03 September 2009, Peterhead, Scotland.

This town is located just north of Aberdeen and is mainly in use by fishermen and the supply boats for the North Sea oil rigs. It has a rather large harbour for its size with two big breakwaters that provide good shelter for ships in bad weather. We were scheduled here for a full day stay. Nice tours can be made to the interior of Scotland. The town is cute except today. The inclement weather that started to come over Stornoway in the late morning and the afternoon had spread all over the North of Scotland during the night. More bad weather was on the way from the North Atlantic but it was not certain when that would arrive. By the time I went to bed, it was still looking good for a dry morning in Peterhead with rain expected in the afternoon. However the system moved along nicely and the rain started around 4 am in the morning while at the same time Aberdeen Radio issued its first gale warning. However for the time being the wind was from the NE, making a docking possible and if the wind would later change, the only thing that could happen would be that the Prinsendam would be pinned against the dock.

Our dock was the North breakwater and we were to dock on the inside, portside alongside. While approaching the pilot, the wind freshened up and the waves started to increase caused by the North Easterly wind that had been blowing for a little while already. I was glad that I had ordered a tugboat; I really needed it to keep the stern, read the funnel, into the wind while coming alongside. From an easy gig it became a challenging maneuver. By the time we were docked I wondered if it was it all worthwhile to do so. It was very bad weather. Heavy rain and strong winds and it continued all day. However the tours ran and everybody could see what Scotland looked like in the winter time. By the time the busses came back the roads had started to flood and one bus had to make a 30 minute detour to get back to the dock. As a captain you then think during the day, was there somewhere else I could have gone to??? Somewhere where the weather would have been better???. Then you re-check the weather sites and you find out that it is bad everywhere.

By now Aberdeen radio was announcing with regular intervals that there was a gale warning for Forth and Tyne area’s coming, the area’s where we were going to travel and that the wind could top a force 10. Not something to make me happy. So again carefully scrutinizing the weather forecasts, looking outside to see if it locally already was in agreement with the forecast and then worry about departure. As Murphy’s Law would have it, in the 30 minutes that we had to wait extra for the delayed bus, the wind start to blow even harder but it remained from the same direction, astern and thus we could maneuver sideways without impediment. So the wind pushed us out of the harbour and into the aggressive North Sea. Good bye Peterhead it had been another inclement day.

The only good thing about this wind force 9 to 10 winds was that they would be blowing from the West, from the landside and thus the impact on the ship would not be so forceful. However it had me worrying about Leith as westerly winds are blowing 90o over the Locks for the Leith dock. However when I called the pilot office, their observations, based on the forecast, were that it all would be possible as long as I had a tugboat. Well I had ordered two of them already, so no problems there. Thus it looks like it that we will make Leith tomorrow. It will be windy but doable. As long as the wind follows the weather forecast. Now where did I hear that before……………..