Peterhead

Tiring of the attractions of Inverness, Tim and I were encouraged by a slightly better forecast of westerly winds force 4-6, and so we extracted ourselves from the marina at about midday. The wind proved to be towards the top end of the predicted range, with a bit more added at times. Bonita for much of the trip was running under just mizzen and staysail, and doing more than 7 knots at times. There was a boisterous following sea with a fair amount of spray and water on deck

We covered the 90 miles to Peterhead in about 16 hrs and got in about 5am.

Peterhead is a pleasant quiet town
dominated by the fishing port in the old harbour. There is a large more recent breakwater enclosing a larger area of water. It turns out construction on this was begun in 1888, though not finished for 70 years. Unusually much of the work on building the breakwater was done by convict labour, and a prison was built for the purpose above the harbour. This is no longer used, but has been turned into a museum. I don't remember looking round a prison museum before. Tim bought a souvenir mug.

There seem to have been only the toughest type of prisoner sent to Peterhead, and no doubt many of the guards were pretty robust as well. We heard the story of the triple axe murderer who spent 22 years in the prison, much of it in solitary confinement, who since his release has it seems been a reformed law-abiding character. 

 The harbour the prisoners helped to build is still providing a valuable service today.

  There don't seem to be many dainty fish restaurants in Peterhead, but we had a fish and chip supper in a cafe with Tony and Sally from the lovely Gaffer  Step Back in Time.