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
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| 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.
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