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Like another, famous (infamous) 'chap on a boat' I have found myself in Whitby, due to the weather.
Maybe, I should not have left port, today, but I am driven by a possible day of good weather, forecast for Wednesday. I want to be in a position to blast off from an anchorage near Grimsby and head for Lowestoft. This is an 18 hr trip so Id like the water 'flat'. Anyway, before leaving Hartlepool, a couple of issues reared their ugly heads. First this ....
To summarise this, the '8' is not good but I ignored it. Sometimes, in life, you pop your fingers in your ears. For a variety of reasons. The second issue was that, just before I was due to enter a lock to depart the Marina, I picked up on a faint 'jingling' in the engine dept. Turned out that a big bit was about to fall off. I managed to fix (bodge) it but lots of work. Finally left and found myself 'in' a yacht race.
Dunno what they thought of me, as they were all fully crewed boats, but I got past some of them. It then got too windy and I spent a few hours planning how I was going to stop the boat; I was going faster and faster. At one point it gusted 37 knots. That's a fair bit.
Fast forward - decided I wanted to get off the boat so passing Whitby wasn't an option. Another narrow entrance and, once again, the sudden contrast with being somewhere a 'tad alarming' to flat calm seaside resort with hundreds of people lining the harbour, eating, drinking and pointing, probably all wondering what happened to my hair.
I went in search of 'old toothy', starting with the 199 steps ( Google Dracula for specifics) to the Church. That was OK but no mention of Drac. I then continued to the Abbey ruins. Undeniably spooky but didn't justify 6 quid entrance fee plus a 5 quid guidebook that didn't mention Bram and his toothy mate, once. Instead, the whole thing focused on .........the 'Chomley family'. Yeah, the Chomley family.
What on earth have they got to do with the Count ? Rip off.
Trying for Scarborough tomorrow. Only force 7. I feel a pint coming on.
2 comments:
You are doing so so well - your blog is a great read and I look forward clicking that button every night to see how you're doing. If you manage that big 18 hr sail to Lowestoft then your nearly home. Fancy a curry when you get back - my treat. Love chessie xxx
Hi Alan, Just got our international traveling Mum & her side kick Nero the dog back on the Eurostar was great to have her out here in Belgium for a few days! been reading your blog & happy to read your heading back to the relative safety of Shalford after your stint up North...kind of adds a bit of excitement to watching the weather forecast..Looks like we will have a few hot days but the wind is probably the wrong direction for you? Anyway Good luck & I hope to see you some time soon.
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