...must remember the blackout screens tonight. I was planning an early start to catch the Puffins before they went out fishing, the warden said 0600 may be a good time to see them...unfortunately nobody told the Puffins.... The first one to emerge was at 0730. It's another sunny day today lets hope it lasts. First stop today was to Gurtness Pier to see a colony of Arctic Terns on the adjacent headland.....very noisy. I continued on to Loch of Spiggie and Spiggie Beach.. I wasn't expecting white sand beaches in the sunshine and almost deserted.

View from the car park at Spiggie Beach.

This would be a great spot to spend the night as long as your self sufficient.

Next stop was St Ninians Isle with the best Tombola in Britain......I didn't know what it was either.

( a sand bar or beach separating two islands or an island and the main land mass ) that's what the sign said anyway.

St Ninians Tombola.

I found a nice Real Ale pub with camper van hook up and showers for tonight's stop over......result.

My Coast to Coast to Coast Cycle Tour 2013

I'm away for a two week cycling and sketching tour across the north of England starting the day after tomorrow ((Saturday 10th August). The plan is cycle 400 miles from Barrow in Furness in Cumbria to Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast via The 'Walney to Whitby' cycle route, then down the coast to Bridlington and finally back across to Morecombe via the 'Way of the Roses' cycle route. In other words a 400 mile pub crawl.

It's all planned at a leisurely pace of about 35 miles each day so I can sketch and paint along the way.

That's the initial plan anyway and as I'm going to be fully self sufficient, camping along the way I can change it as I see fit. I will stay longer at some places where I find good sketching subjects and may pass other places quite quickly. The weather will play a big part in it all, hopefully not too wet or too windy, too sunny I can probably cope with.

No going back now.....train tickets for me and my bike are booked and paid for. I'm starting to feel a bit apprehensive now, will the weather be OK, will the hills be manageable with a loaded touring bike, will I be fit enough......

The trip is a 60th birthday trip "to find myself" whatever that means.....I hope I don't get lost.

 I chose this route as it takes me to a lot of the old backpacking haunts of my youth.

I'm planning on updating the blog as I go along wherever I can get a wi-fi signal, unfortunately this will mean visiting lots and lots of pubs along the way!  ;-)

Thats the bike packed....Looking good.

Total carried weight is 12kg which is not too bad as it includes full camping gear.

To pack the bike successfully you should lay out everything you think you can't live without and then half it and hopefully it will fit into 2 x 15 litre panniers and a barbag. It weighs about half of what I used to carry on the backpacking trips I did in my youth with my mate Ian.

I must remember to thank my long suffering wife for letting me indulge myself for a fortnight.

She is no doubt scanning holiday brochures, planning a cruise for herself and our daughter in the not too distant future.

My Compact Sketching Kit

I've been busy making up a new ultra compact sketching kit ready for a summer cycle tour. Size and weight of kit is of paramount importance, you cant take everything you would like when you have to lug it about. Size and weight of kit is fairly important on a long hiking trip but critical on a cycle tour with big hills to get over on a loaded bike, although the bijou box is made from brass it is quite lightweight and I've not found a lightweight plastic quite one as compact as this although the W & N field box I also use  is only marginally larger. (In reality the beautiful tiny brass one is a bit of an indulgence)

This is the kit I've made up :

9 x 14 cm Moleskine watercolour sketchbook (maybe two will be required for a two week trip)

Bijou travel paint box.

2 travel brushes

Pentel mechanical pencil and spare leads

Travel tissues

All fits in a small bag as shown below. (Except the sketchbook)

2p shown for scale.

I will probably add the following to this list at some point

Water soluble graphite pencil

Razor blade

Small piece of eraser

Small piece of old towel

This will still fit in the little bag.

My bijou travel paint box was made by John Hurtley of 'The Little Brass Box Company'

and I requested an 8 well tray instead of the usual 12 so that I could fit in a travel brush and a part tube of Chinese white gouache. It all fits into the little brass water pot.

My colours are Winsor & Newton Artists quality watercolours.

Lemon Yellow and Naples Yellow

Cadmium Red and Alizarin Crimson

Cerulean Blue and French Ultramarine

Raw Sienna and Burnt Sienna

Warm and cool versions of Yellow, Red and Blue pus 2 extra useful mixing colours.

You can mix just about any colour for landscapes from these in my opinion.