In and around Wick

Last evening I had a trip on another vessel (Third on this trip). I went out with a fellow Mk1 owner Andrew on his Crabber Mudlark. We have both had our boats a similar amount of time, so we have been comparing and contrasting our two craft over the last couple of days.
It has been the first time for both of us to see another Mk1 Crabber in the flesh as it were. Great fun.

Andrew, skipper of Mudlark

While I have been having this enforced stay in Wick waiting for the right combination of tide and wind I have been keeping myself busy with the local area. Did you know for example that Wick has the shortest street in the world! At just 6'9" Ebernezer Place is recognised as such in the Guinness Book of Records.
The street has only one door, it is No1 surprisingly. You wouldn't think it needed a number really would you.

No1 Ebernezer Place

Also while we are on this track, pun intended, Wick railway station has the claim to fame of being the terminus of the 'Far North Line', even though it is not the furthest North. The railway actually goes up to Thurso then back down to Wick. In my youth I remember students travelling immense distances on the railway for peanuts on a special ticket for students. The deal was something like 'travel anywhere on the rail network for a fixed sum' which was something like a £5'er. So they would plan trips from all over the UK to Wick to get the most value out of their bargain priced ticket, just because they can!

Wick Station

After these facts all I can say is I can't wait to get sailing again. Hopefully tomorrow (Saturday) morning the wind will be from the forecast South East as the tide is at it's weakest (neaps) to allow me to sneak round the corner onto the North shore of this fair land. I need a 5am kick off to meet the tide.
To make sure I'm up and about in time give me a quick call on the mobile if you are up :-)

Thanks for the emails of support you guys have sent me. However a couple of people have made comments along the lines of "I wish the photos were a bit bigger"
Well they can be!! Just click your mouse on a picture and it will expand, use the back button or arrow in your browser to get back to the blog.
While we are at it, any orange word is also a clickable link, Just click on one see where it goes.

Hope that helps.


If anyone out there is having trouble donating at the justgiving sites (behind company firewalls, don't trust the internet with my card details or just don't want to give that way, etc) you can mail me a cheque direct. To do this just send me an email and I'll send you the details.

Don't forget to drop me a note at onpassage@dhippey.co.uk to sign up to be informed when blog updates appear.

Please share this site with your friends and family ( Especially the rich ones :-)  )

If you came to this blog from the main website www.eventoftheyear.co.uk you will hopefully have had a look around the site and be aware of what I'm up to, both the adventure itself and the fact that I'm aiming to raise awareness of dementia in our society and to raise money for the Alzheimer's charities.
I'm doing this trip for fun and funding the trip myself, but while I'm on this venture you can do your bit to by supporting the Alzheimer's charities through either www.justgiving.com/david-hippey or www.justgiving.com/david-hippey-scotland


Regards,
David H.

Lybster to Wick

The departure from Lybster was much less dramatic than the arrival. We just slipped the shore lines and motored out onto an almost flat calm sea. Otto took over the helm while I hoisted the sails. Once the sails were drawing well we shared the helm between Otto, Ruach and me. Because the conditions were so calm and the coast here is very steep to with few off lying dangers I sailed in close to get a good look at the cliffs, accompanied by the ‘maw, maw, maw’ of the gulls swirling across its face. For some reason gulls around here are known as maws, I wonder why?
We were headed for Wick, about 16 miles to our North East. As we left we were at the top of the tide and it was about to start ebbing out of the Moray Firth adding to my speed through the water.

A ruin of a fishing station close to Lybster

Waterfall

  

On arrival at Wick I was met at the gate to the pontoon by Malcolm Bremner the harbour master. He asked about me and the trip I was on, then happened to mentioned that he was just about to take the Isabella Fortuna out for a test run after completing some work on her engine. This was a chance too good to miss so I asked if I could come along too. Even though I had just arrived in Wick harbour, within half an hour I was heading back out to sea for a short proving trip on this historic ship. The highlight of the trip for me was being handed the helm for the return leg to the harbour, not only that but being able to helm this 120 year old,  40 ton vessel back to her berth under Malcolm’s watchful eye. The Isabella Fortuna is a herring fishing vessel of a type known as a Fifie. Of the many hundreds of these vessels that existed there are now only around four left in existence. 

 The Isabella Fortuna

The next leg of my journey will take me through the perilous Pentland Firth which not only requires careful timing due to the tides but also it requires a wind less than a force 4 with a lot of East in it. So it looks like I am to be in Wick for a few days. The current forecast is that I will have the right winds with me on Saturday 25th June, which is also a neap tide (Which also incidentally is my Dad's Birthday too. Happy Birthday Dad!)

.....and finally - Is this a pirates curse?

If anyone out there is having trouble donating at the justgiving sites (behind company firewalls, don't trust the internet with my card details or just don't want to give that way, etc) you can mail me a cheque direct. To do this just send me an email and I'll send you the details.

Don't forget to drop me a note at onpassage@dhippey.co.uk to sign up to be informed when blog updates appear.

Please share this site with your friends and family ( Especially the rich ones :-)  )

If you came to this blog from the main website www.eventoftheyear.co.uk you will hopefully have had a look around the site and be aware of what I'm up to, both the adventure itself and the fact that I'm aiming to raise awareness of dementia in our society and to raise money for the Alzheimer's charities.
I'm doing this trip for fun and funding the trip myself, but while I'm on this venture you can do your bit to by supporting the Alzheimer's charities through either www.justgiving.com/david-hippey or www.justgiving.com/david-hippey-scotland

Catch you next time.

Regards,
David H.

Lossiemouth to Helmsdale, erm Lybster

16 miles off the Caithness coast

Set off towards Helmsdale with glorious sunshine, the wind again straight up the tailpipe, which started off being terrific as the miles counted off, 1, 2, 3.. 7 miles offshore, 18 more to go; then the wind tailed off a little, changed direction by about 15 degrees which left a very sloppy sea with waves coming from two directions, the motion was up and down from the back and corkscrewing from the starboard aft quarter (Back right-hand corner for you landlubbers). A horrible motion that I knew I couldn’t cope with for too long. Although I have gained a set of sea-legs while on this journey, I wasn’t confident that they would stand up for another three hours plus of this motion. What to do? I could either sail off slightly away from my intended destination to give the boat a better motion, then kind of tack downwind to achieve my goal, or maybe I could switch goals to the tiny port of Lybster, 26 miles away, an extra eight miles but in a more comfortable direction, with probably faster sailing. The decision was easy, the course was plotted and the Ruach took off in the new direction towards Lybster. We were flying, almost 7 knots, leaping from wave to wave. I called the harbourmaster to ensure that in these conditions a landing at Lybster would be tenable. No response! It was now up to my skill and judgment to decide to enter or not. Lybster is just a small indentation in the coast, the pilot books state that it is safe for winds from all directions ONCE INSIDE. The entrance is just 9 metres wide with unwelcoming rocks on one side. Two miles off I decided to get most sail off of Ruach. This was going to be interesting as the surf was blowing off the top of most waves.  I furled away the jib (front sail), I dropped the mains’l (The big main one). This left me with just the staysail to help counter the bucking bronco the seas were throwing up. Using the engine to control my approach I aimed for the lighthouse, then when almost within touching distance turned to glide into the harbour. The tumult instantly subsided. We had arrived! The fun wasn’t quite over as Lybster harbour is made up of an inner and outer harbour. The outer being further inland than the inner one, so once in the outer harbour a 180 degree turn is required to enter the inner harbour. (If this sounds a little like the rules of cricket take a look at the picture below, simple really).

Lybster Harbour

Just as I turned the engine puttered to a stop. Quick as a flash I dropped the anchor and stowed the staysail. I then poked my nose into the engine compartment to see what had happened? It looks like I still have some dirt in the fuel tank as the fuel filter was empty with the tank a quarter full. I’m not surprised really, the tank had had a real shakeup for the last few hours.  I looked up and one of the small fishing boats were just on their way out from the inner harbour to lend me a hand, but the engine started and they were not required, I was welcomed into the harbour and directed to tie up to one of the fishing boats by Louise. As soon as we were made fast I was offered a cuppa, a shower, a dram up at the house which, once I had changed into dry clothing, I accepted the cuppa in the big warm kitchen. The house was full of international guests attending a house-painting party. Louise and Mano open their house to ‘couch surfers’ to help bring a bit of variety into their small community. I stayed in this warm kitchen until after midnight debating the world and everything. Once we had put all that to rights it was back to Ruach for a long heavy sleep.

Louise & Mano's freshly painted house. 

The following day I had the privilege to be invited back to the newly painted Inver House for a BBQ tea. Where I met a number of the locals as well as the international guests.

If anyone out there is having trouble donating at the justgiving sites (behind company firewalls, don't trust the internet with my card details or just don't want to give that way, etc) you can mail me a cheque direct. To do this just send me an email and I'll send you the details.

Don't forget to drop me a note at onpassage@dhippey.co.uk to sign up to be informed when blog updates appear.

Please share this site with your friends and family
( Especially the rich ones :-)  )

If you came to this blog from the main website www.eventoftheyear.co.uk you will hopefully have had a look around the site and be aware of what I'm up to, both the adventure itself and the fact that I'm aiming to raise awareness of dementia in our society and to raise money for the Alzheimer's charities.
I'm doing this trip for fun and funding the trip myself, but while I'm on this venture you can do your bit to by supporting the Alzheimer's charities through either www.justgiving.com/david-hippey or www.justgiving.com/david-hippey-scotland

Catch you next time.

Regards,
David H.

Portnockie to Lossiemouth

On arrival at Lossiemouth, or Lossie to the locals, I called the harbourmaster to secure a berth, but being out of hours I spoke once again to an answer-phone.

 Sunset over Lossiemouth West Basin

All too many of these harbours are feeling the economic pinch and reducing their manned hours. This is a sad sign of our times. Still, that gave me to option to pick my own berth once inside. I chose an easy space in the East basin. The following day I went to the office to meet Ian the harbourmaster, a gently spoken ex-services man who welcomed me to the harbour. He made me feel very welcome as he introduced me to the usual showers toilet and laundry (again very clean) Ian is a credit to this harbour. I spent a couple of days here being buzzed by the military in what seems like 24x7 operational training. 

Lossiemouth East Basin

Today’s Factoid – Lossiemouth is located at the point of Stotfield Head. Just around the corner from the current harbour there was previously located the Hythe, Stotfield’s harbour, where on Christmas Day, 1806, 21 fishermen put to sea. After hauling their fishing lines they made for the shore when a fierce storm blew up from the SSW and not one of the boats were ever seen or heard of again. Twenty-one men and boys, the entire men-folk of the village perished that day. The oldest male left in the village was a boy of 12 years of age, besides two bedridden old men. A sad tale indeed.

How small were Lossiemouth fishermen of old? Compare this door with the road cones.

If anyone out there is having trouble donating at the justgiving sites (behind company firewalls, don't trust the internet with my card details or just don't want to give that way, etc) you can mail me a cheque direct. To do this just send me an email and I'll send you the details.

Don't forget to drop me a note at onpassage@dhippey.co.uk to sign up to be informed when blog updates appear.

Please share this site with your friends and famil

( Especially the rich ones :-)  )

If you came to this blog from the main website www.eventoftheyear.co.uk you will hopefully have had a look around the site and be aware of what I'm up to, both the adventure itself and the fact that I'm aiming to raise awareness of dementia in our society and to raise money for the Alzheimer's charities.

I'm doing this trip for fun and funding the trip myself, but while I'm on this venture you can do your bit to by supporting the Alzheimer's charities through either www.justgiving.com/david-hippey or www.justgiving.com/david-hippey-scotland

Catch you next time.

Regards,

David H.

Banff to Portnockie

Following my arrival at Banff Marina, James the harbourmaster came to welcome me and introduce me to the facilities. One of these facilities being a washing machine and drier, located in a room off of his office. So at last the laundry was done!! I also made use of the very clean toilet and shower in the marina. What a clean boy.

I stayed a couple of days in Banff, sleeping long and catching up on emails etc. James was also very helpful in taking me to the petrol station at the top of the town to fill up Ruachs' petrol tanks. this saved me a very steep walk there and back with 20 litres of fuel.

One afternoon James mentioned that he was going out for an evening sail in his Westerly Centaur, so I asked if he wanted a crew. Offer accepted we sailed about five miles West to Portsoy, while sailing he regaled me with tales of the actor Timothy Spall and his barge which overwintered in Banff. Off Portsoy we met a couple of other Banff yachts, so all returned together on the gentle evening breeze. The Westerly Centaur is not one of the fastest boats around, but they are very capable safe seaworthy boats. the Centaur was one of the first yachts I skippered and this sail brought back many fond memories.

I think Ruach was starting to take root in Banff so it was time to haul anchor and head to pastures new. The following day I set out for Portnockie, about 10 miles further up the coast.

I recieved a phone call from Bruce, a guy I had not seen for far too many years. A mutual friend had alerted him to my little adventure (Thanks John). So we arranged to meet up once I arrived at Portnockie.

Just before arriving at Portnockie I passed the little port of Cullen. This port is made famous by the dish Cullen Skink. Now I'm led to believe that the Skink around Cullen are related to the Haggis, the small hairy beasties that have one leg shorter than the other to ease their grazing in the Scottish highlands. The way these wee beasties are caught is to chase them the wrong way around the hillside until they overbalance and roll down the hillside to be caught in the glen below. Whatever the Skink is, they do make a tasty soup.

The Port of Cullen, famous for Cullen Skink

Interesting 'Bow Fiddle' rock formation near Portnockie

A mile off the port I received another phone call from Bruce, "Fancy a fish supper?". Now who am I to refuse such an offer. Half an hour later I'd been introduced to Bruce's daughter Eve and we were feasting on Cullen's finest Chips.

Bruce & Eve

Three year old Eve was more than happy climbing up the vertical harbour wall ladders with gay abandon; These are the ladders that I certainly don’t enjoy climbing.



Eve at the helm of Ruach.

"Come on Dad, can we get our boat in the water too"

Just before leaving town Alsion, Bruces wife came down to the pier to see me too. What a great suprise, and what a great day. We really must keep in touch this time. 
Finally this day I was rewarded with a Portnockie sunset.

Sunset over Portknockie

Today's Factoid - Portknockie is in Gaelic Port Chnocaidh, the hilly port.... and it certainly is.
The port surrounded by a natural bowl of rock atop the village is placed. Which of course means no phone signals in or out..... Bliss :-)

Ruach turned out to be quite a spectacle in town, whenever I looked up to the top of the harbour wall there seemed to be someone else looking back at me. Or if I was walking back to the boat from a sojourn ashore there were often one or two people looking over her from the quay. When they saw me coming they’d frequently pass the time with me having a bit of a ‘bleather’ about boats and such.

On my final night in Portnockie I was to receive an unwelcome surprise. the Harbour master came down to the boat about 5.30 to suggest I squeeze into the inner harbour as it was going to blow up a bit in the night. One of the locals helped me move into the inner harbour. Then stayed for a cuppa and a chat aboard Ruach. His boat was the pretty Shetland double-ender moored next to Ruach. It is believed to be the sixth boat from the bottom pictured here.

Then during the night blow up it did. Force 8 occasionally 9 according to the  forecast, with the seas breaking over the harbour wall I can believe it too. 

If anyone out there is having trouble donating at the justgiving sites (behind company firewalls, don't trust the internet with my card details or just don't want to give that way, etc) you can mail me a cheque direct. To do this just send me an email and I'll send you the details.

Don't forget to drop me a note at onpassage@dhippey.co.uk to sign up to be informed when blog updates appear.

Please share this site with your friends and family ( Especially the rich ones :-)  )

If you came to this blog from the main website www.eventoftheyear.co.ukyou will hopefully have had a look around the site and be aware of what I'm up to, both the adventure itself and the fact that I'm aiming to raise awareness of dementia in our society and to raise money for the Alzheimer's charities.
I'm doing this trip for fun and funding the trip myself, but while I'm on this venture you can do your bit to by supporting the Alzheimer's charities through either www.justgiving.com/david-hippey orwww.justgiving.com/david-hippey-scotland

Catch you next time.

Regards,
David H.

Peterhead to Banff

The next stage of my journey sees me going round the bend again, well instead of continuing North East I need to turn inland into the Moray Firth heading West for a while. If I had a big fast boat maybe I would have headed straight North to Wick, but then I would have missed out the delights of several olde worlde fishing ports and their inhabitants along the way; but more of that later. The first challenge was to get myself safely around Rattray Head, the corner as it were. This is a place of shallow water which throws up lumpy waves as the tide surges to run from North Sea to Moray Firth and back twice a day.  The best time to approach this is at slack water, just as the tide is changing from ebb to flow. The size of the waves is also affected by the wind, either going with the tide or against the tide. So with all this to consider I spent the evening before pawing over tide tables, almanacs and pilot guides to ensure I was in the right place at the right time. I worked out that if I rose at seven, set off by eight then I should arrive four miles East of Rattray Head at 10.00, perfect for a 10.06 tidal prediction. With these calculations complete I turned in for the night.

At four o’clock next morning I was wide awake after a fitful sleep unable to return to my slumber I checked and rechecked my tidal calculations; yes all seem correct. So an early breakfast and off I set into a windless sea with the engine gently purring away under my feet.

The exit from Peterhead Harbour

The sea was so calm that I decided to cut in towards the Head and pass it about a mile off rather than four. The timing was perfect and the crossing totally benign. It was such an anti-climax after all the night tortures that had held me the night before. 

Rattray Head Light

Just to raise my sense of awareness I spotted this sorry sight run up the beach near Fraserburgh. It just goes to show that even the proffessionals can get it wrong sometimes.

What I haven't told you so far is this turned out to be an almost windless day, so I spent the majority of it with the engine puring away benath my feet. Almost a full eight hours of running smoothly. It looks like filtering the fuel in Stonehaven has cured the problem I had during that night. Wahoo!

Just a few miles before I arrived at Banff the wind returned, bang on the nose and a heavy downpour gave me a bath. So I carried on under engine to my goal.

"What is the best thing to do with an Arbroath Haircut?"
(Answer at the bottom of the page)

Thanks once again to all you givers out there. The charities have now recieved over £1300 plus will receive an aditional £500 to Alzheimer Scotland from my employer in matched giving.

If anyone out there is having trouble donating at the justgiving sites (behind company firewalls, don't trust the internet with my card details or just don't want to give that way, etc) you can mail me a cheque direct. To do this just send me an email and I'll send you the details.

Don't forget to drop me a note at onpassage@dhippey.co.uk to sign up to be informed when blog updates appear.

Please share this site with your friends and family
( Especially the rich ones :-)  )

If you came to this blog from the main website www.eventoftheyear.co.uk you will hopefully have had a look around the site and be aware of what I'm up to, both the adventure itself and the fact that I'm aiming to raise awareness of dementia in our society and to raise money for the Alzheimer's charities.
I'm doing this trip for fun and funding the trip myself, but while I'm on this venture you can do your bit to by supporting the Alzheimer's charities through either www.justgiving.com/david-hippey-scotland or www.justgiving.com/david-hippey

Catch you next time.

Regards,
David H.

Answer "Keep it under yer hat" :-)

Stonehaven to Peterhead

After the last posting here I spent an idle day recovering while double filtering the fuel out of and back into the petrol tank while waiting for there to be a little less North or East in the weather forecast. There was some really nasty gunk came out of the tank so in future I will always filter the fuel as I fill the tank. It is surprising what muck we must be filling our cars with these days.

Listening to the shipping forecast was the news I yearned for, the weather for tomorrow the 7^th would have more East in it and it was forecast to go South East or South West during the day. All sounded good for aiding my passage North East towards Peterhead, 35 miles distant up the coast.

As soon as I got out into the bay at Stonehaven I realised that this was going to be another long day. The sea was quite choppy with the wind slightly North of East, pah, the forecasters had it wrong again. Still I could make progress as long as the wind did not go any further North, it was forecast to go SE or SW soon.

Note the new salt stained 'up the nose' video technique.

I wonder if the BBC will take this on?

The waves were at times worse than featured here, 

I just didn't feel like videoing them at the time :-)

After 10 miles I saw the lighthouse off of Aberdeen, when I say I saw the lighthouse, I actually caught glimpses of it as it kept bobbing in an out of view as I rose and fell off of waves and into the holes between them. This was probably the roughest sea I have been out in Ruach and she performed excellently, looking after me in these challenging conditions (Thanks to Roger Dongray her designer and Cornish Crabbers her builders). I’m pleased to say I felt very safe wedged into the corner of the cockpit.

After passing Aberdeen there were another 25 miles of being soaked with spray and rain, the visibility dropped to a point that all I could see around me was my little patch of sea with the rain robbing me of any sight of the land about a mile and a bit to my left (port). The wind never did go South for me, so after spending the day on one tack, fighting a heavy helm I eventually headed into Peterhead harbour, then Peterhead marina where the assistant harbourmaster was waiting to take my lines on the pontoon. A very welcome sight as it had been a long day and I was very wet and tired. After tying up I headed for the shower block to get a little warmer and dryer by standing under the shower (think about it, it had been a very wet day), I realised that the whole shower block was swaying, or was that just me?

I cooked up, (well heated up) a tasty mushroom stroganoff from my supplies of Look what we found dishes before heading off for a well earned sleep.

The next day was earmarked to be a laundry day. Apparently the laundry equipment was purchased by the marina but is situated in a campsite. Now if I could walk on water this would have been a 200m stroll, however by pontoon and land this was about a mile away across the bay. So I set off with laundry bag in hand for the campsite. I had been told that if no one was available in the office to go to the green caravan where the manager resided. I arrived at the camp office to see a note in the window 'Manager off site, for attention see caravan nine or fourteen'. So off I strolled, bag in hand, to caravan number nine. Knock knock - No response. Then off to number fourteen knockerty knock knock - still no response. Tried the managers caravan - nothing. I loitered around for about an hour basking in the warm sunshine before heading back to the boat, still bag of dirty laundry in hand. Oh well, another day.



If anyone out there is having trouble donating at the justgiving sites (behind company firewalls, don't trust the internet with my card details or just don't want to give that way, etc) you can mail me a cheque direct. To do this just send me an email and I'll send you the details.

Don't forget to drop me a note at onpassage@dhippey.co.uk to sign up to be informed when blog updates appear.

Please share this site with your friends and family ( Especially the rich ones :-)  )

If you came to this blog from the main website www.eventoftheyear.co.uk you will hopefully have had a look around the site and be aware of what I'm up to, both the adventure itself and the fact that I'm aiming to raise awareness of dementia in our society and to raise money for the Alzheimer's charities.
I'm doing this trip for fun and funding the trip myself, but while I'm on this venture you can do your bit to by supporting the Alzheimer's charities through either www.justgiving.com/david-hippey or www.justgiving.com/david-hippey-scotland

Catch you next time.

Regards,
David H.