The winds had shifted to the nor west and it was starting to popple up a bit so time to go. The obvious choice would be the mainland coast and shelter off the beach. A look at the chart suggested Budle Bay so we wound in the chain and headed across the sound, bound for the castle of Bamburgh. Close inshore the sea calmed down like Jesus sorting things out on the sea of Galilee.
I was trying to find the entrance across the sandy flats of Budle bay just underneath Bamburgh castle.
As it was over half tide much of the flats were covering and the devious channel was not altogether clear. That and the garroting control lines of the kite surfers made me think that another quieter day might be more appropriate. So we sounded along the sand edge and the far side of the bay where the sand dunes rise up and demarcate between Budle bay and the surrounds to Lindisfarne.
There is a nice little nick in the dunes where the anchor was laid to rest for the night in a place called Skate Road. Now whether skate inhabit this place I know not but I can imagine them coming into the shallow waters like rays in the warm waters of the Caribbean. The evening was spent watching the terns diving for supper enough to feed the family. And talking of feeding.......
But the sunset was something to behold, it may actually have been the first decent one of the trip!
The monolithic leading towers of Lindisfarne look somewhat Starwarsey in the fading light.
The morning had us up early to catch the tide southbound. Southbound is a brilliant song by Thin Lizzy, I must play it soon. Wind was toying with the idea of giving us a good sail. A reach no less, maybe turning into a bit of a fetch later on when we passed a headland or two. We sailed off the anchor and made our way past Seahouses entrance.
Past Dunstanburgh castle whose condition has something to be desired unless one likes ruins. I like ruins.
The idea is to line up the blue door on the gable end with the entrance piers. I think it's Craster, it fits with the time frame and the ship's log.
So we made the 23 miles back to Warksworth harbour without any mechanical power. It was a rare and rather splendid occasion. The night was spent tucked under the lee of the north breakwater just of the beach and dunes. The morning had us back in the Coquet river and into the Amble marina again for victuals to take us on the next leg south. Here you can see the remains of the jetty that made up the staithes for coal export.
The holds were once more filled to the brim with beer and vegetables and we had a very quiet night in the pleasant marina. Next day was Friday and the start of the three day Sunderland air show so we set off with another early start to catch the tide for the journey south. The tide was quite low as the gulls are standing up.
With the wind offshore the water or lack of it was calm on the bar. We hung a right and took the quick exit via the Coquet channel, south past Blythe and the Tyne. On the way we had a play with SeaClear on the laptop and it is a fine bit of kit. Not expensive and fairly easy to use but I have yet to use all of its features.
It's like having the entire UK paper charts, large and small, but digital. I prefer my dedicated chart plotter for navigating but for detail and planning or to get the wider view it is magic. Cheaper by far than keeping them on paper. One can use passage charts for the most and use either digital chart package to supplement for more accurate views. It would be unlikely for both systems to fails at the same time.
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