Duncan & Tam’s Excellent Adventure

Inspired by stories of Wayfarer voyages of yesteryear to the north of England and circumnavigating the Isle of Jura by legendary travelling members Paul Deacon, Bill Clark and Adrian Young, with a more recent expedition to Scapa Flow in Orkney led by Audrey Lees, relative newcomers Duncan and Tam decided to reignite a club tradition of longer Wayfarer cruising with a trip up the coast to Montrose.

This was built around a visit to Montrose Sailing Club which was celebrating its 50th anniversary over the weekend. Despite fairly dire forecasts of no wind and lots of rain we set off on Friday at 2pm, 2 hours before high tide and enjoyed a consistent light headwind all day allowing easy tacking out past feeding seals to Barry Buddon and on up the coast checking off landmarks en route at Carnoustie, Arbroath (bit more rain there!), Auchmithie and reaching the north end of Lunan Bay at 10pm. Great scenery on the way (a lot of lobster pots…); particularly north of Arbroath with the bird-filled cliffs and puffins, gannets, razorbills, all feeding in the water around the boat.

A late meal at the campsite on the beach, with bats flying about, the boat anchored in the sand off the shore and a warm evening. A restless night worrying about the boat (lessons learnt!) but after a hearty breakfast set off for the final stretch to Montrose. Just offshore from the bay the light wind died and we rowed most of the way up to the lighthouse at Scurdie Ness (who says you can’t row a Wayfarer!) before a light wind allowed steerage into the port. Dropping the mast we paddled under the bridges and arrived to a warm welcome at Montrose Sailing Club. A shower, lots of tea and cakes, followed by racing in the basin (where we didn’t excel!) and a tasty BBQ in the evening sun topped an enjoyable weekend. Montrose members are keen for us to repeat the trip (with more boats if members are keen) and visit again and also to come down and join in some of our events, including some cruising!