Royal Northumberland Yacht Club, Blyth

This morning at Lindisfarne we woke to a

Moderate northerly wind so without hesitation we pulled up the anchor and were swept out to sea. Unfortunately the wind then fizzled out so we motored

most of the way, inside the Farne Islands and continuing along the coast. There was some excitement when we heard on the VHF that Susan J, a few miles behind us, was disabled as they had caught a line round her propellor. They had to be rescued by the lifeboat; luckily the lifeboat crew managed to free the propellor and Susan J, Dave and Julie continued on their way.

We ended up on the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club marina in Blyth, arriving at the same time as 'Onward of Ito'. Blyth used to be a busy port exporting coal. The coal is now gone but there is still quite a lot of commercial traffic with the yacht harbour tucked into a corner. Its a good place to stay for a day or two with a warm welcome from the club members. We had supper in the yacht club with Onwards crew.

The club headquarters are in a venerable wooden lightship dating from 1879, apparantly the oldest timber lightship in the world. Maintaining her is clearly quite a burden for the Club but still she looks very well looked after.

The Gaffers are having a rally here over the weekend so we will stay here and have a couple of days generally catching up with things.

Here is the RNYC clubship dressed with flags to welcome the Round Britain gaffers.