leave on the ebb before it dropped too low; the shallowest part of leaving the Backwaters is about a mile out to sea where there is a vast expanse with only 1m depth at low tide. One follows the line of buoys with great attention. We had calculated we could leave any time up to 0800, but by 0700 we were ready, so raised the anchor, sluiced off the mud (apart from the bit that somehow found its way onto the foredeck, oh and my trousers, and my hands) and headed out with the tide. Rather to our surprise, we had a lot less water than expected - only 0.7m rather than the 1.9m our tidal curve calculations (double-checked) gave us. Good job we didn't come an hour later!
Then it was up with the sails, close-hauled into a WSW F3 and engine off - bliss. We left in the one reef we had from the last passage down to Shotley, because the forecast said F5 and we didn't feel like full-on exercise. Once past Walton pier we were beating down the Wallet, between the Gunfleet Sands windfarm and the Essex shoreline; with tide against initially it was a slow process, then as the tide switched to the flood in our favour the tacks were around 75 degrees, much more efficient. There were plenty of other yachts around, and no commercial traffic as this whole area is shallow, btw 2m and 10m.
The day stayed grey, and the rain settled in, yet this did not diminish the pleasure of sailing in F3-4 on flat water - with 7 rolls in the foresail and one reef in the main she is well balanced and steers herself with the occasional nudge from the helm. Despite her weight and the reefs we were getting over 3kn in 10kn of wind.
Arrival in Brightlingsea is a careful process, even on a rising tide, because there's a narrow curving channel to be followed. Then the cheerful harbourmaster appears in his launch and guides us to our place on the visitor's pontoon - the space is very narrow to turn round, however turning to starboard using reverse (propwalk to port) and the bow thruster turns her 'on a sixpence'. The pontoons are mid-river, and the harbourmaster also provides an 'on demand' ferry service; we went ashore for showers, shopping and a coffee in a cafe. Brightlingsea was a Cinque Port in its heyday, is charming and old-fashioned and incredibly boaty - every garden seems to have a dinghy or two, and there are beautiful old sailing smacks restored to their former glory. The only thing against B'sea is that there's no mobile broadband, and we didn't discover the pretty little cafe-with-wifi behind the waterfront until too late - hence this blog posted a day late. |
| nose to nose with a Nicholson 40 |
Back to the boat to cook supper and we made 2 of those 'small world' discoveries: another visiting yacht, with a cat onboard, was from Gillingham (where we are headed as our new home) and knew our friends there; and we were tied up bow to bow with the very same Nicholson 40 that we saw here 2 years ago, when visited onboard and had our longing to own a Nicholson re-confirmed ... and here we are.
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