Portobello Beach Edinburgh Day 330

Is it a Cruise Liner? Is it a Tall Ship? Well actually it is both. My blip shows Wind Surf being tugged off her berth at Ocean Terminal, Leith at 1600 today. She was bound for Kristiansand in northern southern Norway and once clear of the Forth would unfurl her computer controlled sails and fly with the wind like a Tea Clipper of old. It was the first time I had seen such a hybrid ship although I had read about them. I think it may have been her first visit to Leith. She accommodates just 300 passengers and is one of the last remaining cruise ships in the world to permit its passengers unfettered access to the bridge, except when entering and leaving ports. I would love to be at sea on a boat like this, deck arched against the wind, with the true spirit of our island race pulsing through the collective conscience of our maritime antecedence.

I had planned to blip Wind Surf under sail from Porty Beach but the return of the haar, already visible in this blip, enforced a change of plan.