Eyemouth

Wednesday

It is always a thill to be back in Scotland and this was a first as I had never arrived by sea.

On arrival in Eyemouth it was quite busy, I am sure a few boats chose to remain in harbour while the dredger was about its work in the entrance, but there was space on the visitors pontoon and the three men in the next boat took my lines.

I met the assistant harbour master and asked about shore power and where to get the tokens. He kindly suggested that I 'just plug in' and see how much was on the electric point and followed his suggestion and there was a lot of unused electricity.

I chatted on the pontoon with the three men in the next boat and as we discussed where we had been and where we had been. They were going south to Holy Island and I north. They advised my that my next port of call Arbroath had not one, but two dredgers working the harbour!

The entrance to Eyemouth Harbour

Sat having something to eat in the cockpit I was surprised to see a seal pop its head up by the boat; gosh that is tame! I learnt why as over the next few hours a number of boats would bang fish against their hulls and the seals would come and eat from the hand. I'm not that brave.

A quiet night followed and I had a relaxing breakfast the following morning.

After popping into the harbour office and advising them that I'd be there for two nights I had a wander into the town and south along the headlands to stretch my legs in the August sunshine.

Aphrodite on the pontoon at Eyemouth

With working the boat I was beginning to find a few niggles and one is the length of the spinnaker halyard, a couple of meters too short for my liking and I replaced it with the spair, but that was the same length! It felt like a wasted hour, but it's now on my list of winter jobs to do.

The first thing that struck about Scotland was the very different attitude to wearing masks and COVID regulations. Mask wearing was the norm and you were expected to wear one.

I decided that I best had a 'fish supper' as I was back in Scotland and was really,really disappointed in the meal.

As I was just about to turn in for the night a Dutch boat arrived, the first foreign boat of the whole trip. I helped him with his lines and bade good night at I was planning a 0330 departure.

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