Before leaving Eyemouth a local recommended setting a tripping line on the anchor as many yachts end up with there anchors fouled at Holy Island. When anchoring I had set up my tripping line. I have used it previously on the journey and the pickup buoy I use sits quite low in the water as i have it weighted to keep the line taught. Setting at Holy Island in the strong tide the float was disappearing below the surface. I attached a yellow round fender for extra buoyancy, which seemed to do the job. When I got up I couldn’t see my tripping line marker. The boat was sitting fine so we went ashore. Once ashore I spotted the yellow buoy. It was alongside the boat. At the time it was slack tide so I assumed the boat had just drifted alongside the buoy.
When we came back out the buoy was still against the boat with tide now flowing, so I needed to investigate. The tripping line went down behind the starboard keel. The boat was anchored by a combination of the tripping line and the weight of the 35m of chain I had put out. The only option was to cut the fender rope and fortunately the line slipped free. However, the tripping line was twisted around the chain, so I had to then unwind the line before i could start pulling the anchor in. I certainly need to rethink the tripping line set up particularly if in a strong tide.
With that sorted we were able to set off. We had been able to see Bamburgh castle from Holy Island, but the closer we got the more impressive it looked. We passed inside the other Farne Islands and started to see lots of Puffins. We have seen hundreds of them on this trip swimming on the water. Being such a short winged bird they seem to be more at home on the water than in the air. As soon as the boat gets within a good photo distance they normally dive under water, this day they seemed a bit braver and using the SLR camera that my good fiend Barry has lent me since he joined me for a few days in Northern Scotland, I took the opportunity with the sunny weather to snap away at the puffins and managed to get the shot I have been trying for.
We continued on to the bustling seaside town of Amble and spent te night there.
Thanks for the name check David, so pleased you are getting to use the camera..