last night I had given him half of the smoky I had bought. He could still taste it when we went for a pint later. He said it reminded him of the taste you got in your mouth when you were a kid and tried to smoke some of those dried flower stems. I don't think he was sold on them. It's a shame we couldn't have travelled further together. I shall always remember one of his early observations about Scotland. "It's even wet when it's dry here!"
Next to the quay is a new information centre, restaurant and public toilets. I thought it looked pretty good.
Scotland felt warm this morning as we left the inner harbour at 7.45.It was already 19.7 degrees.The winds started off light from the east then turned into the south west and steadily strengthened. I had planned to take a close look at TheIsle ofMay at the entrance to the Firth of Forth, but it was blowing a force 4/5 by then, which would mean a strong following sea as I worked up to Granton so I cut straight across on a broad reach instead. I had to make do with long distance views of this and Bass Rock.
I followed a classic old fishing boat into the Forth. It was not sailing and seemed to lumber on slowly under engine.I wondered if it was returning from the festival at Portsoy. I overtook it level with Anstruther on the north side of the Forth. The town looked really attractive, with all its red tiled roofs and painted houses. I learned later than a lot of Flemish people had settled there, which would explain it.There is a good harbour there but the entrance would not have been good to get into with that wind. The boat seemed to make an attempt for it then turn around. I don't know whether it decided to anchor off, or move on somwhere else.
There were quite a few large ships moving up and down the Forth. The pilot has a pretty fast craft to get out to them.
It was nearly 50nm to Granton and it seemed like a long trip.I had been surfing across the Forth at over 6kn most of the way and nearly 7.5 over the ground. A couple of the waves had turned me sidways though, which is never nice.I was glad to get onto the pontoons which are jointly shared between the Royal Forth YC and the smaller Corinthian YC. Jacqui and Martin where there to meet me with their daughter Jollie. However, there was nobody around to get a key for the gate, so they were stuck one side and I was on the other. I decided to inflate the dinghy to get ashore. I was hungry.
I found the Corinthian YC bar open when I got back. They were really friendly and helpful and apologetic for taking the money off me to sit in the mud when the tide goes out.It is the other club that has the facilities, but they lent me a key so I could use their shower block in the compound.I had left my dinghy on a fairly long painter, but when I got back it was hanging in mid air on the metal ladder . I was really lucky the oars hadn't fallen out.It can be difficult to allow for the changes in the tidal ranges as you work your way around the coast.
Tomorrow I need to find someone who sells charts as I don't have any between here and the Solent.
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