Saturday began well with a visit to the Marina cafe known as ‘Down The Hatch’ … a mixture of Canadian and Scottish cuisine…. we were there for breakfast. The photo below tells the full story….
A Scottish Canadian cooked breakfast …the big one served in a skillet!
Mike and Christine then set off for Glasgow by bus and train… to visit friends and stay overnight. M and T visited the Marina office to announce and register the arrival of Poli Poli in Port Edgar, to pay our dues and to gather local information.
Photo for brother John… we were joined by six military men .. who we later saw doing black rib training under the Forth Railway Bridge.
The rest of the day was spent tidying up the boat and carrying out routine maintenance tasks. In the evening we walked the mile or so into the little town of Queensferry which is located to the east of the Forth railway bridge. An interesting high street follows parallel to the edge of the River Forth…. some nice shops and quite a few different cafes, hotels and restaurants. We visited the Antico at the Orocco Pier Hotel for our evening meal…. again photos below. On the way home T visited the big local Co-Op supermarket to purchase some basic provisions for the boat.
Margaret and T in Antico’s restaurant …T had a special Parma chicken dish..M had the Queensferry version of a burger…being a very adventurous conosieur of strange gastronomic offerings.
Not a good night on the boat! We had seen the gale warning for our area…. and sure enough after midnight the winds got up and by the early hours a gale was screaming through the rigging followed by torrential rain.
All of this was made worse by the two sailing yachts moored next to Poli Poli…. both had loose halyards ( ropes ) which with great regularity, banged against their hollow masts…. bang, bang, bang…. sometimes together, sometimes one after the other. The swell in the marina was also accentuated by the wind speed so Poli Poli rolled from side to side in the gale…. her fenders groaning and creaking as they rubbed between the hull and the pontoon. A cacophony of weird sounds…. each one had to be located and explained.
So T in pyjamas and coat…. went out with torch in hand on deck … to both make sure everything was secure and safe but also to locate the banging halyards. Got soaked… so the best therapy was tea and hot toast at nearly four in the morning. M declined.
Could not believe that sailing folk from the local yacht club went out to do racing at about 11am this morning, Sunday. We spoke to one returning yacht who said it had ‘not been much fun’ and that there had been a force seven wind blowing ( which is nearly 40 mph and a near gale ).
Following the overnight gale things calmed down Sunday morning. The boat was washed thoroughly getting rid of all the salt taken on board during Friday’s sail southwards from Arbroath. The water tank was filled and all the bilges were checked after lifting up the required sole boards. Margaret bought her travel diary up to date.
Sunday afternoon …can’t believe the blue sky! Sadly didn’t last long.
At lunch time we walked into Queensferry once again and had a nice Sunday lunch cum snack at a lovely cafe called the Bakery…. although it was not a bakery as such, it was a cafe…. with the most delicious array of cakes and pastries.
T….Sunday lunch dessert.. we both had blueberry brownie and ice cream in the Bakery…jolly delicious too!
Immediately afterwards we walked down to the little harbour and looked at all the bilge keeler sailing boats parked on the mud at low tide. However, when we got back up to the High Street a few minutes later, the heavens opened and the rain came down. We beat a hasty retreat back to the Marina and the shelter of Poli Poli.
Am afraid the weekend was about gloom, greys and wet wet and more wet…. made worse by this awful west wind…. bitingly cold. Looking and listening to the forecasts for the whole of the UK for the coming week…. well the remnants of Storm Helena are now on the way…. so more rain and gale force winds to come!! Big yellow wind warnings out for the whole of the western half of the UK. Will we be storm bound in Port Edgar I wonder?
Toby's sailing boat Poli Poli 