A surprise welcome

We slipped lines from Eyemouth just after highwater and were shortly joined by Silent Wings. The jovial harbour master came out to give us a friendly wave as we headed into the sunshine for Arbroath. As usual the winds failed to deliver but we struggled on as long as we could trying to keep our heading. Having sailed for most of the way we had to motor for the last couple of hours to make sure we made the lock which closes three hours after high water. Silent Wings gambled on going inshore for a longer but faster route and lucked out, they beat us by a fair margin.

Two boats sailing together will never intend to race but somehow it just happens. Another boat [Samphire] had followed us out from Eyemouth taking a totally different course and we can proudly announce second place -- it was rather a tortoise and hare situation and this time the hare won. Consolation prize was being greeted by our first pod of dolphins. They surrounded the boat from all directions surfacing just a few feet away making us both feel quite emotional; they looked so much bigger than we had imagined so close up and it was a fabulous welcome to Arbroath. So, safely moored up: two 13m boats squeezed onto a 20m pontoon -- and to look forward to, the famous Arbroath Smokies.