Monday 5 July 2010 Peterhead N57 29.81’ W001 46.42’

Departed Whitehills at 1130 hours to get the tide at slack water off Rattray Head. Another good sail in Force 2 to 4 winds from aft.

It is very noticeable that in all the Scottish waters, there are more seabirds that we are used to seeing in the English Channel. Approaching the headland of Fraserborough we noticed a huge gathering of gulls. Presumably this was over a fish shoal and the gulls had gathered for food or maybe a fishing boat had just dumped unwanted fish and/or entrails from filleting. There was no shallow patch or other feature marked on the chart.

Both in Lossimouth and Whitehills we had been receicing dire warnings about Rattray Head – tide race, overfalls, maybe the devil himself; clearly a Scottish answer to Portland Bill. Hence the decision to forgo fair tide to get the slack water at the headland. But in the event it was benign. Almost no tide even though we were early for slack water, no sign of overfalls (which are not marked on the chart).

Peterhead is an industrial harbour predominantly occupied with North Sea oil supply boats but with a large fishing harbour. A new yacht marina has been built in the south west corner of Peterhead Bay. Whilst not ideal, it does provide an excellent passage stop over. Because of the continuous movement of supply boats, traffic in and out of the harbour and movement within the harbour is strictly controlled with permission having to be sought by VHF for all movements; we were held outside to a short time waiting for two trawlers to leave and later not allowed to leave the marina until a supply boat had berthed.