Cutting it fine!

The Royal Highland Show was pretty interesting. Quite agricultural, with forestry and country displays, horse and livestock events and every imaginable tractor on display. We watched a bit of forestry rescue, show jumping, duck herding by a border collie and quite an impressive mountain bike tricks display. There was also a very interesting tent on sustainable energy, which was a great for us all to learn more about sustainability and alternate sources of energy. The wave energy display was quite interesting, but I keep on wondering how long it will take before there are tidal energy turbines in place. I think it’s a matter of trying to use any natural energy where ever possible. They also had wood chip boilers and stoves on display, which are considered carbon neutral. Larvell and Chris also had a go at the cycling power display, and raced each other. The bikes pump water up a tube with a float at the top. It was quite a close match with both boys cycling furiously, but Chris just managed to pull ahead by centimetres in the end. A bit of huffing and puffing when they got off, but what a great way to show what our energy is worth, rather than just taking it for granted all the time.
After the show it was back to the boat and a reasonably early night before our sail to Arbroath. A big thanks to Port Edgar Marina for making us feel so welcome and for the berthing over the week. We really do appreciate it!
Unfortunately, as things go, we had ENE winds – exactly where we wanted to go! What with the fog delaying our departure in the morning and a rather slow slog out of the Forth, we ended up having to motor straight into the wind to try get to Arbroath on time before the tide gates closed. We also had a few seasick crew, so missing the lock would not have been fun for them! At least the wind wasn’t very strong so we could quite easily make progress. We managed to get into Arbroath Harbour with minutes to spare, and the lock literally closed about 10 mins after our arrival. Close! [27/06/09 17:00]
Our passage today did take us close to St. Andrews – a place very special to Gordon Applebey, a great friend of the Trust and Scarlet’s late owner. Thanks to Gordon and his family we are able to do what we are doing today. The adventures we have had have been incredible, and each and every one of the crew who have sailed on board Scarlet have really enjoyed their time on her. She is an incredible yacht from an incredible family, and we really do appreciate her use. Our original plan was to go to St. Andrews and anchor off in the bay to visit, but unfortunately the onshore winds made this difficult to do.
Today is a shore side day for us. We’re going for a hike along the cliffs over to a little village about 3miles away, and of course we are going to go and find ourselves some famous Arbroath Smokies (some kind of specially smoked haddock… yum). It’s a bit of a misty drizzly day – perfect Scottish walking weather!
Cheers, Cath