Burghead
May 15, 2021
Full of trepidation, we now sail east and enter the most densely packed area of fishing harbours in Great Britain where the reputation of the tough Scottish fishing fleet sends shivers down the backs of us yachties but where I was to meet some of the most friendly Harbour Masters.
The north facing coastline of the Moray Firth has few "harbours of refuge" and is regularly battered by an unforgiving arctic wind. The locals are as tough as the terrain, and I can see why the Vikings chose to settle in the "softer" north and west of Scotland!
In the next few days we are to visit some 16 famous harbours set within just 60 miles of coastline before turning south round the infamous Rattray Head.
- Burghead (2020)
- Hopeman (2020)
- Lossiemouth Marina (2020)
- Buckie
- Findochty
- Portknockie
- Cullen
- Portsoy
- Whitehills
- Banff
- Macduff
- Gardenstown and Crovie
- Pennan
- Rosehearty
- Sandhaven
- Fraserburgh
The first six of these harbours is looked after by a fantastic HM Darren Bremner ( @chasing_sterlochy ) who we will meet when we reach his home port of Buckie. We visited the first of these harbours in Sept 2020, just before the second lockdown.
Delightful Burghead is a classic elegant Thomas Telford harbour built between 1807-12. Full of friendly squid fishermen (photo 6), they were royally entertained by Good Dog's skipper asking his crew to jump a large gap between boat and quayside as we tied up to fill up with diesel (photo 7). They quite rightly refused!
At the entrance, a dredger was at work - something I had not seen for some months as the "rocky" west and north coast harbours never have to deal with silt - the bane of a harbour master's life.
Along the coast we popped our bow into very pretty Hopeman Harbour, first used in 1803 for fishing, it was the first of many "tidal" harbours where we could only enter at "high water". Good Dog draws 1.6 metres (i.e. the bottom of the keel is 1.6m below the water) and the last thing I want to do is hit the bottom - mainly because it would hurt my pride much more that it would hurt Good Dog!
The north facing coastline of the Moray Firth has few "harbours of refuge" and is regularly battered by an unforgiving arctic wind. The locals are as tough as the terrain, and I can see why the Vikings chose to settle in the "softer" north and west of Scotland!
In the next few days we are to visit some 16 famous harbours set within just 60 miles of coastline before turning south round the infamous Rattray Head.
- Burghead (2020)
- Hopeman (2020)
- Lossiemouth Marina (2020)
- Buckie
- Findochty
- Portknockie
- Cullen
- Portsoy
- Whitehills
- Banff
- Macduff
- Gardenstown and Crovie
- Pennan
- Rosehearty
- Sandhaven
- Fraserburgh
The first six of these harbours is looked after by a fantastic HM Darren Bremner ( @chasing_sterlochy ) who we will meet when we reach his home port of Buckie. We visited the first of these harbours in Sept 2020, just before the second lockdown.
Delightful Burghead is a classic elegant Thomas Telford harbour built between 1807-12. Full of friendly squid fishermen (photo 6), they were royally entertained by Good Dog's skipper asking his crew to jump a large gap between boat and quayside as we tied up to fill up with diesel (photo 7). They quite rightly refused!
At the entrance, a dredger was at work - something I had not seen for some months as the "rocky" west and north coast harbours never have to deal with silt - the bane of a harbour master's life.
Along the coast we popped our bow into very pretty Hopeman Harbour, first used in 1803 for fishing, it was the first of many "tidal" harbours where we could only enter at "high water". Good Dog draws 1.6 metres (i.e. the bottom of the keel is 1.6m below the water) and the last thing I want to do is hit the bottom - mainly because it would hurt my pride much more that it would hurt Good Dog!