Eyemouth-Anstruther-Arbroath-Stonehaven

19th to 21st May
(Route and photos at http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/104134  )

This is an Arbroath Smokie; very smokey, very tasty, yum-yum! It's not a kipper, but a smoked haddock. I expect you knew that.

Another fact: the big bulge of Scottish coastline that runs about 150 northeast from Edinburgh to north of Aberdeen, is, when you sail close to it, a series of fine cliffs and headlands with occasional beautiful empty beaches.

It's full of birds and yesterday, motorsailing in a calm sea, was like cutting a path through fields of guillemots, diving and fluttering to move aside; with cliffs awash with gannet colonies on the port beam.

The day before that, as we approached Arbroath, a pod of at least ten dolphins accompanied us for a mile or so, playfully diving around the bow. (I tried to take photos but, as wildlife photographers probably know, they've usually dived before the shutter clicks!)

And now, Pluto the latter-day King of the underwear, has decreed a day of warm sunshine with fog banks at sea, so, out with t-shirt and shorts, it's time to find a laundrette and enjoy a day on land