3rd to 14th July

This was the venue for the Portsoy rally. However, it was decided to spend the week before here to acclimatise to the weather, sea and location. The people present were:

Malcolm & Janet Lawrence with Shirley Andrews in Swallow, a Whammel Boat, and Paul Harrison & Ian Page in Peregrine, a Suffolk Beach Punt

We arrived after a 10 hour journey in the late afternoon of the 26th June to set camp and to watch a fantastic sunset over the Moray Firth.

The following day was rigging and launching boats in the pouring rain. It was a while since any of us had moored up in a drying harbour. Swallow had quickly moored up along side the entrance to the old harbour. Peregrine was just about to tie the final warp, when she was told to move as they were going to dredge some sand out. So we had to start again rigging an anchor in the middle and lying stern on the harbour wall, all in all it took most of the afternoon to sort out our boats. We retired to the local hostelry for some needed refreshment.

The next day started dull but became a lovely sunny day, winds were about force 3 from the east and we decided to go for a sail towards Whitehills. We got as far a Boyne Bay, which is about 3nm east of Portsoy before deciding that Whitehills was to far to get to, and therefore returned to Portsoy. It was the first time Swallow had been in large swell and skipper was feeling a wee bit queasy.

Tuesday was looking a bit rougher and therefore the Swallow team decided to play tourist for the day while Peregrine decided to do some boat maintenance and then go for a sail, by the time we went there was no wind.

Wednesday was a day off, but some of the fishing vessels like the 60ft Reaper and the Fifie White Wing came in and they entertained us with their seamanship skills in manoeuvring their boats into place.

Thursday was a glorious day, and so once more we hit the sea after observing a school of dolphins moving along the coast. Unfortunately the wind had died and we rowed most of the way to Sandend, which is to the west of Portsoy. A zephyr of a wind picked up and we slowly sailed back, I even took the plunge and went for a swim.

Friday was another sunny day with Force 4 easterly wind. Peregrine decided to go for a quick sail around the bay. It was certainly an exhilarating sail even with one reef in with green water occasionally coming over the bow! The rest of the day was watching other boats come in. For the event there were over 60 boats involved, everything from a 60ft fishing vessel to a Mirror dinghy.

Saturday was the first day of the racing, however the forecast was to be up to force six north'easterly which would introduce a large swell. So for a 2 pm start 60 boats gathered at the start line, there were 4 classes and three starts. Both Swallow and Peregrine were in the same class (32 boats) and were on the second start. We had to sail a large triangular course twice. Peregrine had a reasonable start and was up with the leading boats, Swallow was entangled in the main pack and started a bit late. By the windward mark Peregrine had made up a few places and was challenging the leading boats, Swallow had also stormed to the front of the chasing pack and were looking good for a high place.

Positions did not change much on the second lap but Peregrine managed a couple of more places, we were the third boat across the line in our class, but we would have to wait on handicap to see where we finished. However, as Peregrine was about to cross the line, the committee boat that made the line decided to move causing us to go behind the committee boat causing two interesting events. Firstly we didn't get a time and therefore had to protest the committee boat to give us our time. Secondly a fifty foot gig doing about 12 knots came around the other side of the committee boat and just missed us. Final placings were, Peregrine sixth, Swallow ninth. The second race was called off as the swell had caused a few capsizes and a few boats getting into difficulty. That evening it was a Ceilidh with neeps and tatties for food until the small hours.

Sunday was a quieter day in terms of the weather. The race for that day was more a seamanship exercise. There were 12 buoys (very small!!!) dotted around the bay, on each buoy was a wooden fish with two letters, two were painted red (red herrings!!). The object was to use the bearings and distances given to locate these fish and use the letters to build an anagram. You were given a time, based on handicap, to achieve this in. You could start at any time after 2 pm but must be finished by 5 pm. It was quite entertaining listening to the commentator count down the start and the gun going and no one was on the water, by 3 pm most boats were hunting the herring. It was certainly a difficult race, when two or three approached the same buoy and one gets it tangled around their centreboard certainly caused some confusion, fortunately manual propulsion was allowed. A lot of the fleet went chasing after lobster pots just to add to the confusion! But all in all it was a fun race. Positions of Peregrine or Swallow are not known other than we weren't in the top three.

However Swallow won a trophy for best pennant of the fleet. They certainly had spent time in doing a yellow flag with a Swallow on it, this was then duplicated by the hats they wore. Their sweatshirts and T-shirts were also emblazoned with Swallow well done 'Team' Swallow.

And so an entertaining weekend was complete. The following day we towed our boats across to Glencoe to spend a week sailing there. Unfortunately the weather was not good and Swallow returned home early, while Peregrine got one day of glorious weather to sail up and through the Corran Narrows before heading home.