My apologies for the delay, I haven't been able to post to the blog due to a technical fault. Catching up now...
We had a less than conformable night on the pontoon at Wivenhoe. Erbas had settled into the mud with a list to port which was bad news for Glen especially as he is occupying the starboard saloon berth. He did have to transfer to the much more cramped port berth for a while
And then there was the creaky pontoons. It sounded like the full weight of the boat was hanging on the forward spring but when Glen beat me to it (by seconds) and went on deck to check it turned out to be the pontoon creaking against the joint.
Eventually everything settled down and shut up and wet got back off to sleep. Of course, then the alarm went off!
We had to be away as soon as the tide turned or we'd be stuck at Wivenhoe until mid afternoon.
Our exit was perfectly executed (smug smiley) and we motored off downriver in the early dawn light. I was glad of the chart plotter which made keeping in the channel easy, following the navigation marks without its aid would have been interesting!
As we came abeam Brightlingsea we had the breeze and the sea room so it was up with the white flappy things and off with the noisy thing.
The sail down to the Spitway was a cracker. We flew along at a cracking rate of knots and arrived at the Wallet Spitway buoy around half tide
There was, as one would expect, quite a cross set but I was able to lay a reasonable course across the swatchway.
Then it was decision time. I could start tacking down the narrower channel to the North of the Swallowtail Bank however I elected for the wider and slightly more Westerly aligned Whitaker Channel
Whether that was a good call we shall never know. I wasn't expecting miracles and I didn't get any. The wind was just about as due wrong as it could possibly be and, of course, the tide was foul.
That was expected and accepted. I was pleased to find that we were making appreciable progress though. Not quite quick, by any measure, but we were gradually clawing our way towards the river mouth
I was less pleased to deem it necessary to put a reef in as the breeze got up into the 18 to 20 knot range and stayed there only to have the breeze drop back to 12 to 14 knots as soon as we came back on the wind
With much gnashing of teeth and beating of the breast I had to accept the reef would have to be shaken out again
By the time the deed was done we were a matter of yards from where we'd hove to to reef in the first place!
Oh well, such is life.
By the time we made it as far as the Sunken Buxey (a shoal in the middle of the channel that marks the change from the Whitaker Channel to the Outer Crouch) the tide had turned
This meant, and I'd rather expected it, a wind over tide chop started to build. In a stiff Sou'westerly with the tide on the flood the Outer Crouch can get very rough indeed.
It wasn't too bad today but the chop was killing our progress and negating the gain from the fair tide.
A chap can only stand so much fun and another four or five hours slogging into the Crouch under sail was not an attractive proposition. So it was away with the genoa, centre the main and on with the engine.
Less than two hours later we were alongside in Burnham Yacht Harbour and wandering off into town. Our first port of call was Tesco Express for vital supplies (a jar of coffee!) and then it was off to the pub for a jar or three
We'd decided to have beer then eat on board and follow that with an early night. It was a good plan
We'd also decided that with the forecast for the weekend looking target too windy for comfort tomorrow would be the last day of the cruise
We had a less than conformable night on the pontoon at Wivenhoe. Erbas had settled into the mud with a list to port which was bad news for Glen especially as he is occupying the starboard saloon berth. He did have to transfer to the much more cramped port berth for a while
And then there was the creaky pontoons. It sounded like the full weight of the boat was hanging on the forward spring but when Glen beat me to it (by seconds) and went on deck to check it turned out to be the pontoon creaking against the joint.
Eventually everything settled down and shut up and wet got back off to sleep. Of course, then the alarm went off!
We had to be away as soon as the tide turned or we'd be stuck at Wivenhoe until mid afternoon.
Our exit was perfectly executed (smug smiley) and we motored off downriver in the early dawn light. I was glad of the chart plotter which made keeping in the channel easy, following the navigation marks without its aid would have been interesting!
As we came abeam Brightlingsea we had the breeze and the sea room so it was up with the white flappy things and off with the noisy thing.
The sail down to the Spitway was a cracker. We flew along at a cracking rate of knots and arrived at the Wallet Spitway buoy around half tide
There was, as one would expect, quite a cross set but I was able to lay a reasonable course across the swatchway.
Then it was decision time. I could start tacking down the narrower channel to the North of the Swallowtail Bank however I elected for the wider and slightly more Westerly aligned Whitaker Channel
Whether that was a good call we shall never know. I wasn't expecting miracles and I didn't get any. The wind was just about as due wrong as it could possibly be and, of course, the tide was foul.
That was expected and accepted. I was pleased to find that we were making appreciable progress though. Not quite quick, by any measure, but we were gradually clawing our way towards the river mouth
I was less pleased to deem it necessary to put a reef in as the breeze got up into the 18 to 20 knot range and stayed there only to have the breeze drop back to 12 to 14 knots as soon as we came back on the wind
With much gnashing of teeth and beating of the breast I had to accept the reef would have to be shaken out again
By the time the deed was done we were a matter of yards from where we'd hove to to reef in the first place!
Oh well, such is life.
By the time we made it as far as the Sunken Buxey (a shoal in the middle of the channel that marks the change from the Whitaker Channel to the Outer Crouch) the tide had turned
This meant, and I'd rather expected it, a wind over tide chop started to build. In a stiff Sou'westerly with the tide on the flood the Outer Crouch can get very rough indeed.
It wasn't too bad today but the chop was killing our progress and negating the gain from the fair tide.
A chap can only stand so much fun and another four or five hours slogging into the Crouch under sail was not an attractive proposition. So it was away with the genoa, centre the main and on with the engine.
Less than two hours later we were alongside in Burnham Yacht Harbour and wandering off into town. Our first port of call was Tesco Express for vital supplies (a jar of coffee!) and then it was off to the pub for a jar or three
We'd decided to have beer then eat on board and follow that with an early night. It was a good plan
We'd also decided that with the forecast for the weekend looking target too windy for comfort tomorrow would be the last day of the cruise
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