Monday 28 July 2014

Fraserburgh to Peterhead

This post replaces one lost last night when I fell asleep over it, so must have deleted it!

In brief,  Vincent and Leslie, who had been a long time on the boat left by taxi for Aberdeen airport at 0800 and their luggage was hauled out the side of Fraserburgh's very dirty quayside where we had spent the night in a 'hanging' mooring against the wall. I shall miss their company, friendship, expertise and humour.

I was then on my own, so did a variety of jobs, and went to see the very friendly Fraserburgh harbourmaster to pay my £10. Fraserburgh is a working fishing port, so inevitably is less well scrubbed than say Lymington, but it was a safe refuge for which we were very thankful.

I then slipped, with great care as I was solo, from my mooring and headed out to see at 1200, caught the strong tide past Rattray head lighthouse and thence to Peterhead, doing around 8knots. There were a lot of shipping movements at Peterhead, and I had to wait for permission to enter and then arrive at the marina, where I was met by the harbourmaster, again very friendly, who took my lines. Alexandria is a large boat to handle on my own, so I was thankful. Then, having learned that there would be no fuel tomorrow, I slipped again and manoeuvred over to the fuel pontoon and back to my berth again, all solo and this time without any help with lines. Preparation is the real key to solo docking large boats in tight marinas, and it was quite rewarding to do it without crushing anyone else!

I was very happy to meet Mark W who arrived at 1900 and who will be with me for the next few days, and we sought out somewhere to eat in Peterhead, and ended up at Wetherspoons. The meal filled a gap, but we had a very enjoyable evening.
Today, refuelled, re watered, re crewed and re energised, we are off to Arbroath which us 65 nm down the coast in our new direction...South. ETA 1900, before access is prevented HW+\- 3 hours.





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