Tues 31 May 2011 – Wells

As you might have guessed the gentle pleasures of Wells were much more attractive than yet another early start.

Warm sunshine. Not much wind. After a little essential shopping we took the coast path West towards Burnham Overy Staithe. We found this quite a slow path, which sometimes followed the beach, sometimes went through the woods and occasionally took detours over the sand dunes.
Overy Staithe suddenly came to life as the tide came in, with various boats being launched and a crowd of children crabbing from the jetty. We wondered where the OK fleet found enough water for their races as there only seemed to be enough for small rowing dinghies. We suspect they spend most of the Open Meeting drinking and socialising in this rather pleasant spot.

Returning to Wells was quick and easy on the Coasthopper bus. We seem to be ready for an early start tomorrow.

Wells has jumped on the renewable energy bandwagon. They have built a small outer harbour just inshore of the lifeboat station and equipped it with pontoons, fuel barge etc. The channel in from the fairway buoy is better buoyed and also dredged (using their own dredger). The new harbour now seems to be the base for 8-10 boats servicing the Sheringham Shoal windfarm.

Mon 30 May 2011 – Lowestoft to Wells

The boat inside us was leaving at 6am to go south, so we had to get up early and then left about 8 against the usual strong tide.  It’s no good waiting for the tide to be favourable when there's a long way to go and only a short arrival window at Wells.

Brilliant sail with following wind much of the way. 2 reefs, goose-winged with preventer on. We took the inshore channel at Caister, and at about this point the tide changed in our favour.  Slight foggy patches made the Scroby Sands wind farm almost invisible.  Also we did not see the one at Sheringham Shoal at all – it is 6 or 8 miles out so not a problem for us.  I cannot blame the visibility for tangling with a pot marker off Cromer.  However after taking sails down we managed to turn the boat the right way to come off it with no damage to boat or fishing gear – just to my reputation. The sky gradually became greyer and light drizzle started, slowly turning to rain.  We had been hoping for rain in the garden for weeks, but not just now.  Although the wind had reduced and shifted to NNW we arrived at Wells Fairway at about high water.  We followed the newly buoyed channel to the harbour.

We ought to leave at about 6am tomorrow....or maybe we will take a look at Wells










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Sun 29 May 2011 – Ipswich to Lowestoft

We noticed a remarkable difference in the night life between Ramsholt and Ipswich.  If Ipswich Dock has any nightingales you cannot hear them for the noise of young people coming and going to the various pubs and clubs.  However this did not stop us sleeping.

Somehow all the stuff fitted in the boat somewhere and we don’t seem to have left anything important behind.

We said we should leave at 8:15, but eventually left at 9:20 with the forecast offering SW5-6 decreasing 3-4 later.  Made good time down the river in a gusty wind.  At the Landguard buoy we decided that conditions and forecast were OK to go (remember it’s a long way to come back upwind if we have a change of heart).  We had some fast sailing with 2 reefs in the main and matching genoa. We took an offshore route so did not have any close view of Orford Ness, Aldeburgh etc.  Not long before Southwold we took the main down as the wind had become stronger, 6-7 I think.  However we still made 6-7 knots with the reefed genoa alone.

Moored on the RNSYC visitors pontoon, rafted alongside Bow de Sear, also from the Orwell.  They are leaving at 06:00 tomorrow so I had better go to bed….













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Saturday 28 May 2011–Ramsholt to Ipswich

The plan is to go round to Ipswich Haven marina, load up the boat, leave the car at home and then go back to the marina by bus.  Sounds simple until it turns out that we can’t get off Ramsholt Quay until about HW-1, It’s forecast to be SW 5-6 and the last bus is 17:42.

However we did have a good but windy sail round to the Orwell with 2 reefs and got into Ipswich Haven, which turned out to be much better than we expected.  Loading and final tidying at home took ages, so we missed the bus by hours and had a long walk.

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Friday 27 May 2011 – Ramsholt

At last a quiet day with light wind when we visited the boat.  However not to go sailing but to go alongside the quay to dry out for a little keel-related job.  This entailed fitting a plastic shim to move the frame which holds the deck level pulleys back a bit as the keel hold-up bracket is catching on it.  Listened to the nightingale and watched the phosphorescence – quite a light show.  Eventually finished the job nearing midnight.  In the morning Pam did a bit of cleaning on the bottom of the boat. Well, so she says, but I did not check it but went back to sleep for a bit.