27th April 2011 - Holy Island to Broughty Ferry, river Tay

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Jeff
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27th April 2011 - Holy Island to Broughty Ferry, river Tay

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In order to ensure we arrived at the river Tay (some 60+ nautical miles from Holy Island) we decided to set off at 9pm on monday, which meant an overnighter. We actually got away at 20:30 and as we motored out all of the Lindisfarne seals followed us for a while giving us a seriously atmospheric send-off from such an awesome place. Wind was zero. Magic.

Here's a movie of our departure...

http://youtu.be/VyWI0EyG3gI?hd=1

We got the mainsail up and it kept us stable and I reckon gave us a couple of decimal points of a knot for most of the way, but the primary drive was definitely engine and I was worried we'd make it on the amount we had in the tank. Our spare cans were empty and there was nowhere in the vicinity of Holy Island for a refill.

We took it in turns to go on watch and I actually managed to sleep quite well on my times off, despite my engine noise change paranoia. I kept checking the fuel level and it turned out we were absolutely fine as per calculation - as opposed to as per paranoia. We're not going anywhere else though without a top-up!

The trip was uneventful apart from the 100s of sightings of puffins and gannets until we finally arrived at the mouth of the river Tay and began the trip up in glossy calm wind free waters. Another few seals were spotted and then, about 100 metres away, a dorsal fin! I told Rose and pointed to where I'd seen it then all of a sudden it was right next to us, then it swam under us, then it was at the bow!! Super excited I managed to grab the camera and film it...

After we'd put Lunar below it had vanished :(

It was massive! Not sure the video shows it clearly. No way if I'd cuddled it could I have reached all the way around! And it definitely swam on its side and took a good look at us!

http://youtu.be/Ek6doYonxVQ?hd=1

Awesome stuff!!!

Subsequently we had to drop anchor a little up-river as the flow down was so strong we were hardly making progress. We waited for low tide then made it up to the RTYC (Royal Tay Yacht Club) where we are now, on one of their visitor moorings (which I _think_ are free! bonus!!). Popping in to see them and thank them later once the flow has subsided again - will fill the diesel cans at the same time. Quite a row so we'll have to time it well.
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