One of our key objectives for this week on board was to spend rather less time in marinas and rather less money in pubs and bars!
That's not to say that we have an issue with marinas and bars, just that our future plans don't envisage being able to afford the indulgence more than once or twice a week
The first night doesn't, we decided, count so we ate out at the Ferry Boat. When all's said and done, we had been working until six that morning, then we'd driven down to Essex and we'd only had a few hours sleep.
We got into our stride on Thursday though with a night at anchor in the Yokesfleet. We had planned to get out of the Crouch on the first day but another aspect of our developing cruising philosophy is to stop when you've had enough and I'd had enough!
We could have taken an uncomfortable outside berth on Halfpenny Pier where we'd hoped to get on the inside. However, for the sake of seven quid we enjoyed the conforts of a sheltered berth in Shotley with the added benefit of shore power to replenish the rather depleted batteries.
That was a lesson learnt. Yes, the laptop can be recharged and / or run on our small 150w inverter but it doesn't half clobber the batteries. I should have charged the laptop up while the engine was running rather than overnight.
We did eat on board before indulging ourselves with a couple of drinks in the Shipwreck.
It was an almost identical scenario the following day. We could, as originally planned, have picked up a buoy in the vicinity of Pin Mill. We could even have anchored clear of the moorings. In either case we would have been a fair distance from the hard.
Having only the petrol in the outboard tank, and with a degree of reluctance being expressed with regard to a long haul ashore in the dinghy, we decided to permit ourselves the indulgence of a night in Wolverstone Marina
The walk through the woods to Pin Mill is extremely pleasant. The drag up the hill into Cholmondiston for essential supplies was rather less so. On the way back we ate out in the Butt and Oyster
The foggy start to the following day and the passage of a couple of coasters, foghorns blaring, upriver made me quite glad to be tucked up in the marina.
We made our way slowly downriver and across the bay into the Walton Backwaters to anchor, for the first time this trip, where we had set out to be!
The anchorage at Stone Point looked pretty busy as we sailed past however I'd intended all along to anchor in the Hamford Water. This anchorage has only one drawback - it's very exposed to the East Nor'East.
We anchored in a near flat calm with an overnight forecast of F2/3 from the North or North West. Of course, it goes without saying that the breeze got up to F4 plus from, you guessed it, the East Nor'East!
This was a bit of a test of our resolve and we resolved to sit it out unless conditions became untenable in which case we'd bolt for Shotley. It being almost dark already there was no way I'd attempt to shoot the narrows at Stone Point in the dark.
As it turned out, it never got that bad and by morning a flat calm and a sunny day made us think of possibly leaving Erbas at anchor and exploring the Backwaters by dinghy. The lack of petrol put the mockers on that idea
In hindsight I'm rather glad of that because the plan B turned out so well. Not many people pluck up the courage to make their way up the drying Foundry Reach into the pond at Walton. I'm very glad we did because our day at Walton on the Naze was probably the highlight of the trip
We lunched ashore, ate on board and went out for drinks. It's a hard life!
The downside of the visit to Walton wad that we'd have to fight a foul tide virtually all the way back into the Crouch the following day. Although we had the option of splitting the trip by overnighting in the Blackwater we preferred to get back to our home river that day if possible
I was pinning my hopes on the spinnaker. The portents were lining up to suggest we'd be running before a moderate breeze down the Wallet where we'd also encounter the worst of the foul tide
The kite did indeed do the business for us. In fact, once we'd got the damn thing up (an exercise that took far too long but that will get better with practice) we sailed from somewhere off Frinton all the way to the Inner Crouch buoy with the spinnaker set and drawing.
We even pulled off a sort of extended ferry glide across the Spitway keeping the kite aloft the whole way. It was a little annoying to find that a mistake with handling the sheets had led to a bent mast eye and slightly damaged pole end but it's easily put right and I'll know better next time
It was a very tired but well satisfied crew who dropped the hook in the Brankfleet that night. Our final day saw us back to Fambridge where we indulged ourselves with a pub lunch and had our second fresh (add opposed to tinned) meal aboard followed once more by drinks in the pub
It was without doubt a great week. Possibly even the best week Jane and I have had aboard to date.
Discounting the first and last night's, we anchored out three nights and went into marinas twice plus the night in Walton Yacht Basin (which is sort of marina like but much nicer!)
We ate out just the once and had lunch ashore once although we went ashore for drinks on two further occasions.
We could, if we'd needed to, have avoided marinas altogether and indeed we needn't have gone out for drinks as often
Above all, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves
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