Friday 10 June 2011 – Arbroath

Under the bowsprit of Kommandoren

Woke to the smell of wood smoke. Is someone having a bonfire? No, it’s the many smokie houses smoking the first batches of haddock.

No sign of any wind and we don’t want to motor all the way, so decided to look at the town, in particular the museum which is based in the old lighthouse families accommodation which still has the signal tower to signal to the lighthouse.  The lighthouse in question is the Bell Rock lighthouse, which is on the Inchcape Rock and inspired the poem of that name by Robert Southey.

Museum. Was lighthouse family accommodation and signal tower.

On the way we chatted to the people in a fine old converted Baltic Trader called Kommandoren, 27m overall inc bowsprit with 2 masts and 120 years old but in very good order.  They keep the boat in the Caledonian Canal and gave us lots of tips about the canal and places to stop. They run a company which supplies survey ships and deals in second-hand submersibles.

By the time we had finished with the museum the harbour gate had long since closed and there was still no wind, so we ate our smokies for lunch.

We later discovered that Arbroath has a large ruined abbey, famous for the Declaration of Arbroath (Scottish declaration of independence) which seems to have been critical to the creation of the Scottish nation. By the time we found it the abbey was closed.

Hopefully tomorrow we move on, possibly to Stonehaven.