Goodbye Scotland, Hello again England

Eyemouth was one of those places where visiting boats have to raft up against each other. Some of the smaller boats were 4 deep, but being on the larger side, we were only the middle of three. The first night we were there, the outer vessel appeared around 22:00, just as the light was beginning to fade. Obviously keen for a good night’s sleep, even before rafting up they were urgently asking when we were leaving in the morning. Wanting to do a switch now, rather than be woken up early the next day. Having had a day off yesterday, we had new neighbours now, who knew we were off early. At 08:00 we were ready to go but even starting the engines didn’t rise the sleeping down below. Eventually Joe had to knock politely on their window, with the skipper grogily appearing, munching his banana before manoeuvring away, then back into the gap we’d left behind, all while appearing half asleep, all single handed.

We needn’t have bothered getting up early. We tried and tried to get going, but the wind was just tantalisingly not enough. Twice we tried on our 15m kites, only getting about 1 mile further along the coast in each 1hour attempt. In this stop/start way, almost swimming more than kiting, we said goodbye to Scotland, and returned to England, our last country of the trip.

Just as we’d finally decided to call it a day, off on the horizon we finally saw the westerly winds come in. Throughout the day we’d regularly seen 180 degree wind shifts, with sometimes Stew going on a completely different course from me, despite being less than 100meters apart. It was already 18:30, so we were running out of light, but we knew this was the only wind we’d see for a few days, so needed to make the most of it. It did come in, and strong. After all the struggling in the morning, it was good to finally make progress.

We’re now safely anchored by Holy Island, excited to do some exploring tomorrow.

Kingdom of Scotland – How was the Boarder defined?

The Kingdom of Scotland came about in 843 AD with the merger of the Gaelic and Pictish Kingdoms to combat the threat of a Viking invasion. Its territories expanded and shrank, and the boarder, as we know it today only came about after the wars of Scotish Independence.

King Alexander III of Scotland died in 1286, leaving his three-year-old granddaughter Margaret, Maid of Norway, as his heir. When she died four years later, England, under Edward I, took advantage of the questioned succession to launch a series of conquests, and Scotland passed back and forth between the House of Balliol and the House of Bruce (the two main rivals for succession).

After the First War of Independence in 1328, the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton was signed which recognised the boarder as it was under Alexander III’s reign. After this there was further fighting, but Scotland’s ultimate victory confirmed Scotland as a fully independent and sovereign kingdom, and left the boarder defined as we know it today

United Kingdom in her many forms

In 1603, James VI of Scotland became King of England and Ireland, thus forming a personal union of the three kingdoms. On May 1 1707, under the Act of Union, Scotland entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1801, this expanded to include the Kingdom of Ireland forming United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Then in 1922, the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being officially renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1927.

Map of today’s route

Map Key: Stew (Red), Islay (White) and Mentor (Blue)

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