To Whitehills

Moondog
Brian Whitefoot
Sun 15 Jul 2012 13:37

This was to be the day for ‘turning the corner’ around Ratrray Head, and starting our trip down the Moray Firth. Today’s destination would be Whitehills ( 57:41.0N, 002:34.0W), which would be just over 40 miles.

The weather was fine, using  the 2012 summer yardstick...i.e. it was not raining and the sun did shine through the overcast once in a while. It goes without saying that the wind was from the north, but today we were finally going to get our own back, since we would be turning west into the Moray Firth, and the north wind would give us a great reach down the coast , and the F4 that was blowing would be just right.

We took advice from the harbour master and timed our departure to ensure we were at the dreaded Ratrray Head near slack water, and we set a course that would put us just over two miles off, which should be enough to keep us out of any rough water . As we worked our way up the coast the few miles towards Ratrray Head we were in company with two other boats which had left Peterhead with us, and whom we would be meeting on arrival in Whitehills. We all experienced almost summerlike conditions for a while, and then we hit a squall as we were rounding the Head. Intense rain , bad visibility and much increased winds, gusting to a strong F6. Great fun, and the general consensus was that this at least made it feel like we were going round a proper headland. This mayhem soon ended though, and we were in sunshine and back to a nice F3/4, which unbelievably had now swung around to come from the west, just as we turned west......so we were still motorsailing into wind. Maximum frustration, compounded by a choppy sea that slowed us down a bit, and was a bit of a pain after the novelty of spray over the deck had worn off.

It was at this point that we noticed that one of the other boats near us was motorsailing into wind much higher than us, and when we tried to match it we simply lost all wind out of the sail. Adrian saw that our friend had a traveller for the main sheet, and had the sheet pulled right over to windward. We were not so equipped ( a traveller is basically a beam across the cockpit, which helps sailing but messes up the space and comfort of the cockpit). Not to be out done, we improvised and got the same effect by pulling the boom across to windward  with a rope from the genoa winch, through the boom end and back to the windward stern cleat...and voila...we were making almost 10 degrees better course upwind and matching the other boat.

We then tacked right inshore to get out of the chop and the worst of the tide, both of which were slowing us down. This did the trick and we were soon making good time towards Whitehills, in fairly flat water and with a great close up view of the cliffs and gannet colonies. We even got some favourable wind shifts which enabled us to continue to motorsail with the main filled, and make a good course for our destination. This was all much smoother than motoring with no sails up, which would have been very rolly and less efficient. At the risk of regressing back into old racing mode, these various tweeks and course changes enabled us to pull well away from the other two boats, and we arrived at Whitehills well ‘ in the lead’!

Whitehills turned out to be a delightful little harbour ; the harbour master even comes out to take your picture coming into the harbour which he gives to you on arrival. Without doubt one of the friendliest and tidiest harbours of the trip....there is even a crew room for lounging about and reading, which would be great if stuck in port for a few days with bad weather.  We soon met up with the crews from the other two yachts and compared notes and relived the squall earlier in the day. We were also joined by Nick, who would be sailing with us through to Inverness. All in all a varied day, which ended well with excellent fish and chips from a shop owned by the trawlerman who provided the fish.



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