First Sail of the Season

 I am getting a bit lax at posting, I just seem to be too busy at the moment. The poor LHT has hardly been out over the last month with any spare time being spent trying to get the Heron sailing again. The new rigging terminal arrived last week and I built up a new forestay on Thursday.

 Stuart gave me a hand to raise the mast again yesterday and today I finally got out for a sail. Clear of the narrow harbour mouth and I switched off the engine and sailed between the rocks.

 About three miles east of Dunbar and I caught up with the yachts Seline and Wee Beastie. The Cod season has started again and I was soon joining in and caught a couple of codling. I let them go but the rest managed some decent fish that will be in the frying pan this week. 

 Feel free to add your own caption.

 I turned around off the coast at Whitesands and tacked back. This took a lot longer than planned as the furler started to jam again so I only sailed under the main.

Back between the rocks and I fired up the little outboard to have a look at how much the tide had fallen. Davey came along in the Wee Beastie and we both agreed that we would give the tide another half hour to make sure there was enough water under the keels.. 

Stuart arrived in the Seline and dropped anchor and we all rafted up. The seals watched us for a bit, then carried on doing seal things.

The Kittiwakes called incesently from their nests in the ruins of the castle.

 And the humans chatted for a time but also just sat silently in company and watched the sea.

 Inevitably the tide came back in and we returned to the harbour. A pretty fine bank holiday.

Sailing, Saturday 14th September

I've not really had much of a sailing season this year, family commitments, weather and tide all seem to have conspired against me. With only a few weeks until it's time to put the boats back onto the hard-standing I grabbed the chance of a fishing trip in Saturday's sunshine.

There was hardly any wind so we all motored out from Dunbar, across Belhaven Bay and on towards the wildfire rocks. 

Stuart and Ross were on the Seline, I was on the Heron, and Davie on the Wee Beastie. They are all smaller yachts around 20ft. They might be limited for longer cruising but they are ideal for slipping the moorings for an afternoon on the water.

The tide was falling and there was a wee chop, but nothing to worry about.

Clouds slowly moved across the sky and gave us amazing views back to land. We had started out with the idea of a wee wager on the biggest fish of the day. I was using mackeral feathers with a jelly eel, and so it turned out was everyone else! Slow drifts on an ebbing tide and we were soon into some cod and the ubiquitous mackeral.

I took a decent cod but put the mackeral back as they were never going to win. Davie and Stuart were soon hauling some good fish so I gave up and put out the little sea anchor.

 Then went below to put the kettle on for lunch.

Aye it's hard life kicking back, listening to the radio and bobbing along in the sunshine.

As the afternoon went on, we rafted up the three boats, which looks a lot more stable in the photo than it was in reality, and a few cold beers were passed round.

A bit of sail in the lightest of winds on the way back.

Back to the harbour mouth and the tide was getting low but it was enough for us to sneak back in. A great day out in good company and cracking weather.