Turning West

As promised the Peterhead morning was quiet and sunny and at about 8am we dropped our lines and with permission of the harbour master motored gently out into the open sea. We were heading for Whitehills Marina on the Moray Firth where the harbourmaster Bertie is becoming a bit of a legend amongst yachties in this area. That was the destination but first we had to deal with Rattray Head!

As I explained last time this insignificant looking bump on the Scottish coast can be anything but insignificant to a sailor and the challenge of it had featured in a few of my less comfortable dreams! This morning however the Big Man upstairs was looking after us and the sea was calm the wind gentle from the SW and the sun shining. We diligently steered for our plotted waypoints 2 miles from the lighthouse and passed gently around the corner with no trouble, indeed our passage was monitored by a couple of interested grey seals who swam along with us for a bit. That said it was still quite exciting to see the boat speed registering at 8knots knowing that 3-4 knots of that was the speed of the water due to the tide sluicing around the headland.

A very Calm Rattray Head (2 miles off shore)


Once around the head we released the sails into slightly more of a reach and set off along the Moray Firth. It took me a while to adjust to the fact that my hourly position plots would no longer see the latitude rise beyond 57 degrees north  but the longitude move ever more westwards. 

The sail past Fraserburgh and on along the Firth was one of the best this journey the sun shone and the wind was a nice F4/5 from WSW - the boat loved it and romped along at a good 6k. 

I had phoned ahead to Whitehills the day before and the HM was expecting us his advice was to phone him about 30 minutes before we arrived and he would be there to help us in. The entrance is not easy to spot from offshore and is protected by rocks on either side as well as being very narrow. Added to that the short entrance channel finishes with a sharp left turn through a very narrow gap in the harbour wall which means that you cannot see anything coming towards you and there is no room for two vessels to pass!

About half an hour away from the harbour entrance I duly phoned the HM with no reply! So we were on our own - with crossed fingers and my usual dry mouth we approached the harbour. As it was about half tide we could see the water breaking on the rocks so we were able to pick the line quite easily. The left turn into the harbour was also OK although there is that moment when you look at the gap and think we are never going to fit through that!

An hour later we were safely tied to the visitors pontoon in the outer harbour and a few minutes later Bertie appeared very apologetic that he hadn't been there to help up us in - he was dogsitting and had been walking the dog! Bertie was a mine of information having spent his life as a fisherman out of Whitehills and in a few conversations with him he gave advice on the local tides, advice on the best harbours along the Firth and provided us with lots of information for both Whitehills and other places we were likely to stop.

Doing the laundry in Whitehills

Whitehills is a traditional Scottish fishing village with single story stone cottages facing on to the sea although there is evidence of modern housing developments around the village. Being only 3 miles from Banff facilities in the village are limited although the caravan site and glorious views provide enough custom for two rather expensive restaurants. There is also a fish and chip shop/cafe where we ate lovely fresh haddock and chips and drank proper tea served in a teapot!

Yet again strong winds were predicted for the Moray Forth so we stayed two nights in Whitehills - there seems to be a pattern developing where we have one moderate day followed by one windy day! The good thing was that the wind meant that the visibility was really good and standing on the edge of the dunes down to the beach and looking out to sea I could see the hills and mountains of the top of Scotland!


True to form after a day of strong winds the forecast moderated to enable us to leave Whitehills and head west for Lossiemouth.

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