Off to Anstruther

It was a pretty nice day, and it's my birthday tomorrow, so we decided to take a longer trip out to Anstruther.

It was beautiful when we set off and CyclopsJnr was delighted to take the wheel for a bit.  It was a pretty smooth journey, and some of the time we moved inside and MrsCyclops and CyclopsJnr played card games to keep themselves amused.  We made a pretty steady 17kts (20mph).  At one point the Starboard engine seemed to be running a bit hot, but dropping the revs for 5 minutes cooled it down very quickly and it was fine after that.  The cooling water filter bowl was clean, but I wonder if a bit of plastic, or seaweed, or even jellyfish had got stuck over the intake and temporarily limited flow.

It was breezy and busy at Anstruther so we berthed against the wall rather than messing around with in the pontoons, and popped across to the famous Anstruther fish bar for a delicious dinner.

When we came out it had started to get a bit hazy but visibility was still fine for safety.  Part of the journey was a bit bumpy, which with everyone full of dinner (and sweeties for dessert) led to a bit of discomfort for some.

By the time we were back in the inner forth the visibility had closed in a lot.  We could see a few hundred meters but it was definitely compass and GPS for navigation rather than working by landmark.  We had cut right across from Elie to Kinghorn with no real visual references so it was great to see the NC7 marker bouy appear exactly as expected and confirm we were where we thought we were.  We saw Inchcolm and Oxcars as we passed, and then Hound Point terminal, but no sight of land either side until we got to the Forth Bridge, the lower parts of which emerged from the fog just when I was wondering if we'd see it at all!  

We don't have radar or an AIS receiver on the boat, but I did use internet based AIS to keep half an eye on any traffic, so I wasn't surprised when a big cargo boat emerged out of the fog as we came under the bridge - visibility was fine for avoiding it but better forewarned!

The dolphin came to see us when we got back to Port Edgar, which was a welcome sight to cheer some smaller and tireder members of the crew!

Extras:
 - Games in the cabin
 - Tied up in Anstruther
 - Foggy Bridge