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Monday, July 1, 2013

Arbroath to Port Edgar

After our snooze yesterday, we crossed the road to the Homemade Ice Cream Parlour. Having made our purchase, we crossed back over road to look at the boats, a seagull swooped down, taking John's ice cream, leaving him with just an inch and a half of cone.  John wasn't happy and now set traps for the gulls. 
The other excitement occurred around nine o'clock. John and I were chatting to the fellow Westerly Owner on Auk, an Ocean 49, when we were hailed by a rowing boat, in the outer harbour who wanted to come in. The tide was high enough, but the harbour master had shut the gate at the end if his shift at 20:00. 
These two guys in the rowing boat had left Arbroath in the morning and are taking part in a Non Stop Round Britain Rowing Race. 
http://www.gbrowchallenge.com/
They are in the lead in the two man class and are ahead of the record holders. They are on the final downhill stretch to Tower Bridge, but they had left Arbroath in the morning and had rowed four miles against the wind, only to return to the shelter of Arbroath. 
The owner of Auk, who is also sailing Round Britain, out of Portsmouth, contacted the harbourmaster, and he returned to let the two lads in. They did look tired, and their boat was still shut up for the night when we left at 09:00. 
Auk left shortly before us, heading for Eyemouth. They need to return to Portsmouth by the end of September, having set out in May. Nearly the same route as me, but in more comfort. I'm pretty sure they had a heater on board. 
For the first three hours we had a cracking sail, but once we had rounded the point at St Andrews we had the wind on the nose, so the engine went on. 
I had originally planned a stop at Anstruther, but as we were going well, so we carried on towards Granton. We were nearly there, with the tide starting to carry us along. We changed destination for the third and final time, passing under the Forth railway and road bridges to moor in Port Edger. 
We stopped to admire a beautiful Westerly Griffon, Ilex, much cared for by her fellow Westerly Owner. He gave advice on gate codes and local restaurants. Both proved to be sound.
 

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