A decent (for late October, any mention of the S word is decent in my opinion) and improving forecast, and a rising tide had us (when I say us, thats me and my somewhat reluctant 14year old who would rather be x boxing on his last day of half term son than coming out on the Tay in squally rain and lumpy water)launching in the shelter of Broughty Ferry harbour, plenty of parking and a good wide slip, usable at all tides. Boat in the water, flask of soup(there can only be one choice for flask soup Heinz Tomato obviously) and away we go......
Now at this point in the tale, I should mention there are many and plentiful sand banks in the Tay estuary, all the way up to Perth in fact, with some uncovered at low tide, seals often found basking, but having sailed the Tay many times and with a functioning sonar and plotter no problem......
So sitting in the lee of the harbour wall a last check of everything...all good...... everything stowed and the all important flask secured...turn the plotter on, no map chip...
which makes the sonar inoperative double not quite so goodNo problem we know the route and course to steer(and we have a flask of soup
), storm Brian is just a bit of a whimper for us hardy (real)Northerners 
Away we go
past the Gorrila vi (jack up rig), past an Anchor handler, an ROV boat....no photos...past the emerging V and A ....no photos .....the sea was errr quite lumpy 
Under the two Tay bridges and the wind has shifted slightly to a NNW, blowing 3-4 gusting 6-7, no problem we'll head to the north bank and take the smoother route in the lee of Invergowrie and Kingoodie, at this point having a wee bit of experience an alarm bell should have rung
wind strengthening, not on the intended route/heading, sea getting really quite lumpy.......Amazing that a small 3.4 m rib can got from 18-20mph to zero in about 1.5 seconds....yep we had found High Bank.
With a little bit of shuffling and some gentle propulsion (and the planned run up river on an incoming tide)we made somewhat slow progress off and headed back to the Southern bank ....a look at the chart will show you how big High Bank is.....anchor down Soup unleashed, quick look at the skeg (small dent) prop(small crack and a few chips) and we live to tell the tale.
Uneventful run back to the Ferry as its known locally, when I say uneventful wind over tide and blowing 4-5 gusting ...well who knows? but it was 'kin lumpy, but good fun leaping the big uns...even managed a picture
Anyway lessons learned friends, always prepare to fail, don't believe the weather forecast, know what to do when the brown sticky stuff hits the whirley thing and always take tomato soup.
PS Does anyone have a prop for a 30HP Yam for sale
PPS Is the definition of Irony the fact that my lad was errrrr grounded from his X box and ended up Grounded????
albeit it cost a few quid 
