Saturday 23 May 1998
Well, at least the weather was marginally warmer. Although, saying that, is sure to make it turn freezing immediately.
There was a Boat Festival at Newhaven, now part of Edinburgh, but once a separate fishing harbour of some renown. It lies west along the curve of the south bank of the Firth of Forth, giving the visitor some of the best views across the Firth to Fife. It remembers its heritage with a small, but well set-out and interesting fishing museum. As I once worked in a fish-factory, it struck quite a chord with me!
The harbour itself is tiny, enclosed by grey stone piers, and unfortunately, these days very few boats lie in it, mainly small inshore fishing-boats and pleasure craft. Except today. It was not exactly crowded, but it was certainly fuller and more alive than usual. The pride of place and size was a beautiful yawl called Reaper, with two brown sails reminiscent of Thames Barges (which doesn't help if you've never seen a Thames Barge). The other smaller fishing boats lying in the harbour were strung with flags, looking festive, but probably showing messages if you could read them.
It was one of those ideal summer Saturdays. The little harbour was full of people, as it had not been since its heyday, when the fish was pouring in night and day. But the people today were dressed in bright colours, not the faded, drab working clothes of fishermen and fishwives of previous generations. The two piers were packed with people, and they massed along the harbour-side, mainly families with children.
Beyond, was the incomparable view of the Firth of Forth, the dark green and light green wooded hills of Fife, across the blue water, lying sedately in a gentle sun, with the mistier grey of the Lomond hills and the Ochils on the horizon. Further upriver, the red Meccano shape of the Forth Rail Bridge and the slender spires of the Road Bridge seemed to rise from the horizon.
The Festival started at midday and went on until five in the evening. Apart from a Craft Fair, in one of the old fish-sheds, there were races outside the harbour, on the waters of the Firth, and at one point the RNLI threw one of their crewmen overboard so that they could demonstrate how to rescue him. Although most people who fall into the water and need rescuing are not nicely cocooned in an inflatable rubber suit! Over it all, were the usual enticing smells of fish and chips, shellfish and other kinds cooked food from the mobile stalls. You always end up buying food you don't really want, at these events!
Monday 24 to Sunday 31 May 1998
I was right about the weather! It turned cold on the Sunday, and then added storm force winds coming from the north-east, and freezing rain. The rest of the week was depressingly the same. This is, after all, the end of May! Even in Edinburgh, you don't expect morning after morning, of waking up to the sound of a gale battering the windows, and hurling rain at them, and of opening the curtains on to a rain-soaked stretch of bleak sand at low-tide, or immense, grey seas being driven up on to the promenade at high-tide! Global Warming? It seems more like the Viking Fimbulvetur to me.
