Upwind joy

Yesterday in Lowestoft was one of those mythical 'rest days'; true we had a leisurely breakfast with our departing crew member David, and we did spend an hour looking round the town - but after that it was shopping, washing, cleaning, passage planning, oh and blogging.

Up at 0530 this morning, to be off down river at 0630 to catch the bridge-opening slot at 0700 - if you're late they don't wait for you.  Then out of Lowestoft harbour entrance ... a much calmer experience than our entry on Sat.  The forecast was for a decent wind (F4-5) from a decent direction (NW to W) which would give us a good sail south; we therefore decided to skip Southwold, the Deben and the Ore (we'll be back) and do the 40 miles to Harwich.

The forecast was close - we had F5-6 (glad we put one reef in) from WSW, so we were close-hauled.  With an average of 20kn of wind and a fair tide of 2-3 kn we screamed south at btw 8 and 9kn - that's fast for a cruising yacht.  An absolutely splendid sail for almost 5 hours, though often hard work due to the gusts and also the strange rips and bumps around Orford Ness even though we were a mile off.  Sizewell and Aldeburgh came and went, almost in a blur.  No wildlife at all - despite what was said in an earlier blog, we miss the guillemots which have been absent since Flamborough Head presumably because there are no longer cliffs for them to nest.  The leaden skies didn't quite rain on us - in this whole journey we have had remarkably little rain whilst sailing (motoring).

the iconic Felixstowe cranes from Shotley marina

As we approached Felixstowe the wind was finally on the nose and there are specific routes for yachts to follow in order to avoid the big ships.  (Did you know that 80% of the goods imported to the UK come through Felixstowe docks?)  So we motor-sailed and then dropped the sails before entering the confluence of the Rivers Orwell and Stour.  We were feeling pretty tired, and also in need of 95L of diesel, so decided to go into Shotley Marina on the peninsula looking south to Harwich and east to Felixstowe.  

view from Butt & Oyster at low tide

Lesley's family friend, Rosie, lives nearby and came to see the boat.  Rosie also drove us to the famous Butt & Oyster pub at Pin Mill where an excellent meal was dispatched whilst viewing the acres of mud at low tide.