Day 45-Saturday 2nd july- Stonehaven to Dundee by train

The winds were too light to sail and kelvin and I fancied going to the Blues music festival in Dundee. It would take us too long to get there by boat so we caught the train from Stonehaven. En route to the station we saw this fish and chip shop, which claims to be where battered mars bars first appeared. later in the day we heard the owner say the place is for sale and is a good business. He says he sells 100 battered mars bars a week!

The journey took just under an hour and the scenery is impressive.The route follows the coast so there are white sandy bays on one side and hill ranges on the other. We passed through Montrose, which is a harbour I had thought of visiting. I was intrigued when looking at the chart by the large inland body of water next to the town. It was good to be able to see it from the train.It is a very shallow area of mud and sand and looks like a real good place for waders.

The Dundee Blues Bonanza has been running for 15 years..It hosts 130 acts in 31 venues over 3 days.Entrance is free to all the performances.There was a mind boggling choice of who to see through out the day.

We kicked off with Al Hughes from Fife, who played in the Arctic bar. His style was Delta and east coast blues. He was a cracking guitarist and had a good voice.The preferred clothing at this gig was very definitely loud shirts,

Next there was the Redstate Blues 5pc band from Dundee who played a load of funky stuff with a range of influences.They played in a club ( Deja Vu) rather than a pub. It was a larger venue. The carpet was so impregnated with spilt drink that your shoes stuck to in like Velcro!

Three Card Trick were three very talented lads from Glasgow who played a lot of old blues/rock numbers. This was in a new cellar bar called Union 39. It is a good intimate place where you get a good rapport with a band.

We caught the end of Kat and co.led by the magnificent voice of Kathleen Pearson.We then sampled a bit of Boogalusa and then Roy Mettie before deciding we were just about done nt.It's tiring drinking all afternoon and evening and having to listen to great music.Dundee. It's a great vibrant city with fine stone buildings, loads of statues, disrespectful seagulls and plenty of galleries.The 31 music venues involved in the festival were not the only places in town.There were other things going on too.

I learned a bit more about Kelvin today. He took early retirement from a company where he worked as a service engineer for machines which made cigarettes.He lives in Holmer Green near Wycombe, which is a place I lived in when i started primary school. He has travelled all over the world in this business and knows that he has spent all his life doing something which didn't do anybody any good.He enjoyed has travelling but isn't proud of his legacy He has agood sense of humour and fun though and we had a good day together.