July 4, 2000, Southold, NY, 40° 48’N, 73° 58’W. (This is the latitude and longitude of our dock, just off Peconic Bay at the eastern end of Long Island!)

Jim Ray, our driver came for us at 5:30AM to meet Virgin Atlantic VS026 departing JFK at 9:32AM.  The drive in the early holiday dawn was fast and easy.  We were glad to be leaving early, as the crowds expected for OP-Sail 2000 would soon clog the roads.  Reports anticipated 4 million people crowding into Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey to watch the tall ships parade.  It was hazy but it was expected to burn off as the festivities approached.  We'd had a small sampling of the tall ships in Greenport harbor the past week with the 3-masted 358 ft Russian tall ship, MIR, at anchor and the 155 ft. Polish ship, Pogoria tied up alongside the railroad dock.  The photograph is from our local newspaper, the Suffolk Times. The paper reported 20,000 visitors to Greenport over the weekend.  Not bad for a village of no more than 2000 permanent residents.  Little Greenport actually had a bigger tall ship than any which converged on New York.  The MIR was at least 50 ft. longer than any sail vessel in NY and went on to Boston's 4th of July celebration.

Our departure and Atlantic crossing was uneventful if you don't count a slight mix up at the ticket counter.  We'd sprung for the miles to upgrade to business class, but Virgin had us in their computer twice: once in coach and a second entry in the proper class.  Naturally the check-in clerk picked the wrong one.  It took two supervisors to good naturedly "sort it out" (as the English are fond of saying).    We were told to expect the same hassle on the return.  Forewarned is forearmed. 

We cruised at 37,000 ft. at speeds between 550 and 650 mph, arriving London Heathrow at 2115 local time.  (Just about the time the colonials back in New York Harbor were celebrating our victory over the British.)

Arrival at Heathrow, in the rain, was smooth except for some minor confusion about where to find and pay for the bus to our hotel.  We eventually sorted it out (you pay on the bus) and got to the Marriott.  Checked out the mini-bar, watched a little CNN and got a reasonably good night's sleep.

July 5, 2000, London N51° 29’, W000° 04’ (Nearly on the Greenwich meridian.)

The morning was a bit of an adventure, as power in the hotel failed just as Rosemarie stepped into the shower.  Room service delivered breakfast on time in the dark and we used our flashlights to sort out the muffins and scrambled eggs.  We couldn't check out of the hotel because their computer was down, but they promised to mail us a bill.

To get back to Heathrow, we elected to use a taxi rather than the circuitous bus.  British Midlands 054 left a half-hour late in the rain and made the 55-minute run to Edinburgh.  Lindblad's meet and greet guy, clad in kilts, escorted us to the hotel.  There was a traffic problem caused by a bomb scare associated by the Queen’s presence in town to open the National Trust and to knight Sean Connery.  The kilt guy needed to negotiate us past several police checkpoints and traffic stops to reach the back entrance to our hotel.  The police closed the whole of Charlotte Square upon which the Roxburghe Hotel faces.

We walked about Edinburgh's "New Town" (about 2-centuries old) for a couple of hours, did some minor shopping and got some Sterling at a cash machine.  Took dinner at the Victoria and Albert, a combination pub and restaurant.  On Sky News in the evening, the ceremony by which Sean Connery became Sir Sean (the flat of a sword on each shoulder by the Queen) was televised.

July 6, 2000, Edinburgh N55° 56’, W003° 12’

Slept in 'till 9AM and just made it for the dregs of the hotel's breakfast buffet.  Met another couple, from San Francisco, who will be joining the Caledonian Star.  We walked up a steep hill to the Edinburgh Castle.  Workers are constructing temporary stands on both sides of the entrance plaza to handle spectators for a military "tattoo" scheduled for August.  The tattoo is a sort of display parade that attracts large crowds for two weeks or so.  Construction of the stands and their removal, however, requires some 3-4 months.

We heard the "One O'clock Gun” signal the hour to the ships below on the Firth of Forth.  Examined the Mons Meg, an overweight fifteenth century cannon whose barrel burst during a birthday salute two hundred years ago. 

Toured the Honors of Scotland (the crown, scepter and sword that comprise the crown jewels).  They are also known as the Scottish Regalia and were "lost" during the 18th century, only to be re-discovered by Sir Walter Scott in 1818.  The military museum has a nice collection of flintlock pistols, armour and medieval weapons.

We lunched at Brodie's Close, the former cabinetmaker's shop of William Brodie.  Brodie was a Deacon and a member of the Town Council, whose secret life as a burglar caused him to be publicly hanged at High Street in 1788. His story is believed to have served as the inspiration for Robert Lewis Stevenson's tale of Dr. Jeckell and Mr. Hyde.  At the end of the Royal Mile is the Palace of Holyrood House, which was off limits today because Elizabeth was in residence.

We climbed the Outlook Tower to see the images of the city formed by the Camera Obscura built in 1853.  Crossed the North Bridge back to Princes street in New Town and stopped at an internet cafe for some ice cream and an opportunity to read and dispose of the 27 messages that had accumulated in our in-box.  Checked the market.  Our stuff is mainly down.  Princes Street is the main shopping street in New Town and is very crowded.  Charlotte Square is at one end.  A parallel street, Rose Street, is home to a number of pubs and restaurants.

Dinner was on Rose Street at the Bad Ass Cafe and Bistro.  (Sign at the entrance: "park your bad ass here and wait to be seated.")  Nice couples on either side of our table.  To the right Australians from Adelaide here on business; to the left, a couple from the Faroe Islands who'd taken the ferry in to Edinburgh for shopping.  Took some photos of Edinburgh Castle in the low angle lighting afforded by the setting sun.  Wished we'd had the camera a half hour earlier when Old Town was also bathed in the sun's glow.

 July 7, 2000, Edinburgh

There were far more Expeditioners at the hotel than we'd supposed.  In addition to the three we'd met, 20 - 25 assembled in the lounge, luggage tagged, name badges on, to catch the transfer bus to the ship at Leith.  The Cal Star is adjacent to the former royal yacht, Britannia, now permanently berthed as a tourist attraction.  Met Naturalists Steve MacLean, Olle Carlsson and Tom Ritchie (expedition leader) whom we remember from last year's Antarctic expedition and were warmly greeted.  We're in cabin 116.

The passengers who were flying in today on Virgin Atlantic out of Newark were delayed and missed their connection to Edinburgh.  They're being re-routed and the ship will wait for them.  This means a 7:30 PM departure rather than 5 PM.  Meanwhile, we have a 2-hour bus tour of Edinburgh that took us back to places we'd been on foot and to several new sections, the Admiral Nelson monument, the Holyrood Palace (The Queen has, by now, gone.) and along the royal mile where our guide pointed out a number of features we'd missed.

When the late and tired passengers arrived, the ship maneuvered out from the wharf using spring line and bow thruster to move sideways avoiding both the Britannia and a dive vessel moored astern. During dinner, the Cal Star passed through the lock that isolates the harbor from the extremes of the tides and into the Firth of Forth, bound for Bass Rock where the Northern Gannets breed.  Unfortunately, a problem with one of the engines slowed us down (broken exhaust valve spring) so that we didn't fetch Bass Rock until 10:30 PM when the light did not allow for photography.

Return to the Start                                       Next Page