The Boat Leaves in Two Minutes

There were no plans for the rest of the day other than to spend some time in Whitby. It was a very long time since Rob had been there so he was looking forward to seeing it again. The cafe was somewhere in the upper part of the town so to get to the harbour there was a maze of tiny streets and passageways to explore then, all of a sudden, you pop out at harbour level to merge with a sea of people walking in all directions. It was holiday weekend of course and the weather quite reasonable so the tourist areas of the town were very busy indeed. What happened next came as a bit of an unplanned surprise because as Rob and his friend were walking along the harbour they were attracted to a twenty minute boat ride for only £3 and this seemed quite a bargain. They paid their passage and stepped aboard and Rob immediately started talking like a pirate and walking with a limp, which of course is compulsory when boarding any sea faring vessel. It was strange though, not Rob limping and talking like a pirate, because he simply couldn’t find a main brace to splice but he wasn’t going to let a little thing like that spoil the adventure.

Twenty minutes later, and as advertised, the boat arrived back having left the harbour, sailed around a buoy and travelled back from hence it came. It was a pleasant enough trip in very calm seas and gave a great view back to the harbour and immediate coastline. Whitby Abbey really dominates the skyline and it was easy to see why it’s such an iconic feature of the area. Rob didn’t see a whale though, other than a few sitting on the boat who’d clearly consumed rather too many portions of Whitby fish ‘n chips.Read more