Autumn Cruise 2017 day 8 onwards

We left Levington yesterday morning expecting to motor back to the Crouch

As it turned out, we had the sails up as soon as we cleared the entrance channel and the engine off shortly thereafter

We had a fairly gentle sail to and through Harwich then the breeze picked up as we cleared the river and we settled down just nicely laying the course to clear the Naze close hauled



We held that course all the way to the Gunfleet, tacked back across to Clacton pier and then we were able to lay the course for the Spitway on the next tack!

Beating the length of the Wallet in three boards, outstanding!

We continued to beat down the channel into the Couch to the North of the Swallowtail but by the time we approached the end of the channel the tide had turned foul

Because I'd expected to be motoring, we hadn't left Levington as early as we should have and now we paid the price. It was fairly slow going under motor against a surprisingly stiff ebb tide

We'd all but made up our minds to anchor for the night in the Brankfleet as the wind had dropped from the F5 we'd had most of the day to a more gentle F3 and the sun was out

But as we approached the Branklet buoy that marks the entrance to the Roach, a very nasty black cloud with heavy rain below it was coming our way and ahead of it the wind blew up to F6 so we decided to can that idea and head into Burnham Yacht Harbour instead

By happy chance, that led to an encounter with our friends Neal and Joscelyn who were out charging the batteries on their Westerly Falcon. We arranged to meet up for beers later

Once alongside in the marina, which went quite smoothly (we're starting to get the hang of this lark!), I sorted out on deck whilst Jane heated up a quick meal of tinned beef stew

Then it was off to the pub for beers :)

Today, as forecast, the yachtsman's gale (an F7) has arrived and it's set to stay very breezy tomorrow. If conditions are not too bad we'll run up to Fambridge and try to get back on our berth tomorrow afternoon. Otherwise it'll be Tuesday.

Either way, this cruise is effectively at an end.

It's been very enjoyable and we've managed to get some good sailing in. I'm pleased that I feel I'm beginning to get Pagan sailing properly as I've been struggling at times. Practice makes perfect and whilst perfection is still a long way off we're getting there

Autumn Cruise 2017 days 6 & 7

The importance of engine checks...

I confess, I've been less than religious about doing daily engine checks for a while. I decided at the start of this cruise to rectify that and it's a good job I did



The water was fine, the oil was OK and everything looked good until I checked the belts. And as you can see, the water pump drive belt was hanging on by the skin of its teeth

It might have lasted the day, it might not but I wasn't risking it so it was out with the spanners to replace it with the spare (good job we had a spare!)

With that sorted, we got ready and waited for enough tide to get over the cill out of the marina

There's not much to say about the run down to Harwich. It was, unavoidably, a foul tide all the way and, as forecast, F5 gusting 6 at times, bang on the nose

We cracked on under motor giving it some welly to keep the speed over the ground respectable. The Deben Bar wasn't as rough as I thought it might be and nor were the conditions particularly troublesome

We were, never the less, happy to get alongside in Suffolk Yacht Harbour.

With the conditions forecast for overnight and into yesterday, we decided to stay put for two nights and yesterday we had a lazy day on board. The decision to hole up was a good one as it rained virtually all day

The glass is falling and there's a gale forecast to arrive by tomorrow afternoon with strong winds continuing through Monday so we're heading back to the Crouch today

We're going to go hide in Burnham Yacht Harbour until Tuesday as it's unlikely we'd get on the inside of the pontoon back at Fambridge today and in any case we haven't had a night out as such this cruise so we've booked a table at our favourite eating establishment for Sunday evening

Trying to figure out a cunning plan ...

Inshore Waters Forecast to 12 miles offshore
for the period 0600 UTC Thursday 7 September to 0600 UTC Friday 8 September 2017

General situation
A new area of low pressure will track northeastwards between Iceland and Scotland, bringing with it strong winds, rain and showers to all areas over the next 48 hours.

Gibraltar Point to North Foreland - Strong winds are forecast

24 hour forecast: Westerly 3 or 4, backing southwesterly 4 or 5, increasing 6 at times later. Smooth or slight, becoming moderate later. Rain or showers later. Good, occasionally poor later.

Outlook for the following 24 hours: Southwesterly, veering westerly later, 4 or 5, occasionally 6 at first, then becoming variable 3 for a time in north. Moderate, becoming slight. Rain or showers. Moderate or good, occasionally poor.

On the basis of the inshore waters forecast, today and tomorrow, whilst brisk, are in definite "go" territory with the caveat that we probably want to be somewhere well sheltered overnight tonight.

Unusually, MeteoConsult's forecast is slightly worse than the Met Office forecast. The GFS forecast is better! Meteoconsult are predicting SW F6 gusting F7 overnight until around 09:00 to 10:00 tomorrow morning. The GFS is predicting Westerly F4 through the same period

Looking ahead, Meteoconsult (my favoured forecasting service) is still predicting a fresh gale on Sunday evening and a moderate gale on Monday but the GFS disagrees forecasting more of the same F4 / F5 Sou'westerly or Westerly conditions we've been getting all week

We still have 6 days of this cruise to go and I'm left with a bit of a dilemma. If Sunday / Monday is as Meteoconsult forecast, we realistically need to head back to the Crouch by Saturday evening, curtailing this trip. If the GFS is right, we don't need to head back until Monday / Tuesday.

Either way, our only option for today is to get out of the Deben this afternoon (we can't get out of Tidemill Yacht Harbour until about an hour and a half before high water and we need to get over the Deben Bar as soon after high water as we can manage) and position ourselves somewhere sheltered for the night.

I would have opted to anchor in Hamford Water tonight but I'm not sure that would be the smartest move. F6 plus from the Sou'west is likely to make for an uncomfortable night. Ha'penny Pier is likely to be a bit bouncy too. So it looks like it's going to have to be one of the Orwell marinas (to my slight irritation as I wanted to avoid marinas as much as possible on this cruise and it ain't working out!). After due consideration we're going to head for Suffolk Yacht Harbour at Levington on the basis that it's nicely sheltered and it's somewhere Jane hasn't been before

Then we'll think about options for Friday onwards this evening

So the passage plan for today is ..

HW Deben Bar 12:11UT

Dep Woodbridge approx 11:30UT towards SYH Levington eta 16:00UT
Note: Make best speed eta Deben Bar (eta app. 1hr after HW)

Autumn Cruise 2017 days 4 & 5

We were off the berth at Shotley shortly before nine and out of the lock by just after. 

It looked a good day for a sail so as soon as the departing ferry had cleared ahead of us, we set about hoisting the sails and turning off the noise machine.

We had a cracking sail out of Harwich and up the coast, although I was glad to be sailing rather than motoring as it was an absolute minefield of badly marked fishing pots, many of them with two or three metres of trailing rope just waiting to catch the unwary boater out. They really are an absolute menace and there's no excuse for it (pots should be properly marked with a buoy and a flag, not a couple of old oil cans or milk bottles, and they shouldn't have ropes trailing off them)

We even overtook another boat and kept pace with several more! We did get overtaken by one chap despite him being reefed down and I can't quite figure out how he did it (I'm pretty certain he wasn't cheating by using his engine). It's rather satisfying that we're no longer one of the slowest boats out there!

We sailed in over the fearsome Deben Bar which was in a fairly benign mood this day and continued on upriver under sail. The wind started to get somewhat gusty at times and I still had full sail up so on several occasions I had to dump the mainsheet to keep things under control. 

As we approached the moorings downstream of Woodbridge I decided that enough was enough and circled around whilst I dropped the sails

We motored the last mile or so trying to raise Tidemill Yacht Harbour on the VHF and by mobile phone but getting no answer. Hanging around was not an option so in we went and banged Pagan, rather too literally, into the first available berth.

We, frankly, made a bit of a hash of it as we, or to be honest I, underestimated the effect of the stiff cross-wind aloft. I keep getting caught out, when we get into marinas, by the difference between the wind on deck and the wind aloft where the rig is more exposed. 

I'll learn but it's not doing the hull paintwork a lot of good and on this occasion the pontoon edges were particularly paint, and I'm afraid gelcoat, unfriendly. I'll sort it out when we get back but I am getting rather annoyed with myself at the amount of touching up I'm having to do

Anyway, when all's said and done it was a cracking sail of about four and a half hours with the engine off for virtually the whole trip. It doesn't get a lot better than that

We checked in and sorted out and then settled down to do not a lot!

Yestereday morning, we set off on foot to walk the two and half miles or so to Sutton Hoo

I've wanted to visit the site for ages and it was well worth the hike. We took in the woodland walks as well as the burial mounds and very good exhibition hall. Lunch was not bad either and they do a very decent cup of coffee

Wodbridge inc. the Tide Mill from the woodland walk at Sutton Hoo

By the time we got back to Woodbridge, we just had time to catch the shops before the butchers and greengrocers shut. There's something different and somehow more satisfying to going into the butchers and picking some meat for a meal and then going to the greengrocers and buying the veg to go with it. We did, perforce, then go into the Co-op supermarket for milk and bread though!

By the time we got back on board neither of us felt like cooking so we settled down to watch the rest of Season 2 of Game of Thrones on DVD and heated up a couple of tins of Beef Ravioli for sustenance.

Autumn Cruise 2017 days 2 &3

We left Brightlingsea just before eleven on Sunday morning and bashed our way out of the Colne and past the Colne Bar into the teeth of a fairly stiff Southerly (just as forecast)

Not surprisingly it was a bit lumpy and Jane got a bit queasy. It took an hour to cover the four and a quarter miles to the Colne Bar buoy under motor. We could probably have taken a short cut across the shallows, as indeed one or two others did ahead of us, but after the previous day's multiple groundings I wasn't taking any chances!

I hoisted the sails on the approach to the buoy and we were soon romping away on a reach. I'd decided to hoist the main with the first reef in and roll away a couple of turns on the genoa to keep things fairly gentle in the 16 to 18 knot breeze but even so we were making good speed.

Jane couldn't get rid of the queasy feeling so went below to put her head down for a while and I enjoyed a fast romp up the Wallet

We covered the 12.5 miles to the Naze Ledge in an hour and three quarters which is the fastest we've ever sailed the length of the Wallet!

We slowed somewhat when we turned onto a near run up towards Harwich and I shook out the reefs to gain a bit more speed.

Jane felt much better when I woke her as we approached the harbour and we decided to head into Shotley for a couple of nights.

We were alongside by half past three after a cracking and very satisfying sail (for me at least). Jane regretted not taking a Kwells before we left though

We had a quiet night aboard and a lazy day in port yesterday. Lunch ashore, a simple meal in the evening and a drink with a fellow East Coast Forum member and not much else to report!

Today we're heading for the Deben, probably all the way to Woodbridge. The forecast over next weekend looks a bit iffy so we're keeping an eye on that and considering our options

Autumn Cruise 2017 day 1

We'd made no firm plans and, unusually, didn't even have a passage plan (cos we had no idea where we'd end up!)

It was a lovely day, high water was late morning and so we didn't rush to get away. After nipping out for some fresh supplies we let go late morning and headed downriver

The forecast Northerly F3/4 turned out to be an Easterly F2 or less so with the tide helping us along we motored down past Burnham

We had considered anchoring in the Roach but as Jane said, it was too nice a day to waste so we headed on out. A bit more breeze with just enough angle on it enticed me into hoisting all plain sail and killing the engine

That nearly led to "disaster" as I tried to sneak over a shoal rather than put in a tack and, inevitably, ran us aground! It took every one of the forty two horses our venerable Merc could deliver to get us off but we got away with it :)

I decided to stop playing silly buggers and rolled away the genoa. We cracked on under motor, crossed the Spitway and headed into the Blackwater

The crew vote was to see if there was a bouy free or room to anchor in the Pyefleet so we headed that way. Along the way I dropped and stowed the main and mizzen as there was no point in having them up

Entering the Pyefleet we ran around again! Unlike the hard sand off Holliwell Point though this was soft mud so we just powered through it.

The Pyefleet, as we half expected, was full so we extricated ourselves and headed over to Brightlingsea. Now I'd swear I was in the middle of the channel (I will check the track later) when, to my utter disgust, we found ourselves on the putty for the third time! This was getting beyond a joke

Once again we were able to power through the soft mud into (relatively) deeper water although no matter where I put Pagan there was no more than a foot or two of water under the keel

(As I said, I will check but it seemed to me that we dragged the keel through a bit of a bar of soft mud in the approach to Brightlingsea Creek)

Once alongside the (rather expensive) river pontoon Jane set about heating up a meal whilst I did some engine checks. We'd caught a couple of whiffs of exhaust fumes which we thought had probably emanated from nearby fishing boats but I wanted to make sure. All seemed well anyway

We caught the water taxi ashore to meet up with our friends Jim and Lynn and forced ourselves to consume several alcoholic drinks (it's a hard life) and made the water taxi back to the pontoon with minutes to spare

A very pleasant day all in all but we'd both prefer to avoid any more running aground this trip!