Attending to the finer details

Our new burgee

Special Picnic Squad forever!

New burgee design

Our new burgee for the very exclusive club, The Special Picknick Squad, SPS, Is here! Beatrice our dog as the club mascot and burgee. Freyja amd i have spent tje weekend between other jobs designing and making this flag. Lets hope it flies nicely.

Forth traffic

Fergus took these lovely shots of the gannets that kept returning to visit our wake. We were told on a bbc tv nature program these birds have been doing very well on fisher mans by catch, as they are fed the by catch and other fish waste from the back of the fishing boats, these birds have not worked out though that we are not a fishing boat.




Cross the shipping was exciting and required our full attention, taking bearings of boats as we approached there routes and sighting some to confirm they were at anchor. On approaching the path of the big red one we were at a bit of a low angle to hit its bow on our preferred course for st abbs head at 5 knots, so we changed course to cross three Nm ahead of it at 90 degrees to its path and put the revs up to make 6 knots. this big bad red tanker was moving at 5 knots and we did not want to give her bridge anything else to be concerned about. The use of our ipad with ais data streaming to its inavx navigation application was of some reassurance our collision vectors were under control and our eyes were working as they should.

Crail

A few nights in crail harbour in the most beautiful birth we have ever had. it was very relaxing after our slightly bumpy crossing. Thank you must go to our hosts and the fisherman who provided the best advice for mooring up in the best spot for us while we were there, thanks to the fisherman who's boat was on the hard, for sharing his favourite ladder and weighted mooring lines.

Firth of forth crossing

After a 530 start freyja and i took watch and began our cross to crail, we had done our passage plan 

West coast prep

This year is all about getting out in the boat for an extended cruise round to the west coast of scotland from our home waters out of Eyemouth south east edge of scotland. Have been spending a few evenings last few weeks ordering charts, pilot books and down loading ipad maps and data. We have agreed a plan with the admiralty and i tom (dad and run about) have to deliver chortle up the west coast through the Caledonian canal and sown to our pick up spot top of the crinan canal. Oh the joys. Passage planning and recruiting pals to join me on different legs of the trip has been quite a complex job but fun and now filled with expectation to the outcome of our adventure.