Back in UK
Rosinis heads to Svalbard
Bob Hendicott
Sun 2 Sep 2018 09:51
We’re now in Port Edgar on the Forth, having sailed 416nm from Bergen to
arrive here the night before last (Fri 31 Aug).
We sailed from Bergen in the morning of Tue 28 Aug, all three of us still
on board as we were dropping off Barney at Hjellestad, a small waterfront
village close to the airport. It made his trip to the airport shorter and
helped us as it got us about 3 hours ‘down track’ towards open sea. By
1220 we’d said farewell to Barney from another very pretty village and Chris and
I were on our way, taking just another few hours to reach Marstein lighthouse,
our departure point for the North Sea crossing. As we hardened up the
sails our course was just a few degrees off the required bearing for the Forth
and the conditions were much kinder than at the time of our arrival when we’d
been battling through an onshore F8. By late afternoon we’d lost the
Norwegian coast astern and by early evening the wind had increased to the extent
that we swapped the genoa for the staysail and put a couple of reefs in the
main. We also took down our Norwegian courtesy flag and adjusted deck time
back to BST: altering the clocks being a significant moment in any east-west
passage and really bringing home the fact that we were heading back.
Our passage across the North Sea was about as perfect a crossing as could
be hoped for considering we were sailing against the prevailing SW wind.
For the first night and most of the next day we sailed under staysail and double
reefed main, just falling short of our required course, but the wind was due to
shift to the WNW and when it did we were able to hoist more sail and regain our
required course relatively quickly. In the late afternoon, through the
night and for most of the subsequent day we were in amongst oil and gas
platforms, their attendant support vessels and a variety of survey ships so
needed to keep our wits about us. No sooner were were clear of them than
we were in amongst fishing vessels. As darkness fell on 30 Aug against the
backdrop of a wonderful sunset we spent a few hours motor sailing across a
glassy smooth sea which lasted until a similarly spectacular sunrise the
following morning. Just before sunrise on 31st we could see the faint
glows on the horizon of Peterhead and Aberdeen. Shortly after sunrise the
wind picked up gradually from the south and before long we were on a 7.5kt
sleigh ride into the Firth of Forth, having sighted land on our starboard beam
at 0830, and ahead of us shortly after. Our landfall in the Forth was the
Isle of May which sits centrally like a guardian watching all ships entering and
leaving: we were there by 1700, only to find that the wind dropped. To our
south were the prominent Bass Rock, home to one of the world’s largest gannet
colonies – gannets had been much in evidence for the past couple of days - and
the curious triangular peak of North Berwick Law. After a couple of hours
motoring the breeze set in again from the west and we had a wonderful beat in
flat water, clear skies and bright evening sunshine towards Inchkeith Island,
just north of Edinburgh, and could pick out the castle and a number of other
city centre landmarks. There are no facilities for yachts in Edinburgh –
in stark contrast to most other capital cities which seem to have city centre
moorings to attract visitors – so our nearest marina was Port Edgar which
nestles right underneath the Forth Bridges. We eventually moored at just
before 2300 and managed to obtain Customs clearance by phone within an hour of
arrival. This was a relief as I hadn’t needed to use the Customs system
for yachts for over 30 years when it used to be a requirement even for Channel
crossings.
Yesterday was spent re-fuelling, watering up, re-provisioning, cleaning
Rosinis, and exploring South Queensferry which is a pretty little village with a
very strong WW1 naval history dating back to the re-positioning of the Grand
Fleet from Scapa Flow to the Forth. Port Edgar was home to 60 or so
destroyers: they must have been small ones!
Chris leaves for the airport this morning (2 Sep) and I shall head south,
back to solo sailing. The attached photos show one of the many North Sea
platforms we passed; the Isle of May; sunset at the end of a thrilling beat into
the Forth, and a couple of shots of the floodlit Forth Rail Bridge as we
approached Port Edgar in darkness. |