The Adventure Begins.....but not as we expected.

The best laid plans.....

Having updated the boat’s systems and carried out all the necessary maintenance to a point where I was comfortable that she was ‘ready to go’, the question now was: where to? Bruce had a plan to get to Scotland from when he attempted it a few years back, going clockwise about. He updated the plan and added details for a complete circumnavigation of the UK, should we wish to go that route.  The main aim was to get to the west coast of Scotland and explore the beauty of the region. Anything else would be a bonus and, as always, the feasibility of our route choices would be greatly dependant on the weather. So we set a date of departure for on or around 13 May to set off clockwise to all places north.

As the date approached it became apparent that the weather on the south coast of England was looking less than favourable. The east coast looked great so, under the adage that flexibility is the key, a decision was made and anti-clockwise it was!

Sun 12/5/19

We departed the marina at 0430 with the intention of doing a long leg to break the back of the journey north. We’d both sailed this area before and had no wish to go over old ground. The wind was light all the way but there was an uncomfortable swell on the beam. This continued for about 12 hours and proved a good introduction to getting our sea legs!

By 0940 the following morning we pulled into Hartlepool to fill up with fuel.  I hadn’t had the opportunity to check the accuracy of the fuel gauge and didn’t want to press our luck.  Having taken on 1200 litres we set off again to Amble for our first night stop.

Hartlepool Marina from the fuel dock

We arrived at 1500 and anchored outside the harbour waiting for the tide to rise and allow access over the marina sill.  This allowed me to check out the anchor tackle and fit the chain snubber I had made en-route. All worked well except the chain counter didn’t read during deployment but did read on retrieval; however, the numbers increased from zero as the chain was brought in. I’ve yet to get to the bottom of this.

On our first leg we covered 266 nm, including 182 nm in 24 hour. We set 1800 rpm which gave us about 7.6 kts through the water at a very reasonable fuel rate: our fuel flow is showing 1 litre/nm.  We’ve yet to see how accurate this is.

We called ahead and reserved a berth through a very helpful lady. Things were looking good.  Furthermore, Bruce had been to Amble before and vouched for the place. We weighed anchor at1800 and were tied up by 1830. After a quick spruce up we wandered into town to find a restaurant.

Destiny tied up at Amble

We entered a promising looking establishment at ten-to-nine and were told in no uncertain terms that we could have the privilege of dinner with them but only if we got our orders in before 9.  Having been at sea for a day and a half we felt we needed to relax and not be rushed, so left. We next visited the fish and chip shop, it was five to nine.  “All we have left are some haddock fish cakes and a few chips. We left. Amble is not a big town so we felt we’re were running out of options.  The local Chinese came to the rescue and we took it back to the boat.  Not what we had dreamed of! We ate half of it and retired to bed, disgruntled.

Morning dawned bright and sunny. We planned to leave at 1400 to catch the tide and arrive at Whitehills at a sensible time. A trip to town was in order.  What a perspective change a good nights’ sleep delivers. Amble is a quaint village full of friendly people and over the course of the next few hours, grew on me. We left in a buoyant mood with fond memories of the place. 

Part of the seafront attractions