Leg 19 Douglas to
Portpatrick. Our first Scottish
Harbour
A very long journey with grey overcast skys to begin with
and then some very strong winds to end with and a very concealed entrance to
Portpatrick which at the time was quite nerve racking but turned out to be very
easy.
PortPatrick is quintessentially the most British of small
harbours. Absolutely fantastic place to spend a few days and explore. The
people in the harbour were extremely friendly and the people in the local pub
was also extremely friendly. They looked up on the internet using there iphones
and computers and even made phone calls in order to find out and book trains
for my daughter to get back from Straenrar to Kettering and booked taxi for
6:00am unbelievably helpful lot. Thanks.
The rise and fall of the tide in this harbour is huge.
However knowing this I allowed plenty of slack line when mooring up to the mooring rings. However
not enough as it turned out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was awoken from my slumber the next
morning when I could here shouting etc. I jumped up and headed straight to the
cockpit and in my dreaery half asleep state I realized the boat was severely
tilted over to the Port side and people where shouting at me from the quay
side. The boat was hanging fom the mooring lines and the weight of the boat was
being held by the fairleads and cleats. I ran back down in to the galley picked
up a knife and immediately cut the ropes. Morgen fell back in to the water and
a small tidal wave swept across the harbour making the other boats hit and bump
against each other. Woops!!!!!!!!!
Anyway what a brilliant place to be. I was sorry to see my
eldest daughter leave, but I knew I was on the home straight, so to speak I was
afterall now officially in Scotland
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