I openly admitted to the crew and to the Laurins that I was feeling somewhat gung ho about it and I'd vote to go unless a gale warning was in place. We'd got a final forecast of a Sou'westerly F5 or 6 gusting 7 give or take (depending on which forecast you chose), my crew were up for it and we decided to go for it.
The Laurins decided it would be a bit much for the kids and opted to drive over (wisely as it turned out!)
With Low Water at the Whitaker Beacon predicted for 10:56 BST we didn't need to make an excessively early departure, the aim being to catch a fair tide for as much of the trip as possible. The inshore shortcut over the Ray'sn would have meant leaving at a much earlier time and in any case I'm not keen on pushing my luck over the sands in a strong breeze (if you get it wrong and end up aground, the potential for serious damage to occur due to pounding when you refloat is not to be ignored)
We motored out of Burnham Yacht Harbour about 08:15 BST and immediately set sail with one reef in both the main and the genoa. It was downwind sailing through the Burnham mooring and we were making excellent speed even though the mainsail looked like a bag of laundry.
It took a few minutes for the penny to drop - I'd managed to clip on the 2nd reef cringle instead of the first! Tony nipped forward to the mast and sorted that out in no time. In hindsight, it might have been better to go with two reefs in the main but at the time we had no more than 15 to 18 knots of true wind, even less apparent as we were sailing away from it and we were making around 5 knots with a fair tide so a reduction in sail area didn't appeal
A bit of time could have been saved by going North of the Swallowtail but it doesn't make a huge difference and it would have meant a couple of gybes so I chose to stay in the Whitaker. I think the Swallowtail may have shoaled a bit at its Eastern end over the winter though as I had to go right out to abeam of the Inner Whitaker to find enough water to cross safely.
Coming around onto a beam reach over the Spitway was fine. We were still making well over 5 knots over the ground with between 18 to 22 knots of wind from the WSW. I suspected, and indeed mentioned to Tony that we'd probably be putting the second reef in before coming hard onto the wind but we'd wait until we were clear of the Spitway before doing so.
The depth over the Spitway had me keeping a very wary eye on the sounder. We had barely 2 metres under us most of the way across just to the West of the buoys and that's on a nearly neap tide. On springs there could be as much as half a metre or more less than that which would be less than half a metre below our keels. Our days of being blasé about crossing the Spitway may be over unless I can find deeper water on the other side of the track between the buoys.
To make life even more interesting, the wind had now veered from the South West to the North West, which was not unexpected and risen to a solid F7 gusting F8. We were now severely over-pressed. Luffing up and spilling wind from the main kept things from going pear shaped while we both clipped on and Tony went forward to get that second reef back in the main. With the genoa also well reefed down we got things back under full control and pressed on.
Walton Lifeboat Station, nine miles away up the Wallet, recorded an average wind speed of 33 knots and a maximum gust of just over 37 knots at 11:32 that morning about half an hour after it hit us. That jives with our seeing over 30 knots consistently on the Windex with 35 knots at one point (and our Windex is quite slow to respond to gusts). That's top end of F7, bottom end of F8 or in other words a full gale.
Our friend Peter aboard his Vancouver 274 "Alchemist" was nearly knocked down off Walton when it hit him. There really was little or no warning but at no point, even when we had way to much sail and rather too little water for comfort did I feel "Erbas" was struggling. She took it in her stride and felt solid and safe throughout. Mind you, there was a very narrow margin between safety and disaster in those conditions.
Once reefed down to suit the conditions, we settled into the groove of beating into the Blackwater. Jane had emerged briefly from her slumbers in the fo'c'sle, declared herself unimpressed by the conditions, and promptly gone back to bed again. Frankly, I don't blame her!
Tony and I were determined to sail this leg if we could although we needed to keep one eye on the clock as we all needed showers and time to wind down before going out for the evening. Happily, with up to a knot or so of fair tide helping us along, we were able to make excellent progress to windward despite the fairly rough conditions.
With some fairly big seas to contend with, I was in no mood to flirt with the shallows hence the occasional wiggle and consistently early tacks. I'd normally be happy to sail over the Colne Bar and The Knoll at almost any state of the tide and if beating I'd be holding on until the depth was between 2m and 3m before tacking but with waves, and therefore troughs, topping 2m or more at times that would have been madness.
Even so, it took us less than four hours to beat up to within a cable of the beacon at the entrance to Bradwell Creek. I was pleasantly surprised by how well we went at the time and having had the chance to look back at the trip log and track for the day, I'm both surprised and impressed. Not to mention downright chuffed!
We fired up the trusty engine, rolled away the genoa and dropped the main with a couple of ties around it any old how and made our way into the shelter of Bradwell Marina. The first order of business was a much needed cup of coffee! We'd been gagging for a coffee for a couple of hours but whilst it would have been possible to rustle one up we'd decided to hang on until we got in rather than waste time heaving to while we boiled a kettle.
With our mutual need for intravenous caffeine taken care of, we set about putting a harbour stow on the main and tidying up the shambles that the cabin had become. We'd had a near disaster when the table came adrift, seemingly securely stowed gear had magically un-stowed itself and it generally looked like a bomb had hit it!
I also discovered to my horror that the forward hatch had been in the upper, slightly open, position throughout. When both Jane and I are sleeping in the v-berth we need the extra ventilation or it gets rather stuffy but it's my normal routine to close it as part of preparing to go to sea regardless of the conditions.
Happily, and amazingly, not so much as a drop of water had invaded the interior of the boat, despite several waves over the bows! A must do better in future has been recorded on my report though!
We amused ourselves for a while when "Alchemist" berthed alongside us by ribbing Peter unmercifully. Last year, he and I had been the only boats to arrive at Burnham for this particular dinner due to bad weather. I'd only had to motor downriver, which was wild enough, Peter had sailed down from the Orwell and had a fun time.
This year, he declared that he'd had a terrible day with a near knock down and awful conditions which he hadn't enjoyed at all. We couldn't let that go, of course, and made numerous comments and remarks about how much fun we'd had and how much we'd enjoyed ourselves. The funny thing is, it was all true too!
Tony had acquired a few bruises as he'd been doing all of the moving about and we really ought to have mde more of an effort to secure things in the cabin (and in fact hadn't done as much as I normally insist on doing which was naughty) but other than that the boat and the crew had coped admirably with the conditions, which were rather worse than expected.
Not only that but in the process we'd had one of the best days sailing we've ever had! I'm over the moon with the beat from the Spitway to Bradwell. Keep this sort of thing up and in another few years I'll feel able to claim that I'm a sailor and not just a boater with a sailing boat!
We'd just about put everything to rights when the social whirl started. Various visitors popped by and then it was time to head for a very welcome shower before repairing to Bradwell Sailing Club for the East Coast Forum Fitting Up Supper.
A wonderful evening of excellent food, fine ale and wonderful conversation ensued culminating in afters aboard "Full Circle" with Jim and Lynn, the Strenge family and several others. We finally made it to bed about two in the morning after a superb day!
Sadly, there are no photos. The conditions were such that we never thought to grab a camera.
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