Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Lowestoft to Wells-next-the-Sea
Left Lowestoft at first light about 04:30. Got to the Wells Bar and grounded. Made Tea and shortly after tide came in and I followed it, being shallow drafted managed to get in before the windfarm engineering traffic. Bit of a bustle very narrow and shallow channel used by alot of windfarm engineering vessels use it and are clearly very buddy with the port. Pleasure craft are regarded as a nuisance and I clearly heard the port master refer to getting me out of the way which was not difficult regarding my 18" draft. Quite what the hurry was I dont know but he seemed to be a very important man.
Saturday, 13 July 2013
Orford to Lowestoft
Really pleasant easy motor sail.
Berthed in RNSYC Marina very pleasant and posh club over 150 years old.
Apart from the local youth chucking crab apples over the fence in my general direction. Moved to a posher berth.
Walton on the Naze to Orford
F4-5 wind over tide and not makimg much progress.
Got to the River Ore at LW thinking I would follow the tide in, WRONG!!! a very strong current flows downstream so had to flog the motor for a couple of hours tuntil finally the current relented nothing to anchor with as the bottom is loose shingle for about 2 miles.
Mon 7 Jul 2013
Slept well at anchor but woke to find that the boat had dragged anchor to the other side of the river. Started motor which cut out when attempting to lower revs to engage gear. Could not restart. Flaghged down passing Motor Boat "Magister" with John Bartholomew for advice. Tow was offered to Orford, which was accepted.
Boiled down events... My attempted to fix engine by with redex failed. Art of Deben Marine acted as fixer Great bloke Art.
Did tourist thing on Orfordness. Bleak even in midsummer.
Ramsgate to Walton on the Naze
Interesting route accross the Thames had more dog legs than the only tree in Canine City, oweine to the many sandbanks and one of the Channels (Foulgers Gat) being closed off due to some windfarm operations. Walton looked nice but did not stay. Engine not easily starting when warm.
Gap filling Eastbourne to Ramsgate
Gap due to charging izsues on smartphone. Heres a cut down version of where i have been since Eastbourne...
Leg to Ramsgate very pleasant beautiful land views of the Seven Sisters and the White Cliffs of Dover, whi h was planned landfall but with good progress decided to press on to Ramsgate.
Ramsgate Royal Harbour with its apparent Raw sewage scum and later as it transpired probably contaminated petrol sold from the fuel barge, £32 for a night which is 50% more than Eastbourne (the best marina). How do they do that? Well the man taking my hard-earned suggested I knew where Eastbourne was (very professional)
Beer or Strong Coffee
We'll find out in an hour its all down to the met office 0000 UTC bulletin for inshore waters for North Foreland to Selsey Bill. The forecasts have been marginal with the likelyhood of strong winds later on Tuesday.
Monday, 1 July 2013
Navigation challenge to Dover
Setting the following parameters to sail from Eastbourne to Dover proves challenging to do, despite the lack of geographic hazards it has the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
» Wind forecast < Force 6.
» Mean speed over ground 4.5 knots (10 hours).
» No fog in forecast.
» Arrive in Dover in daylight.
Other hazards include getting shot at (2 firing ranges)
Brighton to Eastbourne
Brilliant sail in front of the seven sisters white cliffs in strengthening wind getting up to 8knots boatspeed :-)
Trinity house vessel "Patricia" skippered by an incompetent ass decide to write their own version of colregs and force me to gybe in front of Beachy Head.
Eastbourne Sovereign Harbour Marina very swish posh and professional and much cheaper for visitors than Liverpool Marina!
I like it here too much.
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