Across the Border

After a couple of warm sunny but blustery days we were now ready to leave Amble after staying a little longer than anticipated. The weep from the hull fitting cured and a reasonable forecast saw us motoring out of a damp still Amble at a reasonable 09:45am. Our initial plan had been to move on to Holy Island and anchor there overnight but the weather forecast was not good and there were dire warnings in the pilot books about not anchoring in the area when strong winds were forecast - so the decision was taken to carry on to Eyemouth.

As we motored out of the shelter of Amble harbour there was not a breath of wind and the sea had taken on that inky calm reflecting the grey skies overhead. The wind instrument was reading SSE 1knot and our ensign hung limply at the back of the boat so motoring was on the cards again! Fortunately there are no depth restrictions at Eyemouth harbour so we didn't have to rush or keep up a speed.

We motored on past Northumbrian castles, through the Farne Islands inner sound and on past Holy Island. 

The journey wasn't boring as there was plenty to see on this beautiful coastline and the puffins, guillemots, razorbills and gannets kept us amused and amazed. Guillemots especially seem to play a game of “chicken” with the boat, bobbing around in their large rafts watching us until one of them takes fright and dives then they all disappear and pop up slightly startled once we have passed! 

We crossed Berwick bay at about 3.00pm and the GPS announced that we had crossed the Scottish border at about 3:40 and just on cue the sun came out - a portent???

We arrived at Eyemouth just over an hour later and were allocated a spot on the pontoon - which is a mixed blessing. I means that we have direct access to the shore but also means that we will have a boat tied up alongside us and whenever they need to go ashore they have to cross our decks - something that we got used to in Holland.

Eyemouth harbour is a working fishing harbour and so is busy with fishing boats coming and going on the tide as well as a couple of quite large dive boats and some RIBs that whisk tourists around the bay. The harbour is also home to several large grey seals who follow every boat into the harbour and hang around expectantly for any fish scraps that may go over the side they are a bit of a nuisance coming in to moor as they swim about in front of the boat and you just have to hope they will get out of the way. The HM told me that one or two of them have scars on their back where they haven't moved fast enough!

Eyemouth is a small borders town and had everything that we needed and we decided to spend the weekend here celebrating our arrival in Scotland. On Saturday we took the bus into Berwick upon Tweed somewhere we would have liked to stop but the facilities for visiting yachts are very poor and we were advised to go by bus from Eyemouth which is what we did! Saturday afternoon was to be our first experience of the “Haar” this is a cold fog that rolls in from the sea fairly unpredictably. From a bright sunny morning in Berwick looking around the historic barracks and the town we found ourselves on a cold misty bus ride back to Eyemouth thankful that we had arrived the day before since the haar had dramatically reduced visibility into the harbour which would have made avoiding the rocks on either side of the narrow entrance really exciting.

On Sunday morning we walked a little way into town to join the small but enthusiastic congregation at Eyemouth Baptist church. We were made to feel really welcome and enjoyed the service in this lovely little church. After lunch a look at the forecast was a little scary since a gale F7/8 was now being predicted with winds building Monday into Tuesday and the worst winds overnight on Tuesday. We had already decided to visit Edinburgh by bus on Monday as looking at the charts to get there by boat would be a very long journey and would delay our progress north and we had arranged to meet some friends for lunch so it looked as if we were going to be in Eyemouth a little longer than planned! A chat with the harbourmaster confirmed this and most of the other boats moored up around us agreed that staying put was a good plan!

We got the bus into Edinburgh which gave us a 2 hour tour of some of the pretty villages either side of the A1 and spent some time looking around this lovely city and meeting our friends for lunch. When we got back to Eyemouth everything seemed very quiet and the chat along the pontoon was had this all been a bit of a MetOffice blunder and there was no gale to come? The forecast still doggedly predicted the blow!

Tuesday morning dawned dry and still - almost too still but the skipper decided he would still double up on some mooring lines and reposition a few fenders. By the time we went to be a steady F5/6 was blowing, but by 3:00am the wind was howling and a full gale was blowing us about I was so glad to be tied up safely to a pontoon and not on a harbour wall or buoy! Leaving on Wednesday was not an option as the sea was still very rough from the gale which eventually passed by about 6:00am and the forecast for Thursday was for F5s and persistent rain so we let the harbour rot set in and planned our departure for Friday.