Arbroath to Stonehaven

June 05, 2017

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 to get Josh's attention (and half the population of Arbroath who were sitting on the quay eating fish and chips or walking their dogs, wondering who this mad Englishwoman was) as he was standing in the cockpit with the engine running waiting to go. "Can you ring the HM and ask him to come and let me in please" is all I could think of to say. I got a thumbs up from Josh, so he wasn't too cross!

I ran back to the gate in the hope someone might be going back into the marina so they could open the door for me. No such luck. Eventually someone did come along and let me in so I ran to the boat and off we went with 10 minutes to spare.

We left in sun and blue skies, hurrah I thought, at last the weather is getting better. I even put a small bottle of Prosecco in the fridge with some local strawberries to have when we arrived in Stonehaven as I was sure it was going to be a good trip and it felt in holiday mood at last. Mistake.... within half an hour thick fog had enveloped us, vis was about 1/2 to 1/4 mile and the coastline had disappeared and it had become very chilly and eerie. This continued for a couple of hours, then it did clear but remained over the land. It was decidedly chilly and overcast now with some light rain showers. We phoned ahead to Stonehaven and were told we would have to raft off on the sea wall and fog was forecast there. When we were about 1 mile off Stonehaven really thick fog came down, we could just glimpse the ruins of Dunnotter Castle on the cliff before it really closed in. We couldn't see a thing until we actually were going through the pier heads. We tied up alongside the catamaran "Flying Pig" and Rob emerged and kindly helped us tie up to her. We had just tied up when a huge thunderstorm appeared over the hill and torrential rain, thunder and lightening followed. I think we have now experienced every kind of weather possible, with the exception of snow!

Stonehaven

Anyway Josh invited Rob over for a drink and I began to cheer up. When the weather cleared and the sun tried to come out I reluctantly climbed the steps in the quay wall and we walked around the sea front and the town. It is a seaside outing for Aberdeeners, (There's money in Aberdeen we were told) and being a Saturday night the pubs and restaurants were buzzing. It stays light here until about midnight so we sat outside the Ship for a while, the oldest pub in Stonehaven and it boasted over 100 different whiskeys, which were lined up on shelves behind the bar. There were a couple of token optics with gin, vodka and rum otherwise it was all whiskey!