We left Maryport on Thursday 1st May. It has been an excellent base over winter and the staff have been very friendly and most helpful. We had delayed for a day for lack of wind but on our passage the forecast F5-6 turned out to be F7-8 and we had a very fast quarter-reach under just a reduced genoa, averaging over seven knots. We arrived in the mouth of the River Dee just before low water and anchored there over night so we could take the flood tide up river to Kirkcudbright the next morning.
Our stay in Kirkcudbright turned out to be longer than the two nights envisaged, as Tony went down with a nasty cold/‘flu and was confined to his bunk for two days while Ynskje did an excellent job of nursing him with soup and tea. Sailing on the Sunday morning at 6:00am in the wet and cold for a long passage was unappealing and would have been foolhardy with the skipper in such condition. Instead we stayed put – very well situated on a pontoon complete with electricity supply, so keeping warm was easy.
The scene here changes dramatically between high and low water – between views over the surrounding countryside to being deep in a valley of mud looking up towards boats on mud berths above us.
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- View at high tide
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- Same view at low tide
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- Mud, mud and more mud
Today, Monday, Tony is up and out and we have been exploring the town further. Kirkcudbright is very attractive. Broad streets are lined with grand merchants houses and off these lead wynds (alleyways) to smaller dwellings. The town has been an artist’s colony for many years and there are many artistic touches to view.
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- Broad steets
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- everywhere
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- and artistic contributions too
Today we visited Broughton House, right next to the boat, where one of the Glasgow Boys artists E A Hornel lived and worked. The house passed straight from the family to National Trust Scotland and has been preserved much as it was. His studio is as left, with incomplete works still on the easel. Hornel spend some time in Japan and elsewhere in the east and the magnificent garden has a Japanese influence. At this time it is covered with falling cherry blossom and we were warned not to walk on the ponds which are so covered with blossom that it is not obviously water.
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- Broughton House from garden
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- Pond covered in blossom
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- Our pontoon from the garden
The weather has been windy and showery and we have eyed the fine weather further south with envy. We plan to set off tomorrow, Tuesday, and need to round the Mull of Galloway – the southern tip of the massive hammer-head of land that protrudes into the North Passage between Scotland and Ireland.
You can click on the photos to see them larger.
More news in due course.
love to all…
Tony & Ynskje
Hi Tony and Ynskje
Hope you are now feeling better Tony and that you
have managed to take off on the next leg. Take care both of you. It is still a bit chilly I expect. Lots of love, Liz