Lunar Sea around GB

Euston Station, the end of our train journey. We are both home now having decided to take a break from our adventure for a couple of weeks. I will be blogging again once we resume our trip but in the meantime I had to do a quick mention of our journey home on the Caledonian Sleeper, the 19.50 from Platform 1, Fort William (there are only two platforms!) We decided to come home on the train because Josh doesn't like flying and mainly because we could get the train right there at Fort William and it would take us straight to Euston. Then a short walk to St. Pancreas where we could both get a train home. The price was unbeatable, £55 each and with our "old farts card" a third off that! What's not to like? I have experienced the overnight sleeper train from Shanghai to Beijing and back and from Moscow to St. Petersburg and back. I have to say the Caledonian sleeper beats both of those in terms of comfort, friendliness, facilities (the lounge bar felt more like a pri...

 21 to 23rd June, days 6,7,& 8 in the Caledonian Canal. Needless to say the good weather didn't last but we decided to walk into Fort William and find a bus stop on the way. The road to Fort William   We finally found a bus stop just as the heavens opened to a crack of thunder and lightning! I was just phoning for a taxi when one passed us and we flagged him down; Simon the taxi driver had come to the rescue. He dropped us off in the High Street and as it was still pouring with rain we dived into a Costa and had a heavenly cup of coffee, my first since Ipswich! To be honest there isn't much to see in Fort William, especially in the pouring rain. We dived from one shop and pub to another, the men decided to stay in the pub and Linda and I found our way to the end of the High Street to a Mountain Warehouse shop. I took Linda's advice and purchased a wonderful pair of waterproof breathable walking trainers and some dry socks, all to prevent the real possibility o...

Tuesday 20th June. We awoke to a glorious day of sunshine and stunning views, birds chirping (I heard a cuckoo) and a beautiful calm canal. Pauline had decided to make the most of the forecast good weather and take the bus to Fort William, do the Mallaig train journey (made famous in the Harry Potter films) and then home on the Caledonian Sleeper. We waved her goodbye at the bus stop, returned to the boat and set off for Fort William, now with a crew of four. The Loch into Loch Lochy was one small "down" lock so very easy compared to the "up" locks we had done so far. We had news from the lock keeper that the Gairlochy swing bridge at the end of Loch Lochy was broken but should be repaired later today, so we pressed on. A beautifully calm loch, sunshine and warmth...heaven. We even had shorts and tee shirts on and I did contemplate a swim but it was too shallow at the edges of the loch to moor. When we reached the end of Loch Lochy at Gairl...

Day 50 of our trip and day four (or is it five?) on the Caley Canal. We awoke to mist and rain, while the rest of the country is basking in record temperatures! We left Fort Augustus and on to Loch Oich and Laggan. We had two more "up" locks to do, Lock Kytra, only a small one. The lock keeper was a very amiable lady who gave us five gold stars for all wearing lifejackets, so we stuck those in the log!  The next lock was Cullochy, another small "up" lock , a couple of swing bridges and by 1.30 we had arrived in Laggan. Our berth at Laggan  It was still cloudy but it had stopped raining so four of us (Mick , Linda, Pauline and myself) decided to go for a walk and try out our two folding bikes for the first time this trip. The sun did come out and the scenery was stunning. There is a path along the Caledonian Canal called the Great Glen Way, so we did about a mile of this up into the hills that looked down onto Loch Lochy. Looking down onto Loch Lochy. ...

Day three captain's log 19 June 2017, day 49 of our adventure to go where no man or woman has had the sense to go before! First mooring at Fort Augustus with Loch Ness in background. After our lock in at the Bothy and our last two days experiences we decided to stay in Fort Augustus for a night. We left our first mooring and went up the flight of locks to the other side so that we would be ready to go tomorrow. The locking up went without incident, but it proved to be a tourist attraction as literally coach loads of tourists would line the canal watching all the boats go through the flight of five locks. This is our last long flight up, after this we will be going down which is much easier. Going up requires more skill and the idea is two crew stay on the lock side with the lines (one bow and one stern) and "walk" the boat through. This is safer as no getting off and on the boat, although there is the danger that someone might slip and fall into the lock from the t...

The Lunatic crew for the Caledonian Canal   We entered the  Clachnaharry sea lock at Inverness for the 1.30 lock and were met by a very helpful, calm lock keeper who talked us through. There was a large sign saying Ireland this way! Clachnaharry Sea Lock, the entrance to the Caledonian Canal, The Great Glen, Loch Ness and Ireland! The lock was timed so that you could then sail through the railway swing bridge, then on to the Muirhead flight of four locks. We had relaxed once we got on to the canal, thinking things could only get better and there is much less to worry about in a canal as opposed to being out at sea, no tides to think about for example. How wrong we were, we were forgetting this is the Lunacy cruise. At the second lock Mick fell in! We heard a plop and a splash and Mick had fallen into the lock between the lock wall and the boat. Josh's quick thinking saved the day as he put the long swim ladder over the edge and Mick managed to climb up befor...

We had an early start again, leaving at 7am (despite the alarm not going off and Josh waking up with a cry of "Oh sh*t it's 7 o'clock") to the usual grey overcast morning. We arrived in Inverness on time at 2.30pm to see a waving and smiling Mick and Linda on the quayside, which was lovely. It had been an uneventful trip apart from quite a few whale sightings. They are not as you might imagine, they are usually a fair way off and look like large black dolphins and all you see is the fin coming up as they gracefully arch their sleek bodies up and down again. Nevertheless it was exciting and we had about five sightings, one in particular looked like quite a big whale, not sure what type of whales they are? There were the usual inquisitive seals on the way who remind me of my doggie Bliss left at home. Has Bliss swum out to see me?   The coast near Inverness is stunning, and it was so nice to see coast on either side of us as we went up the Moray Firth. CND e...

We finally said goodbye to The Broch and set off at 7 am for Lossiemouth, some 35 miles away. We were sorry to leave Fraserburgh as we had grown fond of it and thanks again to Lianne who gave us useful information and recommendations of where to go and did our laundry for us! You are now an honorary Lunar-tic. Me, Josh and Lianne on Lunar Sea at Fraserburgh. The weather was calm but overcast and we did get showers later on, but all in all an uneventful sail except that it took much longer than we thought. The tide should have been with us but for some reason we didn't get the benefit of it so it was 5pm before we reached the harbour. RAF Lossiemouth is nearby so we had a fly past of fighter jets as we arrived. Josh saw a whale on the way up, but as I was reading by the time I looked up it had disappeared and only a ring on the water showed where it had been. We also saw some porpoise in the distance. Porpoise are shy and don't come near boats unlike dolphins t...

Once again my spelling has gone awry, it should be "Blackening of the Bride". Here are some pictures that Lianne sent, with permission to put up on our blog. We are off early tomorrow morning to Lossiemouth and then the next day we should be in Inverness, so will blog then.  Gunged!  Parading through town with lots of noise!    Cling filmed to a lamppost - Sue you can use this idea when the guys get unruly at BSC. 

Day 4 and 5 in Fraserburgh, Saturday and Sunday 10th and 11th June. I spent all morning on Saturday catching up with blogs and Lianne, a colleague of my sons, called by the boat. She too is a struggling actor like my son and she lives in Glasgow but originally comes from The Broch. She has given us lots of tips on where to go but sadly no launderette...so in true friendly Scottish style she has offered to take our washing home and do it for us! She is home this weekend because her friend is getting married soon and she is here to honour a timeless tradition unique to this area, called "Blacking of the Bride." The tradition is, apart from the usual hen and stag nights, that  the bride and groom have a blacking. The girls cover the bride in "yucky stuff" dress her in an old dress and veil and parade her around the town. These days a truck is used, and the friends will sit in the back of the open truck making as much noise as they can by bashing pots and clanging tin...

Fraserburgh Harbour Day 3 of many and we are heading for Whitehills, 18 miles away and our next destination. Weather looked reasonable, even though we would have tide against us it shouldn't take more than four hours. Reluctantly we left our hotel just before 9  and planned to have breakfast on the boat and be away as soon as possible. We left our berth at 9.20 and turned to port (left) towards Whitehills. The wind and tide were against us and a very choppy sea. We struggled on for about an hour making very slow progress and I suggested we turn back. Josh in his usual style said "It will be alright once we get past the next headland, the sea will calm down and we will start to make progress." Of course you all know by now that this didn't transpire, in fact the wind increased and was gusting 30 knots at times and when we got hit head on by a wave, our speed went down to 1 knot. Two hours later we had struggled to do 6 1/2 miles. "I am going below to make a ...

Fraserburgh is known locally as "The Broch. " (Apologies if I spelt it wrong in my previous blog.) It certainly has character, being a commercial fishing port there are no facilities for yachts, we were lucky to get onto a pontoon in one of the eight fishing docks. However the seaman's mission on the quay is being refurbished to provide showers and a café, this has taken two years and is due to open next week, so no good for us but useful information for any other yachties coming this way. The Broch could not be described as a pretty town but very friendly and full of character. One for Pirate Sam I think we underestimated the North East of Scotland in terms of weather, I am coming to the conclusion that they don't get summer up here. It is very windy here, the first day we were in port we decided to visit the Lighthouse Museum and Heritage Centre on the cliff but we turned back because it was too windy........and we were walking not sailing!!! The saving ...

Goodbye Peterhead Another wet and foggy day here in the North East of Scotland. They say that while you are doing your weekly supermarket shop you miss summer up here, I can believe that. We decided to make a dash for Fraserbrough, round the corner, before the forecast storm comes in. So we left at 2 in rain and fog and as soon as we were out of the entrance we hit a big sea. I wanted to go back in but Josh in his usual style said "It'll be alright, it's just the swell round the entrance." Of course it wasn't alright, not by my standards. The horizon kept disappearing as huge waves (I am told by the captain this is swell not waves) kept approaching the boat. For the first time this trip I simply couldn't stay on deck and look at them, I had to go below. I hunkered down on the sofa and closed my eyes and hoped it would all go away, which of course it didn't. Every now and then the boat would shudder from head to toe as it was hit by the large ...

We left at 9am with the Flying Pig, and not bad weather for a change. Josh got all excited and decided to put up the spinnaker, the large bright sail that balloons out the front of the boat, often called the kite for obvious reasons. The conditions were just right and it gave us an extra knot of speed. Josh navigating in the cockpit   We kept Flying Pig in view as well as a smaller red boat from Poole with a dog on board which had also been at Stonehaven. We were all bound for Peterhead so it was really nice to have company rather than looking at an empty sea all the time. We passed Aberdeen  at 1.00, a big commercial port which does not welcome yachts. The weather had clouded over and we were getting squalls under the rain clouds, so we had taken the spinnaker down. It was not an unpleasant trip even though it was still chilly with the occasional shower. We arrived Peterhead at 4pm, so quite a long day again but uneventful. It was raining hard all evening thoug...

We had to leave at noon to catch the tide to Stonehaven, our next destination. We had been given a “dongle” to get in and out of the marina and had paid a £10 deposit for it. I was given the job of returning it to the harbour master and getting our £10 deposit back. This was the last job to do just before we left, so I ran up to the harbour office and .....no harbour master in sight and the office was locked.  I waited for about 15 minutes and scanned the harbour for any sign of the missing HM, but he was nowhere to be seen. I know, I thought, I will just post the key through the letter box of the HM office and lets forget abut the £10, it was worth it to make sure we left on time and got going before the lock shut. So I put the dongle through the letter box. Then it hit me.....without the dongle I couldn't get back into the marina. Josh couldn't let me in either because the dongle was needed to get both in and out. Oh dear! So I ran round the quayside and shouted and waved...

Captain's log, Sail Day 33 the 2nd of June year 2017. We spent the day in Arbroath, formerly known as Aberbrothock, the place where the Brothock Burn enters the sea, which it still does at Seagate. The abbey is a ruin now but worth a visit as it is made of beautiful local red sandstone. Arbroath Abbey, founded in 1178 had a grant from King William the first to establish a burgh with a port and a weekly market and the rest is history.  It is also famous for "Arbrouth smokies" which are smoke cured haddock sold in pairs, delicious. The smoking is still done in buildings behind the fishermen's cottages and is a protected brand name. We spent a very interesting hour or two in the Bell Rock Signals museum, which is all about the building of the Bell Rock Lighthouse built 11 miles offshore and designed by Robert Stevenson . I then found a local swimming pool so I had a brisk mile or so walk there and back, it is good to get some exercise after being o...