FullCircle
Well-Known Member
Well, it was our first wedding anniversary on Monday, so I had planned for us to be on the boat for 4 days, and to have a lovely relaxing time, with something a bit special on the Monday.
We had the Royal Corinthian Cruisers Barbecue on Saturday, which was supposed to be held at Branklet Spit just inside the entrance to the Roach, on the beach there. However, rain led to a hasty rethink in the Club bar over a pint, and a few hardy souls setup in the open sided mast store, and we had a very pleasant afternoon barbecue, and a bottle or two, as you do.
We had decided to set off from the mooring and park up in the Roach for the night anyway, before carrying on Sunday morning. It was about 6 o clock, and the tide had turned to ebb a bit before. We setup Full Circle - and it stopped raining, a break in the clouds, bit of evening sunshine F2-3 from the South and we sailed off the mooring. Magic. In fact, so magic, that we forgot to turn right into the Roach, and made a mental passage plan to Brightlingsea. I had a hunch that there would not be enough water to get over the Ray Sand, but I went and had a nose anyway. 1.8m at the buoy. I could wade over, but I wasn't about to get 7 tonnes of boat over it too.
We hardened up a bit to get back into the Crouch channel, and headed off toward Swin Spitway.
We got there at about sunset, and made a beeline for the Colne, with the wind almost dead astern. A real easy sail up the Colne, and we got to Brightlingsea at low water, with the tidal datum for the day at 0.1m. So no point in going in there either. Just as well really, as Stone Point beach looked nice and inviting, and quite a gaggle of boats twinking at anchor. We settled between 2 Old Gaffers, set the hurricane lamp and retired below.
It was about 11 o clock now and we had fresh prawns and bread with a glass of white wine to finish the day. So off to bed.
A completely easy night, no ripples or other disturbances, and looked out of the forecabin hull port to check us swinging at the change of the tide. No problems, and I didn't even get out of bed.
We found ourselves with a greyish Sunday morning, and soon a flotilla of Old Gaffers poured out of the anchorage, so we followed. Once again, we had the wind up the chuff, it had swung round in the night. How wonderful.
We didnt exactly charge out the Colne, or even up the Wallet, as we had this 7 to 8 knots coming from the Northish, and it was a cracked off beam reach up past Clacton et all, sometimes as fast as 0.8kt over the ground. As we were in no hurry, we had decided not to use the tides this trip, but just take it as it comes.
Well, the sun came, and stayed. About halfway up the Wallet, Lynn was reading down below, and I dragged the Wife Frightener out of the aft cabin. I set the auto, and hooked it all up, and then called Lynn up to hoist the thing up the mast.
Hmm. Oops! That dont look right!!!!!! Jim has hooked the Tack to the halyard, and the Head to the Tack Line. So thats me in for Twot of the Month then.
This did nothing for Wifes nerves, and I got it down, connected it all up properly, and hoisted it again. Whoosh, puff, and it opened beautifully.
We accelerated away and of course the apparent went forward with it, so what was a 2.5kt beam reach was now a 5.5kt very fine reach. Lynn is never impressed with this malarkey, as it makes the boat tip, a bit. Still, she settled back down to her book and I had a whale of a time single handing the boat for several hours.
I was sort of aiming for Hamford Water, but Lynn insisted we go up the Stour, so up the Stour we went.
We remarked as we came into Harwich how different it all was from our screaming entry a couple of weeks ago on the Oostende wekend!
With a sigh of relief Lynn saw the Wife Frightener safely back in its bag and into the aft cabin again.
On entering the Stour, the last of the fine wind we had enjoyed all day went home for a rest, and we had to motor against the ebb until we came to Erwarton Ness, where several boats were still enjoying the evening at anchor before toddling off home.
One boat had an accordion, and its sound drifted across the water,. Fortunately, the Gentlemen appeared to have the knack of playing the instrument.
I was thrilled with the sunset and the local birds, and here are a few photos of this most magical of evenings.
And, yes, it really was that colour.
We had a lovely Chile con Carne with a splash of red, and retired early. A marvellous day notched up.
The following morning, we only had to get to Levington, and we lifted the anchor and sailed off and out of the anchorage, perfectly executed. Lynn steered us all the way back past Shotley, but questioned my seamanship at Shotley Point, as it looked a bit shallow. She lost her nerve at about 1.8m and 200 yards to go. We got across OK, but at one point for about 50m, we were showing 1.2m, and, ahem, we slowed up to 2.8kts and ploughed it up a bit. Didn't feel a thing.There, see, told you it was OK!
It was a glorious day Monday, and SYH put us in a very tight berth, as we found out when the owner of the other half of the pontoon showed up and put his Bavaria 34 back in with barely a fenders width between us.
I decided to have a boat fixing afternoon, and replaced the rusting anchor shaclke with a nice new one, £1.23. Can't remember when I spent only that amount in the chandlery!
Then I put my head round sorting out the Autopilot/GPS/Instruments NMEA issues. To be honest, I have been ignoring this, as it doesnt have much effect on functionality, but perhaps more importantly, I haven't touched it since TomE died last year, as Tom was helping me with the issue just days before he died. Well Tom, you would have been proud of me. I sauntered up to R&J Electronics (nice people) and bought some NMEA cable, at only 50p a metre! Amazing, I spent less than a fiver altogether.
With the use of a multiplexer and a junction box, I hooked all the stuff together, and Bingo! It worked first time!!
I had just finished and boiling the kettle when the owner of the Bavaria returned, and we gave him a cup of tea when he had moored up. Lovely man, and hope to see him again sometime. He offered to take us up the hill to The Ship in Levington, and so he dropped us off.
I had chosen The Ship, as it has a deserved reputation for great food.
We had a marvellous meal, a couple of pints of Adnams, a cracking bottle of Chablis and a decent bottle of Crianza, finished off with a Strawberry confection called Romanoff, then weaved our happy way back down the hill toward the Marina.
We decided to take the short cut across the marsh and by the sea wall. I had been told by Morgana that I could take the dinghy. Oh no you cant! You would need a hovercraft at this state of the tide. Anyway, we had a slithery walk across the fields, full lit as you can see.
We found our way back to Full Circle finally, and so to bed once more.
Up nice and early, we had hoped the electrician bloke was coming to fix our AMS regulator, but he couldn't come. Another bonus to come our way was that Ditchcrawler, forumite of this parish, came and introduced himself, so another Forumite met! John has a lovely Moody 31 with - a Rocna!!!
So we shoved off at 11 o clock to take the last of the ebb down to Landguard, and away across the bay toward the Naze. The sun was shining, and, guess what? Yep, the wind had gone back round to give us a beam reach again!
There was a profusion of boats heading our way, and they all went around the outside of the Gunfleet. I plotted a course in a straight line from Walton Tower to Swin Spitway, and had a play with the new features now hooked up. I have to report that the Raymarine ST4000 on Wind Vane mode is very good, and all of the Depth, Wind and Speed are repeated on the Radar screen as backup. Jeez, even the Navtex is working properly again now.
And so we had a great sail to the Swin, had to motor a bit before bearing away again the Crouch side of the Spitway, and so Broad Reach toward home, then Goosewinged for the last hour right into the moorings at Burnham.
We pinched some pontoon space at Rice & Cole, and met a friend Johnny (Windrush) so went to the pub for a few pints of Wherry. Back onto the mooring this morning, and so home to feed the cat.
All I can say is, it does not get any better than that.
We had the Royal Corinthian Cruisers Barbecue on Saturday, which was supposed to be held at Branklet Spit just inside the entrance to the Roach, on the beach there. However, rain led to a hasty rethink in the Club bar over a pint, and a few hardy souls setup in the open sided mast store, and we had a very pleasant afternoon barbecue, and a bottle or two, as you do.
We had decided to set off from the mooring and park up in the Roach for the night anyway, before carrying on Sunday morning. It was about 6 o clock, and the tide had turned to ebb a bit before. We setup Full Circle - and it stopped raining, a break in the clouds, bit of evening sunshine F2-3 from the South and we sailed off the mooring. Magic. In fact, so magic, that we forgot to turn right into the Roach, and made a mental passage plan to Brightlingsea. I had a hunch that there would not be enough water to get over the Ray Sand, but I went and had a nose anyway. 1.8m at the buoy. I could wade over, but I wasn't about to get 7 tonnes of boat over it too.
We hardened up a bit to get back into the Crouch channel, and headed off toward Swin Spitway.
We got there at about sunset, and made a beeline for the Colne, with the wind almost dead astern. A real easy sail up the Colne, and we got to Brightlingsea at low water, with the tidal datum for the day at 0.1m. So no point in going in there either. Just as well really, as Stone Point beach looked nice and inviting, and quite a gaggle of boats twinking at anchor. We settled between 2 Old Gaffers, set the hurricane lamp and retired below.
It was about 11 o clock now and we had fresh prawns and bread with a glass of white wine to finish the day. So off to bed.
A completely easy night, no ripples or other disturbances, and looked out of the forecabin hull port to check us swinging at the change of the tide. No problems, and I didn't even get out of bed.
We found ourselves with a greyish Sunday morning, and soon a flotilla of Old Gaffers poured out of the anchorage, so we followed. Once again, we had the wind up the chuff, it had swung round in the night. How wonderful.
We didnt exactly charge out the Colne, or even up the Wallet, as we had this 7 to 8 knots coming from the Northish, and it was a cracked off beam reach up past Clacton et all, sometimes as fast as 0.8kt over the ground. As we were in no hurry, we had decided not to use the tides this trip, but just take it as it comes.
Well, the sun came, and stayed. About halfway up the Wallet, Lynn was reading down below, and I dragged the Wife Frightener out of the aft cabin. I set the auto, and hooked it all up, and then called Lynn up to hoist the thing up the mast.
Hmm. Oops! That dont look right!!!!!! Jim has hooked the Tack to the halyard, and the Head to the Tack Line. So thats me in for Twot of the Month then.
This did nothing for Wifes nerves, and I got it down, connected it all up properly, and hoisted it again. Whoosh, puff, and it opened beautifully.
We accelerated away and of course the apparent went forward with it, so what was a 2.5kt beam reach was now a 5.5kt very fine reach. Lynn is never impressed with this malarkey, as it makes the boat tip, a bit. Still, she settled back down to her book and I had a whale of a time single handing the boat for several hours.
I was sort of aiming for Hamford Water, but Lynn insisted we go up the Stour, so up the Stour we went.
We remarked as we came into Harwich how different it all was from our screaming entry a couple of weeks ago on the Oostende wekend!
With a sigh of relief Lynn saw the Wife Frightener safely back in its bag and into the aft cabin again.
On entering the Stour, the last of the fine wind we had enjoyed all day went home for a rest, and we had to motor against the ebb until we came to Erwarton Ness, where several boats were still enjoying the evening at anchor before toddling off home.
One boat had an accordion, and its sound drifted across the water,. Fortunately, the Gentlemen appeared to have the knack of playing the instrument.
I was thrilled with the sunset and the local birds, and here are a few photos of this most magical of evenings.
And, yes, it really was that colour.
We had a lovely Chile con Carne with a splash of red, and retired early. A marvellous day notched up.
The following morning, we only had to get to Levington, and we lifted the anchor and sailed off and out of the anchorage, perfectly executed. Lynn steered us all the way back past Shotley, but questioned my seamanship at Shotley Point, as it looked a bit shallow. She lost her nerve at about 1.8m and 200 yards to go. We got across OK, but at one point for about 50m, we were showing 1.2m, and, ahem, we slowed up to 2.8kts and ploughed it up a bit. Didn't feel a thing.There, see, told you it was OK!
It was a glorious day Monday, and SYH put us in a very tight berth, as we found out when the owner of the other half of the pontoon showed up and put his Bavaria 34 back in with barely a fenders width between us.
I decided to have a boat fixing afternoon, and replaced the rusting anchor shaclke with a nice new one, £1.23. Can't remember when I spent only that amount in the chandlery!
Then I put my head round sorting out the Autopilot/GPS/Instruments NMEA issues. To be honest, I have been ignoring this, as it doesnt have much effect on functionality, but perhaps more importantly, I haven't touched it since TomE died last year, as Tom was helping me with the issue just days before he died. Well Tom, you would have been proud of me. I sauntered up to R&J Electronics (nice people) and bought some NMEA cable, at only 50p a metre! Amazing, I spent less than a fiver altogether.
With the use of a multiplexer and a junction box, I hooked all the stuff together, and Bingo! It worked first time!!
I had just finished and boiling the kettle when the owner of the Bavaria returned, and we gave him a cup of tea when he had moored up. Lovely man, and hope to see him again sometime. He offered to take us up the hill to The Ship in Levington, and so he dropped us off.
I had chosen The Ship, as it has a deserved reputation for great food.
We had a marvellous meal, a couple of pints of Adnams, a cracking bottle of Chablis and a decent bottle of Crianza, finished off with a Strawberry confection called Romanoff, then weaved our happy way back down the hill toward the Marina.
We decided to take the short cut across the marsh and by the sea wall. I had been told by Morgana that I could take the dinghy. Oh no you cant! You would need a hovercraft at this state of the tide. Anyway, we had a slithery walk across the fields, full lit as you can see.
We found our way back to Full Circle finally, and so to bed once more.
Up nice and early, we had hoped the electrician bloke was coming to fix our AMS regulator, but he couldn't come. Another bonus to come our way was that Ditchcrawler, forumite of this parish, came and introduced himself, so another Forumite met! John has a lovely Moody 31 with - a Rocna!!!
So we shoved off at 11 o clock to take the last of the ebb down to Landguard, and away across the bay toward the Naze. The sun was shining, and, guess what? Yep, the wind had gone back round to give us a beam reach again!
There was a profusion of boats heading our way, and they all went around the outside of the Gunfleet. I plotted a course in a straight line from Walton Tower to Swin Spitway, and had a play with the new features now hooked up. I have to report that the Raymarine ST4000 on Wind Vane mode is very good, and all of the Depth, Wind and Speed are repeated on the Radar screen as backup. Jeez, even the Navtex is working properly again now.
And so we had a great sail to the Swin, had to motor a bit before bearing away again the Crouch side of the Spitway, and so Broad Reach toward home, then Goosewinged for the last hour right into the moorings at Burnham.
We pinched some pontoon space at Rice & Cole, and met a friend Johnny (Windrush) so went to the pub for a few pints of Wherry. Back onto the mooring this morning, and so home to feed the cat.
All I can say is, it does not get any better than that.
