Blogs

Sailing up the east coast of the UK seems to be bleak involving long journeys before finding a marina to break the journey, but all Tim’s planning has now fallen into place and we have stayed in some fascinating docks, marinas and fishing ports.

Since my last blog we have practically motored right up the east coast and the next HPO was on the east coast of Scotland and we spent 1½ days in Arbroath, a very pretty dock marina surrounded by the typical grey stone houses, fishing sheds and being a Sunday, people strolling around, some sitting down eating huge ice creams and others attempting to eat fish and chips with flocks of seagulls waiting expectantly for the chance to grab a chip and the pungent smoke from the Arbroath Smokies drifting across the marina all day.

When I heard that the Little Ship Club Temperance League, of which I am a committed member, was going to foreign parts to engage in missionary work I, of course, jumped at the chance to lend a hand.

So it was that I motored away from Burnham on Crouch in Silver Pearl on a clear Thursday evening together with crew Mark “H2O” Hynds and Hugh “more water” Daley in calm, windless conditions despite the forecast of gales that was given 48 hours previously. Calais was the destination (this being the 86th Calais rally) where our teetotal ministrations were so sorely needed and as we crossed the Thames estuary with nary a problem, my reflections on the good work that we were going to perform kept me warm long into the cold night.

Our departure from Grimsby and the River Humber was another with doubt about the weather, this time warm moist air rolling in from the south west which could only mean the threat of fog. The forecast was one of calm winds with the chance of fog patches and a more sinister warning of fog banks. Clearly in addition to the horrors inflicted upon us by our nation’s banks they were now ready to release fog upon us, perhaps with virtual fog bank cash machines lurking out there somewhere. Is your correspondent starting to hallucinate? Yes that was actually a pot buoy over there.

With Ipswich behind us and another stop overnight at Suffolk Yacht Harbour to pick up Mike’s camera left behind in the Lightship, we headed off down the Orwell clad in our best all weather gear to make passage to Lowestoft.

The weather being churlish as it is, and it being the 11th May, we reached the Stour entrance only to hear a gale warning specially prepared for us by the Coastguard. Oh what a good thing we had the radio on, one was tempted to think.

So in to Shotley for the night by which time Mike has had enough of estuary cruising and leaves by train from Harwich (with his camera) to be home in time for his birthday celebrations on the following day.