Newcastle Rest Day

Yesterday evening there was a reception, ably organised by Jim Bell, and with some excellent singing by the choir - Voice Male. We attended in our custom made and much admired Beckett Rankine rugby shirts. A jolly evening, and it was quite late this morning before there was much sign of life on the gaffers' pontoon. The boats are looking very festive with many flags fluttering in the sunshine attracting a lot of attention from the discerning folk of Newcastle. It is also quite warm, probably the warmest day of the year so far and convincing evidence that summer is here at last.

We spent the morning looking around and visited the Castle - this dates from the 1160s. This is not actually the New Castle: that was the previous one built in 1080. This one got knocked about a bit in the Civil War in 1644 when it was besieged by the Scots, but has since been restored and is worth a visit.

We also saw this impressive figure on a stone column. Usually grand statues like this are built to commemorate someone who has supervised the killing of a lot of foreigners, but this was erected in honour of Earl Grey. He seems to have been a peaceful politician who guided the 1832 reform act through parliament.

We also visited the Baltic Centre for contemporary art - certainly an experience - and watched the Millenium 'winking eye' bridge open. It seems to open at pre-ordained times whether or not there are any ships wanting to pass underneath.

Tonight another evening of traditional entertainment is being arranged to help make this a memorable visit.

Newcastle

Coals to Newcastle

We locked out of the Royal Quays marina and motored up the Tyne in bright sunshine and with a fair tide. This is an interesting journey. There is hardly any of the old heavy industry that made the Tyne famous - I think we saw only one ship repair yard in an area that used to be a centre of shipbuilding. We saw coal being unloaded from a freighter having been presumably imported from abroad.  There are quite a few decaying quays and derelict factories. But there is also a lot of regeneration and new industry. 

Svitzer's tug berth

Notable among these are the fine new floating jetty for Svitzer's escort tugs which has been designed by our sponsors Beckett Rankine to replace an old fire damaged wooden wharf. It was in active use as we passed by.

A Gaggle(?) of Gaffers

After the voyage up the lower Tyne, the city of Newcastle comes as a great contrast. There is the bustle of a busy city centre and the river is crossed by a series of dramatic high level bridges. The Gaffers passed under the 'winking' Millenium Bridge which rotates around a horizontal axis.

There are about 20 gaffers here rafted up in the city centre, dressed overall with many flags. The boats look good, although we wonder what the citizens of Newcastle make of us as they go out on a warm Friday evening. Like us many of them are also dressed up to draw attention to what they consider to be their finer points.

This is our first large gathering of gaffers since Plymouth, since we took a shortcut up the Irish East coast. A busy program of activities has been laid on for us including folk singing this evening. Click here for details.

The Tyne

Geoff Jones & Guy Slowik

Today was sunny with a brisk South Westerly wind, so Bonita and her crew had a bouncy sail from Blyth to the entrance of the River Tyne. 
We locked into the excellent and welcoming Royal Quays Marina on the lower Tyne ready to join a massed gathering of gaffers in Newcastle tomorrow. 

Bonita tied up against a huge polar exploration yacht, all her gear is massive and appears indestructible. She seems to have been here for a while - perhaps awaiting new challenges.

Picture shows crew taking sensible precautions to protect against foreseeable local hazards. Click to read the sign.

Other gaffers here include Romila, built in Brixham in 1897 as a stone carrier and painstakingly restored over several years.

Blyth

We looked around Amble which is a pretty town with an excellent breakfast available in Jaspers just off the High Street. Amble is the first place on this trip where we have had to pay marina fees on Bonita's bowsprit and bumpkin. Everywhere else these protuberances have been ignored or covered with a vague gaffer's discount in return for adding what we consider to be a bit of class to the place.

Unwilling to pay for the sticks a second night we left Amble with the tide but there was little wind so, despite a couple of attempts to sail, we motored most of the way down the coast to Blyth. This is a large harbour and was an old coal exporting port that seems to be finding a new role in developing wind farms.

Guy, Geoff and RNYC HQ

The marina is run by the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club which has an excellent headquarters ship converted from an old wooden light ship built in 1879. Everything in her construction is massive, and she was once stationed on the Seven Stones rocks off Land's End which must have been fairly testing. The club bought the ship in 1952 when she as decommissioned and they have clearly cared for her very well. Wooden light vessels made excellent club ships but eventually the problems of rot in the massive timbers was usually too much for a relatively small organisation to deal with. The picture shows Bonita's all-weather crew about to enter the clubship to sample the quality of the RNYC catering.

Also at Blyth are Minstrel (whom we know well) and Silver Bear - who we had not previously seen on this trip.

Amble

Grace Darling (1815-1842)

When we woke in the harbour at Lindisfarne it seemed a nice day for a sail so we heaved up the anchor and off we went. We sailed through the channel between the mainland and the Farne Islands. These are a dramatic group of islands close off shore that are now a bird sanctuary.

This is where Grace Darling, the Victorian heroine and inspiration for the formation of the RNLI, lived with her father. He was a lighthouse keeper and on 7 September 1838 they took a rowing boat and rescued passengers from the SS Forfarshire that had been wrecked on one of the outlying islands. It was a joint effort with her father, but because the 23 year old Grace was young and glamorous she naturally got all the attention from the press. However after her sheltered upbringing in the lighthouse the pressure of fame and her unwanted status as a media celebrity were too much for her. Despite the attempts of her family to shelter her from the constant attention it adversely affected her health and she died tragically at the age of 26, the cause of death was recorded as TB.

We had been hoping for a SW wind but it turned Southerly so we had a rather tedious beat to windward complete with rain showers etc. But with Guy at the tiller we made steady progress even against a foul tide. 

Amble in Northumberland is a tidal harbour and it is too shallow to safely enter at low tide. Naturally with the wind against us we arrived almost exactly at low water, and had to anchor off the harbour entrance for an hour or so to wait and drink tea.  As we have several  reference books we got differing advice as to when it would be safe to enter, but eventually motored through the entrance channel with about half a metre under the keel.

We had had a long and damp day on the boat and when we went ashore we didn't get much further into this little town than the first pub serving food. None of us has been to Amble before so no doubt there will be plenty to see tomorrow.