Peterhead to Whitehills, Sat 30th April, 4am? Sanity check.

CaptainBob

CaptainBob

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Not rounded Rattray Head before, and am tired from an overnight passage to Peterhead (arrived earlier today).

Want to arrive Whitehills definitely in the daylight, and as have not been there before, a bit of tide height would be nice.

Keen to go well off Rattray rather than doing the inshore passage, so my total journey is about 40 nm, so 10 hours if we average 4 knots (pessimisticish).

Seems like the "official" thing to do is leave here (Peterhead) at local high water, but that's just after noon, putting us at Whitehills after dark.

Was thinking of leaving Peterhead at just before first light (depart 4am), heading 4nm off to safely round Rattray, while being carried by the stream at that time of day. Then turning to head West to Whitehills.

That puts us at Whitehills well in daylight, gives me some kip time now, and it'll be HW ish when we get there.

Inshore waters forecast for the area from 1800 today to 1800 tomorrow is:

Wind
Easterly or southeasterly 3 or 4, occasionally 5 in north.
Sea State
Slight or moderate.
Weather
Fair.
Visibility
Good.

Sound like a plan?

Thank you! And if I missed something please forgive me I'm very tired
 
Cheers for the reply. I have high water Whitehills 11:08 BST, so 14:00 BST is half way down the tide.

I believe Whitehills is accessible at all states, just not in heavy onshore conditions, but I just prefer to have a bit of water more than low water as it's my first visit.
 
ProDave said:
I'm sure you will be okay, I was just pointing it out as you said "and it'll be HW ish when we get there." whereas it's past half tide.
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Ah k ta. If we make 5 knots, which I put on my passage plan, it'll be just after HW. 4 kts is my pessimistic version.

My biggest concern is Rattray really. The pilot makes it sound treacherous.
 
Peterhead to Whitehills

I've done this trip many times, the tide turns of Rattray about 1hr 30min to 1hr 45min after HW/LW Peterhead, so if you leave Peterhead at say 04:00 BST, LW is 05:53 BST on the 30th April at Peterhead, you'll have about 3hrs 30min of ebb, which should get you round Rattray, with time to spare. The ebb runs strongly past Fraserburgh, but slackens by the time you get to Rosehearty. The current forecast is Easterly winds, so you need to be past Rattray by the time the time turns or you get wind against tide in the shallow water around Rattray, which from experience isn’t very nice!
Hope this is not too late to be of help.
 
Made it round in about 7 hours in the end. I could see it was fine so kept quite a lot tighter in than planned, and the current carried us around beautifully. Got to Whitehills at around exactly HW. Lovely place, beautiful clear waters.

Thanks for the replies.
 
Ian_Edwards said:
I've done this trip many times, the tide turns of Rattray about 1hr 30min to 1hr 45min after HW/LW Peterhead, so if you leave Peterhead at say 04:00 BST, LW is 05:53 BST on the 30th April at Peterhead, you'll have about 3hrs 30min of ebb, which should get you round Rattray, with time to spare. The ebb runs strongly past Fraserburgh, but slackens by the time you get to Rosehearty. The current forecast is Easterly winds, so you need to be past Rattray by the time the time turns or you get wind against tide in the shallow water around Rattray, which from experience isn’t very nice!
Hope this is not too late to be of help.
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A bit late for my tuppence worth but I'd say a bit of spot on advice above ...
 
We did that journey last year on our way up here, leaving either today or tomorrow for Shetland, its not a bad journey, Rat head.

Where you off to next, if its the canal time your jouney for direct entry into the sealock, miss Inverness Marina, its cheaper and more services in Muirtown Basin on the canal.

Safe trip, happy sailing.......

We are in Inverness Marina now getting ready to leave.
 
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CaptainBob said:
Cheers for the reply. I have high water Whitehills 11:08 BST, so 14:00 BST is half way down the tide.

I believe Whitehills is accessible at all states, just not in heavy onshore conditions, but I just prefer to have a bit of water more than low water as it's my first visit.
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No - Not accessable at all states.

We had to wait outside Whitehills for two hours late in the evening to get in at the end of last season.

We had been stormbound in Inverness Marina for eight days, it was rough with the aftermath and there was very little wind. Made us both feel very queezy.

We do have 6' draft and the harbour master reconed that we would be bouncing off the bottom on the way in if we tried. He was a great help in guiding us in.

A great marina, very friendly and secure.

If you are stuck and getting tired you can always get into Macduff in virtually any conditions although it is a bit 'industrial' but still very secure once in.

Iain
 
Hi, thanks for all the new replies. Unfortunately I've only just seen them now. We're in Inverness Marina which I took to be the cheapest option for a stay of a week or two (which we need to do) but will check out Muirtown basin now...
 
CaptainBob said:
Hi, thanks for all the new replies. Unfortunately I've only just seen them now. We're in Inverness Marina which I took to be the cheapest option for a stay of a week or two (which we need to do) but will check out Muirtown basin now...
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I think with the canal licence chucked in, the Muirtown Basin option is a little more expensive than here in fact so going to stay in the marina.

Thanks again for all the replies.

CB
 
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