Firth of Forth bypassed

As the Aberdeen Coast is really very limiting for a vessel such as ours - with a draft of 8 ft - the best option was to sail from Eyemouth to Peterhead in one 100 mile go.  Peterhead is an easy accessible commercial harbour with a cute marina in the south west corner of the harbour. As the tides are coming back onto springs, we found Eyemouth had a 'soft spot' for Spring Breeze and at low tide the water left us by at least a foot.

We attempted to leave Eyemouth at 10 in the previous evening but there was very little wind and a serious swell that made the prospect of a 17hr trip intolerable so after an hour north we turned round and ran back to the harbour.  Eyemouth is a tricky harbour in the day having to navigate between clusters of rocks on leading lights to a very narrow entrance, but doing it at night was seriously worrying but putting your trust in the instructions fortunately paid off and we arrived back on our pontoon.  So the next day we set off on the midday tide with the prospect of arriving at Peterhead in the early hours of the next morning.  Simon wisely opted to go by bus and train to Peterhead and stay in a guest house there.  Alice was now addicted to the power of the Quells (which seem to work a treat) and preferred to be with me thankfully than seeing me off to sail into the sunset (metaphorically).

So the sail up to Eyemouth was slightly uneventfull with little wind to start with and then some splendid goose-winged sailing with Ollie (the auto pilot) in control.

At 8 pm our electrics went dead and we quickly deduced it was the 12v batteries gone flat so started the engine and motor sailed for the remainder of the trip (to 4 am in the morning) which was also sensible as the wind was too low to maintain the 6 or so knots we had to achieve. 

After asking the harbour master in Peterhead if we were in the right berth for our draft, he replied in a deep Scottish accent, that 'you're fine where you are but you won't get out !'  Implying the entrance to the marina was a bit silted up and only accessible 2hrs each side of high water.  We came in 3hrs after HW so I knew it was a bit thin but we must have been ploughing a groove through the entrance.