2014 Spring Cruise - Day 6

Here, as promised, is all the gory details of yesterdays adventures ...
I did forget to log putting a second reef in the genoa sometime around 17:00hrs

With a forecast, fairly consistent across all sources, giving us F2 or 3 gusting F4 and coming from somewhere between the North East and the North West it was always going to be a tricky day for sailing in a Northerly direction. However, I detected a hint of an improvement in the long range prospects (I don't know quite why but I just have a feeling from the synoptic charts and the GFS forecast that next week isn't going to be the wall to wall Southerlys whose prediction put me in mind of a change of plan) so making Lowestoft today would position us to take advantage of that and press on to North Norfolk or to head back South if we felt that was the better option.

A check on the tide times and some fiddly work with the laptop and chart plotter the previous evening (the software bugs and incompatibility issues are going to lead to some fairly terse emails being sent when I get home) suggested an 08:00 departure ti make the best use of the tide. I particularly wanted to ensure a fair tide around Orford Ness in case we ended up beating to windward - tacking to and fro and never seeming to get up to a landmark location is an exercise in frustration I can happily do without!

It was agreed that I would get us under way when I was ready and Rik would arise later - he's still struggling to get over the effects of a nasty infection and needs all the rest he can get.

I didn't actually need the alarm I set for 07:00 as I awoke naturally ... at 06:56! I had us underway at 07:50, the departure from inside the pier going as smoothly as I could have wished, and as soon as I'd motored clear of the pier it was up with the sails and off with the engine.

To exit the River Orwell you have to go virtually due South even if you want to round Landguard Point and head North so I wasn't too unhappy to find us running before a tail wind. I reckoned we'd be able to lay the course up the coast towards Orford Ness or close to it once clear of the shipping lanes. Meanwhile, having successfully poled out the genoa on Monday single handed, I saw no reason not to do so again. However, this time everything just kept getting into a tangle and I ran out of patience after ten minutes of messing about and gave up!

My clattering around on the foredeck probably led to the appearance of the First Mate in the companionway just in time to see ...

The Stena Britannica departing Harwich astern of us and ...

a cargo vessel steaming inbound at a cracking rate of knots

Now we were on the small vessel track to the South of the shipping lane and we need to cross it

The timings were such that we only had to stand on a few minutes after the ideal point to cross and then ...

We could turn to port and pass astern of both vessels.

Surprisingly, neither of them created much in the way of wake or wash despite the fact that they were not exactly hanging about.

As I'd hoped, we were able to just lay the course for Orford Ness and our speed was quite reasonable too. Rik produced some very welcome bacon butties as we approached the Orford Haven safe water mark.

The entrance to the Deben soon fell astern leaving us with an excellent view of Bawdsey Manor in the sunshine.

We must explore the Deben up to Woodbridge at some point, especially now that we have a dinghy on board and can get ashore from a mooring or anchorage under our own steam.

We had an encounter with a field of pot buoys between the Deben and Orford including one badly marked string which we failed to spot in time which went right under the boat.

If we'd been motoring it would almost certainly have caused us a major issue as it was two tiny orange buoys with about ten feet of cork buoyed line in between (a small net perhaps?). As it was, it bumped and ground it's way between the keels and popped up astern, much to our relief.

As we approached the Orford Haven safe water mark, the wind began to head us and our heading had, perforce, to come around to port. We could no longer lay the course for Orford Ness on one tack but never mind. The breeze also began to build rising gradually over the next few hours from the 8 to 10 knots we set out with to a very stiff 23 to 25 knots by the time we arrived off Southwold.

By half past two, it was time to put in a reef starting with the main. The conditions were unpleasant on deck with a wind over tide chop overlying a North Easterly swell. It was hard work getting the reefing hook on the cringle and the tack hauled down but it was done.

After getting my breath back I reached for the furling line to put the first reef in the genoa as well only to discover that the line had managed to jump the drum and wind itself around the spindle. No amount of tugging and swearing was going to free it off and to cap it all as I flipped up the rope clutch on the cabin top a particularly sneaky swell threw me forward and it snapped off.

At this point I had a bit of a rant at everything going wrong. I felt better for it!

Rik dealt with the furling line issue at the cabin end by re-reeving it through the adjacent clutch for the third reef in the main (which we would not, and never will if I have anything to do with it, need). That done, we hove to and I clipped on again to go forward to sit with my feet being dunked in the sea periodically whilst I unwound the tangle and rewound the line onto the drum.

Finally, after quite some time hove to, we got the reef in and got under way again. By now it was gone half past three and we were still well short of Lowestoft. An hour later our alternate port of Southwold was in sight and looking astonishingly attractive! After a couple of abortive attempts to call up the harbour master on the VHF (I'm not totally convinced about the range of the Icom setup on Erbas, at some point I need to get an SWR meter on the antenna cable for starters) I looked up the number and called them on the phone just catching them before they finished for the day.

Permission granted and a berth allocated ("take you pick, there's nobody in today"!) we pressed on, putting a second reef in the genoa, and gradually losing the assistance of a fair tide which had made the beat around Orford Ness a pleasure rather than a pain.

By twenty to seven, we were barely a mile South of the harbour entrance with the prospect of another two hours of hard sailing to beat up to it. I felt I'd satisfied my inner masochist enough for one day and started the engine!

By half past seven we were alongside the stagings at Southwold...

... and it was a beautiful, calm and peaceful evening of sunshine and relaxation. In fact, it was so relaxing that I broke my usual rules and carried out an absolute minimum harbour stow and within 30 minutes we were blowing the froth off two pints of Adnams and shortly thereafter negotiating for a discount if Rik had the half a roast chicken off the menu and I had the other half!