Puffin-fest @ Aberdour

Okay… …you got me. That’s not technically a puffin, but HMS Prince of Wales [Ahem, Prince of Whales to you Mr President], which is typically the first floaty thing I snap when we’re heading down river. Be assured that the gratuitous fluffy-puffin shot comes later.

We set off late afternoon, it was a bit overcast, but very settled. We unfurled our Macwester Malin’s genoa when we set off, but brought it back in within minutes as there was no useable wind.

We started spotting puffins between St. David’s and Dalgety Bay, which is further west than normal. The admittedly more ‘fuzzy’ than fluffy puffin above was snapped at Aberdour, further east than normal. We typically see one or two puffins crossing Mortimer’s Deep, but we must have spotted six to eight, which is the most we’ve seen since the puffin wreck a few years back – good news!

The settled weather continued and the sun put in an appearance not long after we arrived at Aberdour. The crew presented me with some raw poultry plus matches, and it slowly dawned on me that I had better dig out my chef’s hat.

A passing fisherman very kindly presented us with a freshly-caught, recently-deceased mackerel, which went straight on the barbie. I’d like to tell you that it was the most wonderful mackerel that we’ve ever tasted, but it was dreadful. It was rubbery and dry …next time, it’ll be wrapped in foil with some herbs and butter.

The crew and I enjoyed doing nothing in particular; going for walks, catching up with local club members, and basically just taking it easy.

We watched the wildlife including herons, ducks, and thousands of tiny fish thread their way through the scenery surrounding our yacht. We saw sea swimmers swimming across the bay. We read. We played cards. We watched box set VoD.

During a discussion on the pier, the local harbourmaster told us about diving boards over to the west of the beach at Aberdour. We had wondered about these decaying structures for many years, but didn’t realise that these rusty relics had originally been diving boards. In the photograph above, you can make out the remains of two diving boards [left and centre] as well as steps that have been carved out of the rock.

It was cloudier on day three, and we managed to squeeze in some sailing without using the engine on the journey back home against a light westerly. Neither of us were keen to leave; as usual we were back home all too soon. Still, there’s always the next trip to look forward to!

Dalgety Bay at last!

Towards the end of June, we headed for Dalgety Bay on a bright Friday evening. The shot above shows the underside of the new Queensferry Crossing, with a glimpse of the ‘old’ Forth Road Bridge in the bottom left corner.

It was unusual for us to have the sun late in the evening in the little harbour, but this was just a couple of days after the summer solstice …so we soaked it up and enjoyed a long night out on deck.

The weather continued to behave itself, and as usual we went for walks around the coast. Predictably as the sun was out, I got to burn stuff for our evening meal on the Saturday night – always entertaining.

I couldn’t decide whether to include the photo above, which shows our Macwester Malin in the harbour with the Forth Bridge in the background [the original ‘rail’ bridge]… … …or the photo below, with a wider view and the beach in the foreground.

In the end, I decided to give you both …now, don’t let me hear you say I’m not good to you!

Early June send off …and more

As is always the case on this blog; no names, no faces, no pack-drill. Which makes the first part of this particular post more of a challenge, as half-a-dozen club yachts mustered to support team Calloo with a final farewell to our dear friend and club ex-Commodore. He is sorely missed by us, family and friends.

In addition to Calloo and Indefatigable Banks [us], Joint Venture, Fyne Thyme, Louise, and Maverick were also out on the water, just off our chum, the ex-Commodore’s back garden.

Eagle-eyed readers may spot a figure mid-ships [above] peering into the water. Not satisfied with spreading ashes that day, one of the crew decide to cast his wife’s new mobile phone into the drink too [oops].

Our guests onboard for the day were ladies from Jambel and Solveig. We rafted up alongside Joint Venture, and while the ladies enjoyed something frothy, the Joint Venture crew gave me the opportunity to taste their Glenkinchie 12-year old, which I have to say was appropriately special. In fact, the whole final send-off was moving and special – we were honoured to be invited along …just as we were honoured to know our friend. After returning the yachts to their moorings, assorted crews reconvened in the clubhouse bar.

A few weeks earlier, the crew and I had both stood on our dinghy seat at the same time. That was a mistake which needed some remedial work. After a bit of sawing, sanding, and painting, I managed to make and fit a replacement without too much of a palaver.

Although, when I extracted myself from the mud, it was clear that the oil spill clean-up operation [earlier in the year – see here] really hadn’t removed all of the oil from the harbour and surrounding areas.

Wellies off and back in the car with a clear view of the dinghy, we watched as a loutish crow flew down from nowhere and pranced gleefully all over my newly painted seat. It only flew off when the heavens opened and a relentless deluge of water added insult to injury. Anyhoo, the following weekend, we tested the new dinghy seat taking Twindefatigable Banks out for a trip to the Ghauts when the tide eventually decided to put in an appearance.

We made best use of weekends that for one reason or another meant that we couldn’t be away sailing. Including a trip to the East Pier Smokehouse at St. Monans, where we both predictably ordered the hot-smoked sea bass.

As usual, the food was great, and we’ll be back for more before the end of the season [St. Monans harbour pictured above]. After leaving St. Monans we headed over to check out the Elie chain-walk, but weren’t convinced we had the right tide window to make it all the way to the end and back …so that’s one for another day.

Port Edgar open weekend

Well-behind on my blogging, so I’m cracking out updates when I can. On the second weekend in May, we had an early-morning start to catch the tide and make our destination – which for the first time this season was Port Edgar marina.

We didn’t plan it, however it was the marina’s open weekend, which meant that it was busy …very busy. No doubt in part due to reasonably good weather. The marina pontoons have restricted access, so apart from the occasional stray tourist, it was business as usual away from the retail hub (above).

The crew took forever to spot that the landmark Port Edgar crane had been dismantled. It’s a pity, but the reality is that it had become a bit of a liability …so had to go.

One definite plus of the marina open day is that we got all six lifejackets checked by the RNLI – we were pleased to learn that they’re all in good condition. Later, we had a great night catching up with our chums onboard Tight Fit V.

There had been wall-to-wall sunshine for much of the weekend. Leaving our berth didn’t go to plan, as we pivoted on a snagged fender and very quickly ended-up reversing out. Not ideal, but the crew spotted an opportunity for me to pull-off a J-turn and we were back on track.

On the way back home we passed by HMS Prince Of Wales (Prince of Whales, to you Mr President), and HMS Queen Elizabeth, who’s captain was under scrutiny at the time and was subsequently replaced by the time she passed under the Forth Bridges just after midday on 23rd May 2019

The sun was getting low in the sky by the time we made it back to our mooring, but there was still more than enough visibility.

The following weekend was very useable, however we had other commitments which meant that the best we could do was to squeeze in some time onboard, pottering and reading…

…and getting some rowing exercise in too. All-in-all, May proved to be a bit like April and June, which were unfortunately lacking in actual sailing.

Easter Shakedown ABC

The weather was kind to the UK during the Easter weekend for our first outing of the year, and we set sail on the Friday plotting a course for Aberdour. It was chillier out on the water than we expected, despite that typically being the case.

I use the term ‘sail’ however we motored all the way. As can be seen in the photograph above, we had little choice as we had no genoa or main sail, plus we were heading into an easterly. Before we left, we got the mizzen fitted so that we had a back-up plan should there be some sort of shakedown problem with our Macwester Malin’s diesel engine …fortunately there wasn’t.

There was however a hiccup when it came to docking. Aberdour Boat Club crane-in had taken place just two days earlier so the pier was really busy. We motored far up the harbour, to the only vacant berth, where we were rapidly running out of water. This shallow berth meant heading for the pier at a steep angle, and then using the thruster to avoid hitting the harbour wall at the last minute. We managed that, but in the process, the thruster made a worrying noise, so I stopped using it and knew that I’d have to go check it out when the tide had dropped [see above].

We had four days of cracking weather, and we set about getting the rest of the sails on, along with one or two other early-season tasks. Our chum, the friendly harbourmaster made an early appearance to fill us in on all of the Aberdour news from the closed season.

A couple of yachts from our club appeared later on Friday, on their way to St. Monan’s. Wildcat stayed out on her deep water mooring, but Chiron came into the harbour. Unfortunately Chiron was taking on water. That appeared to be the result of an oversight by the skipper and soon the drama was over.

Unfortunately, while I was along helping with Chiron, our Macwester Malin took the ground a little far from the pier, with no ladder accessible …so the crew couldn’t get off, and that it transpired led to the loss of any brownie points I had amassed by arranging wall-to-wall sunshine. In fact, those brownie points were quickly replaced by big black stars plastered inside and out of my pop-up doghouse. The solution [see fender step above] failed to make any appearance amidst the mire of disappointment until the following day …and so scuppered any chance of rum cocktails onboard Chiron that night.

Probably just as well, as there were a few sorry heads shared between those who had spent the night onboard Chiron. With their technical problems in mind, Chiron and Wildcat changed their plans and set sail for Dysart instead. We stayed put and enjoyed the weather. We went for walks out towards Starleyburn, and treated ourselves to soft-scoop ice cream round at the other beach – which was absolutely mobbed.

We managed two barbecues, and had a surprise visit from our west-coast chum and his son who had strayed further east. Unbelievably [to us anyway], it had been five years since they had last visited us [en bateau], which just happened to be in Aberdour. Our sailing life just seems to vanish before our very eyes …as did the four days we spent in Aberdour.

All too soon, we said our goodbyes to our friends, who helped us cast off, and watched as we motored out of the harbour past the club moorings. With the wind directly behind us, we made 4-5 knots on the genoa so left the main and mizzen under wraps.

It was an uneventful sail home …but that’s a good thing when you’re on a shakedown sail!

Crane-Out 2018

Crane-out arrived far too soon for us, and we felt more than a little cheated that our season had been curtailed in August. Time, tide, and indeed the crane driver waits for no man, so we forlornly sailed our Macwester Malin around to the club harbour …and waited for our slot.

We had a temporary landing [above] before we eventually reached our final destination, which ended-up being in a less-fragrant [good], but much breezier [bad] spot. Still, we were safely on the hard without incident and that’s a result as far as I’m concerned.

We chose a calm, sunny day to row the dinghy over to the club via stopping-off at the Ghauts for the crew to get her wellies wet, and to somehow extend our season just a little bit longer.

It didn’t take too long to reach the west-facing ramp at the club and we dragged the dinghy up with the help of our chum, who has recently opened up a yacht chandlers [ VisionMarine ]. It’s early days, however we wish him the very best of luck with his new venture.

With our Macwester Malin’s hull power-washed, the heads and engine winterised, sails, sprayhood and cockpit tent stowed, plus having uninstalled our mooring tackle. We took some time to enjoy the coast from the land.

One of our first stops, was the East Pier Smokehouse @ St Monans before they closed down for the winter. We managed to wangle a sunny day with little in the way of wind, and so were able to sit outside on their terrace and enjoy the 360° views. As usual we both opted for the smoked sea bass with fries – yum!

First race, last sail

After much faffing around, we managed to get off our mooring and make it to the start of our first ever race onboard our Macwester Malin, just in time to see the field burst across the starting line. By the time we threw up our sails and found the wind, we crossed the start line ten minutes after the start of the race – not the best of starts to our racing career then.

It was late September, and the crew was feeling well enough to try a trip on the water, however we had additional crew for the day in the shape of our yacht-less chums from the club, one of whom is a naval architect. It wasn’t too long before we were heading directly into the front-runners on their way back down river.

Firmly in last place, we were nevertheless enjoying ourselves and having started ten minutes after everyone else, we had already accepted that our Macwester Malin wasn’t going to make it anywhere near the silverware cupboard on her debut. I spent quite a bit of time out on deck getting up close and personal with a pole, trying to ensure that we could goose-wing our way down river. Lunch was good, and the apple brandy that our guests had very-kindly provided was even gooder (that’s a real word; if you don’t believe me look it up).

The half-way point was the welcoming bar at Blackness Boat Club. While we were in there, the wind picked up from the west, and that would make leaving more of a challenge than we had imagined when we arrived alongside. In the end, we had to wait for Calloo to leave the end of the pier for fear that we might be blown into her. With Fyne Thyme inside us acting as a floating starters hut, this meant that we were the last yacht across the starting line for the return leg too.

Fortunately we had much catching up to do (socially), and amongst other interesting conversation, we heard about our naval architect chum’s new electric tender model [see here], one of which was being auctioned for charity over at the Monaco Yacht Show a few days later. I haven’t been onboard the new model, but the predecessor was a hoot when we went out for a spin back in 2014 [see here]

We had a choice to make, and at the cost of missing the opportunity to get back on to our drying mooring, we opted to finish the race. Unbelievably, we didn’t finish last, and I reckon our time might even have managed a whiff of respectability if we had started at the same time as the rest of the field. For us though, it wasn’t about the racing, it was about making it out on to the water one last time during the season …and the great company. Thanks to the owner of Louise for the shot above.

A few days later our chum’s electric tender sold for a whopping €1.8 million at the charity auction. Well I was impressed anyhoo.

Last of the summer cruises

I’m playing catch-up with my blogging at the moment. Over the first weekend in August, we made the short dash over to the marina at Port Edgar. The weather was favourable with pockets of sunshine. The image above shows the view from our heads porthole with a very pretty 38ft Spirit in the foreground, followed by a 40ft Dufour, and a Fairline Squadron in the background. That’s the same Fairline that we spotted from Dalgety Bay a few weeks ago (see here).

We made the most of our time, given that quite a bit of the rest of the season was destined to be compromised by non-sailing activities.

We crammed in as much as we could, including a walk east beyond all of the bridges. Inevitably, the weekend passed quickly, and before long we were back in our harbour, wondering whether we had just had the last sail of our season.

Back at our mooring we had a bit of a hiccup as one of the new members moored their dinghy using an anchor which unfortunately fouled our dinghy mooring. Having spotted that there was likely to be a problem, I untangled their anchor and reset it further along the harbour.

Following that, I took the opportunity to row the crew out to the Ghauts in our dinghy. We pootled around occasionally annoying the terns.

The tide was too far in for a paddle, so we drifted and soaked-up the scene using as many senses as we could in an attempt to preserve the moment.

The crew was hospital-bound for a heavy-duty operation. While this was a particularly worrying time for me, it was also a worrying time for the crew, who seemed to think that I was going to starve to death in her absence [above].

Fortunately all went well, so I promptly cancelled my trial subscription to sailinghooters.com and threw myself into the crew’s rest and recuperation.

The first trip we missed was an overnight to Burntisland where they had recently installed pontoons. I popped over by car, and discovered that if we had been available to make the trip, we wouldn’t have had access to a pontoon as far too many yachts had turned up for the opening event.

While our FOMO was now just plain MO, it was a relief to know that we’d both live to cruise another season.

Port Edgar summer 2018

We set sail from Dalgety Bay and headed east towards Aberdour, which is less than half an hour. On that short trip, we spotted quite a few puffins passing through Mortimer’s Deep at the east end of Braefoot terminal, and these sightings were easily the closest that we’ve ever experienced. Unfortunately I just wasn’t quick enough with either of my cameras. The photo above shows our Macwester Malin to the right all alone, ‘shunned’ by our fellow club members who’re… umm… …that looks almost slanderous so I’ll use “who are’ instead …all rafted up further down the harbour. There was; Calloo, Carima, Cerberus, Joint Venture, Louise, and Pitteral.

Our sole reason for heading to Aberdour was to catch up with our friends for a birthday beach BBQ party. It was great to catch up, although as usual the time passed quickly and I didn’t get to catch up with everyone. Later at around 9pm we headed over to the Aberdour Boat Club [ABC] clubhouse, where I got my ear royally nipped by one of the ABC members. This was because there had been an arrangement for our club to have a joint BBQ with ABC at the harbour starting at 7pm. The reality of the situation is that we [the crew and I] specifically turned up for the beach party and we [yes, the crew and I] hadn’t arranged or agreed to attend the later event. Despite this I took a bit of a pasting until the cavalry arrived and the conversation was diffused. We [yes…] didn’t hang around too late, while some of our chums kept going into the wee small hours.

The next day I felt a bit shabby, but we followed Calloo out of Aberdour and motored into a strong westerly at the back of the pack heading west. We caught up with Carima at the Forth Bridge [the rail bridge], because they had been gallantly trying to sail back up river until they realised the futile nature of their task and gave in.

While the other club yachts carried on back to our club, we headed for Port Edgar. Once we got settled, we tried pumping neat vodka into a watermelon, which seemed like it might be fun. We popped the watermelon in our Macwester Malin’s fridge and chilled it down. Later that day we both sampled a slice and unanimously agreed that it was absolutely awful. Five minutes after cracking it open, it was in the bin.

The following morning, I spotted a jellyfish just below our bow. While it might possibly have been the residual effects of the vodka melon, the local supermarket’s advertising campaign seemed to be well and truly stuck in my mind …I could see their logo everywhere I looked.

While we were out for one of our many walks, we spotted our late friend Pat’s little wooden yacht, White Rose on the hard standing. Later that day we also spotted White Rose being towed along towards the Port Edgar crane, so we wandered along and watched her being launched. It was great to see her going back into the water with her new owners.

The weather was pretty good, and just as she did in Dalgety Bay, the crew took every opportunity to cram in some sunbathing. In the shot above, she’s on the rear deck, aft of our Macwester Malin’s centre-cockpit. The Fairline Squadron in the foreground is the same Fairline Squadron photographed in the previous post.

We spent a full week in Port Edgar. We met up with our chums on Tight Fit V, we had family over to spend time, and on one of the days we also had friends over; all previously yacht-owners [Smuggler of Rhu, and Stella Maris] but now for one reason or another sadly sans-boat. We had nibbles and fizz onboard before heading out for a leisurely sail around the bridges. It was a relaxing and enjoyable day.

Inevitably, our time at Port Edgar came to an end sooner rather than later. The weather had been pretty good; reasonably warm even when the sun wasn’t beating down. Neither of us were all that keen to leave, however…

…the weather broke on the last day making it easier to slip our Macwester Malin’s lines, and we had a very soggy motor back up river with the cockpit tent enclosure fully up to save us from being totally drenched.

Well …it is Scotland after all.

Dalgety Bay summer 2018

With really good weather still on the menu we set sail for Dalgety Bay on a spring tide. We arrived just before high tide, and realised that we had a bit of a fendering issue to address, given that our Macwester Malin was sitting so high that she was almost proud of the harbour wall. Above; the crew took every opportunity to sunbathe on the foredeck.

The tide height made for an interesting fishy-water-jump feature at the stairwell that we use to get on and off midships. However, the weather was great and the water was actually surprisingly ‘uncold’ …arguably even bordering on warm.

That was good news when it came to barbecuing dinner, another occasional use that we have for the stairwell. In order to carry out my husbandly cooking duties, I had no choice other than to immerse my feet in the water on the lower steps. It was actually pretty relaxing and enjoyable, until the crew started making her best John Williams shark theme noises in the background.

It was probably around about then that I discovered that there was actually no food included with the disposable barbecues [above]; shock, horror! What would we do? Just as well we bought additional food products just in case.

Later, when we were walking through the boatyard [above], we noticed that some poor soul had a problem with their… … …umm, gelcoat and was trying to patch it up with filler. I’m sure that it will polish out if he or she rolls-up their sleeves and really gets stuck in.

I had quite a bit of work [career work, rather than boat maintenance] to squeeze in around the edges, so we stayed where we were for a few days and just chilled. We enjoyed our barbecued food so much that we had barbecues most nights at Dalgety Bay. Above; a Fairline Squadron from Port Edgar buzzed past the harbour heading west to the next cove along.

We had a few visitors, including a retired pilot, a Sadler 32 owner, the harbourmaster, and an evening onboard with one of the local club members that we’ve become friendly with over the years. While the weather wasn’t always great, it remained warm and settled, so we made sure that we went for long walks in an attempt to counter the effects of excess food and drink. Most days we were in shorts and T-shirts lathered in sun tan lotion. It was great to just relax and enjoy the good weather.

Towards the end of the week, the crew woke me up at 6.45am by shaking me violently and telling me that the lifeboat was coming in alongside us. Half asleep, I told her not to be so silly, that it was probably just a road sweeper [because it’s obviously it’s not unusual for the local council to carry out such remedial work so early in the day].

Moments later I looked out from inside our Macwester Malin’s cockpit tent to see [and feel] Wave Spirit arrive with her dual 500hp water jets. There was absolutely no danger of us nodding back off to sleep after that.

We were up close and personal with Wave Spirit last summer – see here.

Wave Spirit spent the day on the beach having her bottom scrubbed in the sunshine. By the end of what proved to be a really enjoyable week, we prepared to move on to our next destination – Aberdour!