some wonderul harbours in the Firth

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 Mar 2005
Messages
12,954
Location
Buckingham
www.keepturningleft.co.uk
I bookmarked some harbours in the Firth of Forth

there are some lovely places to stay

it should all prove most entertaining and really rather different from the Humber



although some do look a bit exposed at times

and I might have found a yacht club in Edinburgh who will let me rent a drying mooring for a couple of months between September and November

I might get stuck in the Firth

five hours by car from home

D
 
AngusMcDoon said:
That will more than double if you go over the top of Scotland. You're not half way yet in terms of commute time from home, and that's just the mainland.
Click to expand...

I know....

I cannot carry on with the one bit at a time approach much longer

so what happens next for this trip depends upon cash flow, work opportunities, weather patterns, petrol prices and my own personal health I guess

however, I have enough resources do do the rest of the English North East Coast and to give the Firth of Forth a bit of a bruising

after that it is in the lap of the capricious gods of weather and finance

Dylan
 
I think you're VERY optimistic if you think you'll make it in 5 hours. From just north of Cambridge, I reckon 7 hours to Greenock - and it is motorway most of the way. 7 hours is pushing it as well, with two drivers and eating a packed lunch in the car, stopping only for toilets and to change drivers. When driving it solo, I reckoned eight hours.

If you're considering Antruther, then I really would consider Dunbar. dunbar.jpg. Besides being a very sheltered harbour, it is bang on the A1, and is substantially less driving time from Sassenach territory than any of the others.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
I think you're VERY optimistic if you think you'll make it in 5 hours. From just north of Cambridge, I reckon 7 hours to Greenock - and it is motorway most of the way. 7 hours is pushing it as well, with two drivers and eating a packed lunch in the car, stopping only for toilets and to change drivers. When driving it solo, I reckoned eight hours.

If you're considering Antruther, then I really would consider Dunbar. View attachment 33697. Besides being a very sheltered harbour, it is bang on the A1, and is substantially less driving time from Sassenach territory than any of the others.
Click to expand...

you are correct

anstruther is a lot further

so I am trying to find somehwere near Edinburgh

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=b...s=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a


please let me keep my fantasies intact

one thing I have learned while doing this journey is that local advice is good to seek

but lots of it tends to be rather negative


while on the Humber I have met a lot of sailors warning me about the perils that lie ahead on the Ouse, the Trent, and down at Tetney

they will talk about how the humber will swallow you up

and will cite the death of two blokes 15 years ago under the humber bridge in a snipe with no engine in a force six - wind against tide

people in wells will tell you about the tweo blokes who dide on the bar ten years ago in an open 14 foot clinker built motor launch in an onshore force five

best not mention the Wallet or the Deben bar or even that mud bank in the solent

there are are more people with reasons for not doing something than there are who tell you to give it a go

so I shall carry on with my fantasies about the shortness of the drive between here and Scotland

and I am looking forward to seeing dolphins for the first time ever

I have also been told that Scotland is too cold for a softy southerner like me

can this be true?

D
 
when you start getting this far north, surely it becomes daft to commute by car?

Flying is your answer 1 1/2 hours from the South to Inverness. A bit less to Edinburgh.

My record driving, Oxford to Inverness was 9 hours overnight so no traffic. Did it in 11 hours once towing my caravan.
 
Dylan, try either the Royal Forth Yacht Club or Forth Corinthian Yacht Club for the possibility of a drying berth. They are both at Granton in Edinburgh. Easy bus ride to centre of town and then you can catch the east coast main line train back down south. There is a pontoon and toilets in both club facilities.
 
ProDave said:
when you start getting this far north, surely it becomes daft to commute by car?

Flying is your answer 1 1/2 hours from the South to Inverness. A bit less to Edinburgh.

My record driving, Oxford to Inverness was 9 hours overnight so no traffic. Did it in 11 hours once towing my caravan.
Click to expand...

From near Cambridge to Greenock, door to door, I reckon that there isn't much difference in time between driving and flying. Flying is quicker once you're in the air, but you have to reckon in travel time to and from the airport, plus the necessary delays for security and so on. If you're using public transport, that means train from where I live to Stansted - more than an hour; security plus boarding at Stansted - about 1.5 hours; flight time 1.25 hours, train from Glasgow airport to Cartsdyke (nearest train station to my boat) about an hour. That adds up to 4.75 hours. But that assumes perfect connections at each stage - and there's only about one train an hour at either end, so if things don't work out, you can reckon at least another hour for connections. And I haven't figured in the time to walk to/from the railway stations at either end, nor have I allocated time for collecting baggage - I usually travel with hand luggage only. In the worst case, I reckon it could actually take longer to fly than to drive!

Of course, I could park at the airport - but that is costly, and for more than a weekend, it is cheaper to use public transport. What's more, with my car (which is band A VED), the fuel costs of the journey are comparable with the cheapest air fare for one person, and much cheaper for two.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
I think you're VERY optimistic if you think you'll make it in 5 hours. From just north of Cambridge, I reckon 7 hours to Greenock - and it is motorway most of the way. 7 hours is pushing it as well, with two drivers and eating a packed lunch in the car, stopping only for toilets and to change drivers. When driving it solo, I reckoned eight hours.

If you're considering Antruther, then I really would consider Dunbar. View attachment 33697. Besides being a very sheltered harbour, it is bang on the A1, and is substantially less driving time from Sassenach territory than any of the others.
Click to expand...
Dunbar's charges are here:
http://www.dunbarharbourtrust.co.uk/index.php/harbour-users/charges
The train station is about half a mile from the harbour, is on the East Coast Mainline and I think some of the fast services stop there although most involve a change. Fares from London are "from £17" - although in reality are considerably more expensive:
http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/
Both Dunbar and Grangemouth on the River Carron have slipways where "Katie L" might be hauled out. Others will have too.
 
I hate flying

I know I am going to die

trains are lovely but the trouble is that although you can get cheap fares they need booking a long way in advance

so that cuts out reacting to the weather

little point in schlepping all the way up there and sitting on the boat in the rain for five days

the other advantage of taking the car is that I can take berth cushions, sleeping bags, food and tools with me

late and early season sailing means keeping the inside of the boat dry - so the cushions and bedding have to be removed

so it will have to be polo/micra each time

what I shall do though is to go up for a week at a time while exploring and filming the firth - on the humber if the weather man gave me two good days then it was worth going

fortunately the scottiosh east coast is quite dry - cold I know of course

the idea of doing solent and westwards is not a bad one

I do have have a plan of spending a couple of months in jan/feb/march sailing in the solent and filming those crisp winter mornings in anchorages that are full of jetskis in the summer.

I plan to then bring the boat home again and make a decision on what to do next

it is conceivable that the summer of 2014 might be the year of the duck punt, pop up tent and trangia

D
 
dylanwinter said:
I know....

I cannot carry on with the one bit at a time approach much longer

so what happens next for this trip depends upon cash flow, work opportunities, weather patterns, petrol prices and my own personal health I guess

however, I have enough resources do do the rest of the English North East Coast and to give the Firth of Forth a bit of a bruising

after that it is in the lap of the capricious gods of weather and finance

Dylan
Click to expand...

Dylan if it comes down to the finances you should ask ybw for sponsorship as you generate lots of content for the forum free of charge! Same goes for Seajet. Ask them how much money they are making through Ppc advertising on here and get a percentage! In fact we should all get paid every time we post!!
 
dylanwinter said:
The idea of doing solent and westwards is not a bad one
Click to expand...

It was my old Dad of 85 who suggested that one. He has bought your DVD's and loves them as he's too old to be a boat owner now (he used to have a Duette). He wants to see the West Country done, but doesn't think he has enough decades left on this earth to wait until you get there under your current plan. Make on old man happy...
 
dylanwinter said:
I hate flying

I know I am going to die

trains are lovely but the trouble is that although you can get cheap fares they need booking a long way in advance

so that cuts out reacting to the weather

little point in schlepping all the way up there and sitting on the boat in the rain for five days

the other advantage of taking the car is that I can take berth cushions, sleeping bags, food and tools with me

late and early season sailing means keeping the inside of the boat dry - so the cushions and bedding have to be removed

so it will have to be polo/micra each time

what I shall do though is to go up for a week at a time while exploring and filming the firth - on the humber if the weather man gave me two good days then it was worth going

fortunately the scottiosh east coast is quite dry - cold I know of course

the idea of doing solent and westwards is not a bad one

I do have have a plan of spending a couple of months in jan/feb/march sailing in the solent and filming those crisp winter mornings in anchorages that are full of jetskis in the summer.

I plan to then bring the boat home again and make a decision on what to do next

it is conceivable that the summer of 2014 might be the year of the duck punt, pop up tent and trangia

D
Click to expand...

you hate flying yet just think if you changed your boat again.You could get a flying boat get a folding mast with a squib sail and no long drive times

800px-Pbv-1a_canso_flying_boat_g-pbya_arp.jpg
 
dylanwinter said:
- so the cushions and bedding have to be removed

D
Click to expand...

? No they don't, you can vacuum pack them when you're not there and they'll be fine.

Why take the tools back and forth each time? What's wrong with leaving the boat tools on the boat?

Why take food with you? You can actually buy food there...


Just get the train.

.
 
Wells Bar is a tricky ******* though. I think the only time I have heard swearing in any of your films is when you are leaving Wells early in the morning going over the bar in less than ideal conditions. I sail from there and it still puts the willies up me...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top