Scotland at last.

Up at 4.30 am and we were on our way. We had a rather long and uneventful journey to Eyemouth, Scotland's first port of call, as it styles itself. The coast is changing now to one of islands and rocks, we passed through the Farne Islands and Lindisfarne, Holy Island. There are also castles along the coastline here, some are ruined such as Dunstanburgh and some are still in tact such as Bamburgh.

 

Bamburgh Castle from Lunar Sea, hence the sloping picture!
 

Courtesy Flags  

It is the custom and good etiquette to fly a small flag of the country you are visiting. So when we sail to France, which we do a lot, half way across the channel we hoist a small French tricolour. Likewise when foreign boats visit us in Ramsgate they should fly a small ensign.

We were advised at Amble that the Scots like us English to fly a courtesy flag when entering Scottish waters, not something we had thought about. So we duly bought one in the chandlery at Amble (is this a ruse to sell more flags??) and hoisted it just past Berwick, when we judged we were in Scotland, as of course there are no signs at sea! Here is a picture of Josh hoisting the Scottish courtesy flag.

On the chart Berwick has one bank of the river in England and one in Scotland, but further down at the sea it veers up in a northerly direction so the border is above Berwick.

Josh hoisting the courtesy flag off Berwick
 

Eyemouth

We arrived at Eyemouth at just before 2 in the afternoon. As the marina could not take us because of our keel (we need 2 meters of water minimum) we had to go into the fishing dock at Gunsgreen Basin and raft off, being the fourth boat out from the pontoon. Rafting is not ideal because you can’t plug into the electric or get water and to get off the boat you have to clamber over the other boats in the raft, in our case two yachts and one fishing boat. The worst was to come, to get off onto the quay you have to climb a vertical ladder set into the harbour wall. I have only had to do this once before when we moored at town quay Rye, and that was not a pleasant experience. However if I wanted a gin and tonic it had to be done. The tide was out so it was a long way up and the bottom rungs were wet, slimy and sea-weedy, yuk. I put on my sailing gloves, gritted my teeth and up I went., and tried not to think of having to come down again.

The Ladder!
 

We had a pub supper where they still had chicken in a basket on the menu. This is an old herring  fishing port dating from the 3^rd century, not sure they had chicken in a basket then. They still have a week long Herring Festival and crown the  Herring Queen from among the local young ladies. I don’t think it has quite reinvented itself as Amble has, but it is trying. There is a Maritime Museum and they have opened up the smugglers house on the Gunsgreen quay. There was a terrible fishing disaster here on Friday 14th October 1881, known locally as Black Friday. This extract is from the Eyemouth Museum brochure. " A hurricane "Euroclydon" struck, the wind shrieked and howled as it increased in intensity, laying flat 30,000 trees. 19 boats did not return from the sea with a total of 189 fishermen losing their lives and leaving 73 widows and 263 fatherless children." "We'll no see Eyemouth today boys" Alex Burgon skipper of the Ariel Gazelle. Grim times.

I investigated the Facilities (which you know by now means the ladies showers.) This must be Scotland, you have to pay £1 for 8 minutes in the shower!! I had only come across this once before at Scarborough, where the showers were £1 for 15 minutes, which sounds more reasonable.  

Early to bed as another early start tomorrow morning on our way to Edinburgh.