Next the Sea

We had a very long but sunny and pleasant day motor sailing in light winds from Bridlington to Wells-next-the-Sea which is on the north Norfolk coast south and east of The Wash. We were keen to leave Bridlington early and there was plenty of fishing boat activity at 3am so we were up and out. The harbour itself was lit up by flood lights but when we left the harbour entrance we realised that there was not actually any daylight yet. So, we had an interesting first half an hour relying heavily on the map on our tablet and keeping a sharp eye out to avoid getting tangled in any pot buoys. It is 8th July 2021.



The sun came up and eventually found its way through the clouds. Light winds were of some assistance but for most of the day in combination with the motor. We were soon out of sight of land and spent the next 15 hours mostly alone but passing two or three wind farms and sailing through a fleet of moored ships. We did pass one yacht that was heading northwards and gave them a wave. The possibility of simply turning round and heading back north did cross my mind. Maybe the ideal sailing round the UK trip should be over two seasons, leaving the boat in Oban for the winter? Or how about going along the channel and up the Irish Sea to the north-west of Scotland, then turning round and heading back the same way but staying in different harbours – a kind of bottom to top of the UK rather than this so predictable concept of going ‘round’ it?



Approaching Wells-next-the-Sea was interesting because it is a channel that cuts through a sandy shore. It was fun to follow the buoyed channel with row of quirky beach huts on the beach to one side. 


The harbour in Wells nts is lovely with a variety of boats and a nice feel to it.



In the harbour here at Wells-next-the-Sea we are asked to go alongside a yacht that is already alongside another yacht, a stack of three. This means that getting on to the pontoon is quite a gymnastic operation and it will be interesting at 5am tomorrow morning how slick we can be in escaping our mooring without waking everyone else up. The visiting sailors here know the Blackwater well and Mark feels is close to home turf. We plan our effort for tomorrow to reach Felixstowe, then maybe two more days to complete our circuit around the UK.

Comments

  1. Nina Fedorski9 July 2021 at 00:49

    Well done,lovely dawns,hope the weather is kind for your final days
    Come to RHS Bridgewater when you're back on dry land...it's fab!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Wet

Image
  Kindred Spirit II sits sleekly as the rising tide gently laps her newly painted bottom, gradually lifting her from the confines of the launching trailer and back into the watery habitat she was designed for. She shrugs impatiently, keen to be off, bobbing on the grey sea water. Three kind friends brave the cold breeze to take photos and wave us off from the sailing club jetty. It is 13th May 2021.   After puffing and panting a little and coughing out some oily water the engine rumbled into life, much to Mark’s relief. After a nervous double check below decks, to make sure nothing was leaking, we tentatively set sail on the first leg of our long journey around the UK. Heading east down the Blackwater estuary under engine, after half an hour we raised the sails and turn off the engine to make best use of a modest 12 knot south easterly breeze. There is a steady drizzle and eventually Mark, getting cold, arguably may have expressed the first slight ‘whinge’ of the trip, althoug...
Read more

Feeding the Rat

Image
We are enjoying a rest day in Peterhead. The winds look more favourable tomorrow. Our gentle northward progress provides a suitable build up of anticipation for crossing the Pentland Firth and rounding Cape Wrath. Fishermen in Arbroath and Stonehaven, asking where we are heading, have shared their stories of incredible currents and intimidating waves. And they were going round in big steel boats with ten times the horsepower of our little engine. I have started to read the pilot carefully and fuss over the charts. I feel increasingly nervous. The fierce reputation of the Pentland Firth is undermining my confidence. Every now and then you might choose an adventure that is a bit more of a challenge, that is not just a fun weekend but actually might push you towards your limits or beyond. Mo Anthoine, an infamous British climber, referred to this as ‘feeding the rat’ which is defined in his biography of that name by Al Alvarez: ‘every year you need to flush out your system and do a bit of...
Read more

The Isles of Scilly

Image
Wow, I can hardly believe it but we are sitting on a pub terrace overlooking St Mary's Bay in Hugh Town, the 'capital' of the Isles of Scilly. Our boat, Kindred Spirit II is moored on a visitor buoy and presumably as a side effect of the pandemic, basically with no foreign visitors, we have just managed to book a table for this evening at one of the best restaurants on the Isles. We seem to have managed one side of the UK, admittedly it is not the longest side but having decided to go clockwise it is the one that goes against the prevailing wind. It is 3rd June 2021. Having copped out yesterday due to the threat of thunder storms we faced steady westerly winds today and some 'wind over tide' for the first few hours. Our trip across was mainly motor sailing against the wind but once the Isles were clearly in view and the sun came out we started to sail properly and the engine was silenced. We arrived earlier than planned and so due to local tides decided to tackle th...
Read more