Today IS the final leg with Alan, down to Hartlepool ( 54:41.50N, 001:12.00W), which is around 40 miles. Like yesterday, this would be a day of following the coast closely, keeping in the lee of the land to shelter from the stiff westerly wind, and benefit from the calm seas inshore.

This turned into a bit of an industrial archaeology day, as we passed A disused aluminium works and a power station near Lynemouth, and many old mining and industrial towns were ticked off as we went past Blyth, North and South Shields ( with Newcastle inland), Sunderland and Peterlee. It is surprising how compact these places seem from the sea, and there were still large expanses of nothing between them, apart from a few more long beaches and low cliffs. 

The real industry was at the end of the trip, as we started to see huge amounts of smoke and flame in the general direction of our destination. As we got closer we saw regular bursts of flame and thick smoke, and assumed this would be the steel works  at Redcar at the mouth of the Tees, along with assorted chemical plants. This was also where we saw more commercial ships , ore carriers and tankers at anchor, than anywhere else on this year’s voyage to date.  There is clearly real work being done in this part of the world.

The weather remained mixed for most of the trip, and the sun would appear for a while and then disappear, with the wind sometimes gusting to a good F5, but as for the earlier days we continued to be sheltered by the land , so a fairly smooth sea. One of the reasons for us making haste to Hartlepool was that this pattern was forecast to change , with the wind moving more to the north, and as soon as it moved from the west we could expect bigger seas.

We arrived off Hartlepool, around 1600 and it was a fairly straightforward exercise to find the harbour entrance and make our way through the lock into the huge marina, formed in an old commercial dock.  All the staff were very helpful, but you cannot help thinking that the marina is just too big for the demand in the area, with a lot of empty berths and some rather sorry looking boats .

One such boat, ‘Eshamy’ caught our eye. She was about 60 feet, and superficially a bit of a wreck...but she looked very solid and had all the right kit for very serious cruising...even though it was all a bit tired and worn. This looked like a boat that had done some serious sailing and had now been forgotten.  Intrigued, we Googled her and discovered that she had sailed around the Arctic twice about 10 years ago ( ie the NW and NE passages along the top of Canada, Alaska and Russia). The skipper had been a local man who took up sailing in his late 60’s and has now passed away. Why twice round the Arctic ?...towards the end of trip 1 he was boarded by the Russian Navy , impounded in Murmansk for a while and banned from their waters for 5 years. So he went back again to do the trip again properly, ignoring his banning order since he did not accept Russia’s interpretation of territorial waters...and he kept out of the way of the Russian navy. Respect.

Alan cooked up all the perishable food we had left for a feast, and then we tidied the boat and made all secure to be left for a week before the start of the next section of the trip.

Bogdan’s Blog

Not much to report. Endless talk and chat about ‘old industry’ but precious little sunshine.  I was hoping to hide in the rucksack again for a trip back to the skipper’s other den, but they rumbled me and I am stuck here by myself for a week . At least we are moving south, and I heard that when they come back we will be going to some places famous for my new favourite food , fish and CHIPS !!!